Performance measurement in the transportation and distribution sector

In the transportation and distribution (T&D) sector, as in many others, it is important to have a good performance in operations. In order to achieve high performance, it is necessary to know which operational factors are critical for success and which are less important. Only then can management focus attention on those factors that have a strong effect on performance. In The Netherlands a large project has been carried out to find these critical operational success factors. In total, 150 T&D companies were interviewed extensively; first they were split into 11 different segments and next their financial and operational data were gathered and compared. Based on the results of the project, the Dutch national organisation for T&D companies (TLN) has decided to adopt the benchmarking procedure developed in this project and to apply it to all 2,000 medium‐sized T&D companies, who are members of TLN. They will use it as a tool to assist their members in finding opportunities for improvement at the individual company level and to monitor the performance of the sector as a whole.