The UK is stuck in the doldrums of persistent high inflation and everyone is suffering (with the exception of large players in certain market sectors). Our overall rate of inflation is hovering around 10%, which is a long way from meeting government targets, though for 'freight transport services by road’, the worst may be over: the published ONS figures for Quarter 1 2023 indicate an inflation rate of just under 6% for our sector, so we are seemingly heading in the right direction.
That being the case, it’s our contention that freight transport operators should not follow the lead of the other sectors we spoke of above, some of whom have shown by way of their massively increased profits that they took full advantage of the cost of living crisis caused by the effects of the pandemic, Brexit and the Ukraine war to inflate their profit margins - thus proving that there was no need to increase the roots to the customer to the extent that they did.
Of course, those industries are still at it and so the cost of living crisis is still with us in full force, with no sign of it abating any time soon. Rather than follow their example, we believe that the freight transport industry should take the lead for the sake of the nation and not increase their prices by any more than absolutely necessary; instead, they have the opportunity to demonstrate that there is an alternative approach to handling the extra pressures brought about by the aforementioned national and global stressors currently at play. Key to this would be changing the way transport operators run their operations in order to operate in the most efficient way possible - a process that can easily be set in motion by transport operators opting to utilise a modern transport management system (TMS) that can deliver new, more efficient ways of doing things while also potentially providing a means of earning extra revenue (without it directly costing their customers more). If you would like information on how CarrierNet can help deliver your freight transport operation the paradigm shift required to achieve all the above, contact Bashir Khan here.