Transport service is the direct interaction of the carrier (service provider) and the consumer, which is the customer, passenger, other interested party. She acts as the result of the carrier’s internal work to meet the needs (both real and alleged) of the consumer.
Accordingly, such activity is represented in the market of transport services. In the article we give his definition, characterization. Consider which trucking companies are featured in such a market, how their competitiveness is assessed, and which marketing techniques are relevant.
Definition
The market of transport services is the field of cargo, passengers. This also includes maintenance, repair of vehicles, auxiliary and other services, directly or indirectly related to transportation.
Features
Features of the transport services market are as follows:
- The lack of a specific location for sales and production of such services in space and time.
- Dependence of the transport services market and the conditions for its further development on the state of the commodity markets. The decline in production volumes, respectively, leads to a decline in deliveries - both cargo, baggage, and passengers.
- Volumes of transportation are not equal to volumes of production of material products, in most cases even exceed the latter. What is the reason for this? The same batches of manufactured products can participate in repeated shipments, moreover, and several times - from the manufacturer to wholesale warehouses, from warehouses to retail outlets, from stores to specific customers.
- The market of transport services in Russia and many other countries of the world needs state regulation. This is due to the great economic, strategic and social importance of transport.
Members
In the structure of the transport services market, the main participant is a motor transport company. The results of its activities, in turn, are determined by two factors:
- The external environment.
- The internal environment.
Get to know them in more detail.
Intrinsic factors
In the logistics of transportation, the role of trucking organizations is important. The internal factors determining their activity are the following:
- Professionalism, training, experience of personnel.
- Vehicle condition.
- Internal organizational methods and management functions.
- Financial intraorganizational activity.
These factors are directly dependent on ATP. The management of the enterprise can have a certain impact on them to create the most optimal conditions for the functioning and further development of the ATP.
External factors
In the world market of transport services various ATP appear. External factors that determine the activities of these enterprises are divided into two subsystems: the macroenvironment and the immediate environment of the organization. What is included in them?
The macroenvironment consists of the following:
- Macroeconomics (mechanisms for the formation and further distribution of enterprise resources).
- Legislative framework (it establishes restrictions in the interactions of ATP with passengers, customers).
- The science.
- Politics.
- Social orientation of society.
The immediate environment of the ATP is represented by the following:
- Buyers of transport and other services.
- Demand for such services.
- Suppliers of products.
- Competitors.
- Labor market.
- Capital markets.
- Audit firms.
Internal factors of ATP are highly dependent on external factors. The latter regulate the internal activities of enterprises.
ATP Competitiveness
Let's analyze the competition in the market of transport services. Competitiveness in this context is the ability of certain objects to surpass their competitors in the specific conditions.
With regard to the competitiveness of transport services, it is distinguished by three factors:
- The level of cost of services.
- The level of quality of these services.
- Image of enterprises.
Hence the reduction in cost, improving the quality of transportation, the image of the ATP directly affects the competitiveness of these enterprises.
How to increase competitiveness?
The development of the transport services market, respectively, is associated with increased competitiveness of individual ATPs. Consider how this is achieved in practice.
Reducing the cost of deliveries can be achieved through the following:
- Fuel economy.
- Save auto parts.
- Savings on vehicle repairs.
- Improving car performance.
Improving the quality of transportation is as follows:
- Deliveries on time. At the same time, the ATP should worry about maintaining the quality and quantity of passenger and cargo transportation.
- Expanding the list of services provided by the enterprise - transport, forwarding, etc.
- Implementation of innovative projects faster than competitors.
In this area, the quality of services is expressed by their implementation in full accordance with the schedule of vehicles, the level of amenities, comfort that the carrier can offer its customers and passengers. For example, in the field of taxi services, the time it takes to transport a passenger to his destination is important.
ATP image
On the international market of transport services, the image of the trucking company plays an important role. What it is? An image is an idea of an organization, its founders, owner, and leadership, which develops in society under the influence of subjective and objective factors. The concept itself is divided into external and internal image.
External, respectively, will be determined by how the motor company is perceived in society, by customers, investors, journalists, shareholders and so on. Its formation is directly affected by the quality of services provided by the company, the first impression that the client receives by using its services. The direction of the company’s interactions with investors, shareholders, and various media also plays a role.
The internal image of ATP will be determined by the attitude of employees, the leading sector to their company, the existing system of official relationships, methods of promotion, promotion of employees, career opportunities. The main determinant of the internal image of any enterprise is the dedication of its employees to the business they are engaged in, their enthusiasm for work, and their sincere, friendly attitude towards the clientele.
I must say that the external image of companies is changing much faster and easier than the internal one. The latter is difficult to adjust. Therefore, for any enterprise, it is of great value to form and maintain a positive internal image.
Competitiveness assessment
Any ATP should thoroughly study the competitive environment in which it operates. It is necessary to highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of their own competitors. This will allow legal means to suppress their activity, weaken the impact on the transport services market.
There is a special competitiveness assessment algorithm:
- Justification of the selected method for assessing the competitiveness of a service.
- Formation of requirements for this service.
- The choice of those parameters that can be estimated.
- Calculation of single indicators that make up the assessment of the competitiveness of services.
- Calculation of competitiveness indicators by categories: cost, image, quality, etc.
- Calculation of integral indicators of competitiveness.
- Final analysis of the competitiveness of a particular service.
- Development of effective measures to increase the degree of competitiveness.
Marketing
The features of the transport services market are leaving their mark on the use of certain marketing areas in this environment.
In this context, marketing is a comprehensive system for the sale of services at the level of trucking enterprises. Its main orientation is a more complete satisfaction of the needs of specific customers, an increase in ATP profits due to this.
Much attention is paid here to the study and analysis of the formation of demand for services in the field of transport logistics. Demand refers to certain needs for transportation and the provision of additional services.
The following features of demand in this market are taken into account:
- The unevenness of its occurrence in space and time.
- The secondary nature of the demand for such services.
The formation of demand in this case includes the following measures:
- Providing high quality services.
- Application of a flexible tariff policy.
- Creation of warehouses for intermediate storage of transported goods.
- The provision of additional services.
- Application of automated order processing.
- Advertising campaigns, promotion in social networks and so on.
A proposal in this context is the volume of transport work, the number of services offered for implementation at a particular point in time in the market. Like demand, it is a quantity that can be represented both in value and in kind.
Marketing activities
For the implementation of various marketing projects and events for large and medium-sized ATP, special units and departments are founded. In small enterprises, such an opportunity is rare. Therefore, here marketing functions are distributed among all employees of the company.
In any case, employees try to perform the following marketing functions:
- Client analysis.
- Study of competitors in the transport market.
- Analysis of own capabilities, market competitiveness.
- A focused study of emerging markets for such services.
- Planning to expand our own range of works and services.
- Tracking current, current market changes.
- Development of commercial conditions for delivery and transportation.
- Negotiating, concluding contracts with customers.
- Design various commercial solutions.
The market for transport services has its own characteristics. But here there are general legitimate competition and standard marketing decisions are made. But there are specific measures to increase the competitiveness of ATP.