Transportation management oriented for customers: service level desired and perceived

Transport management is traditionally addressed in the literature as a process with its flow contextualized in its operating performance and costs. In this paper, transport is considered as service management, seeking to understand the behavioral aspects of the demand of shippers. We conducted a survey of 400 small and medium-sized Brazilian industrial shippers. The differentiation of services, according to the customers, was obtained by Factor Analysis. The results indicated that the constructs of transport services most valued by shippers were, in order, Security, Reliability, Time, Price, Service for the special needs of customers and Customer Relations, i.e., the shippers showed greater interest in the effectiveness of service. Thus, shippers expect the performance of transport in itself to strengthen the relationship with their customers. Additionally, we detected differences in priorities, according to the groups targeted by the characteristics of customers. The importance attached to the constructs of Security and Reliability can also help understand why many companies maintain their own fleet or establish contracts for the transport of their products.