Fuel, fleet, and warehouses: three cost lines, one audit.
Fuel, fleet leasing, and warehouse space costs are usually the largest (and least often renegotiated) line items at transport companies.
Typical challenges
- 01
Fleet leasing and service agreements negotiated vehicle by vehicle, with no coherent strategy
- 02
Volume discounts on servicing set when the fleet was half its current size and never updated
- 03
Warehouse rents set at an earlier stage of the company's growth and now above market
- 04
Rates charged to some customers unchanged for years despite rising fuel and driver costs
- 05
Empty runs treated as a fixed cost rather than a parameter to optimise
- 06
A large carrier database of which only a fraction is used regularly, the rest generating administrative cost
- 07
No systematic control of cost per kilometre in a growing fleet
- 08
Fleet insurance renewed automatically, without testing the market
How we approach this industry
We audit fleet, warehousing and fuel agreements together, because only together do they show the full picture — taken one at a time, each looks tolerable. Fleet costs are broken down to their components, as far as cost per kilometre and the share taken by fuel, and rents are compared with current market offers for buildings of the same class, location by location. We also look at the revenue side: which customer rates have not been updated despite rising costs. For every conversation we prepare a separate negotiation pack with concrete reference points — the market rate, the offers being made to new tenants, and a calculation of actual fleet volume — and we hold the conversations on the client's behalf. Renegotiations are synchronised with the nearest renewal dates, so nothing has to be terminated early. In most cases neither the warehouse location nor the service provider needs to change: showing the numbers is enough.
Related services
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Book a callCase studies in this industry
Renegotiation Without Relocation: €150,000 Less in Annual Warehouse and Fleet Service Costs
An audit of warehouse lease and fleet service agreements revealed rates as much as 22% above market. Renegotiating with the existing landlords and service providers delivered around €150,000 in annual savings, with no change of location or supplier.
Below-market rates and 22% empty miles: a fleet audit that recovered a carrier's margin
A fleet cost audit uncovered below-market per-kilometer rates with key clients and a high share of empty return trips. Renegotiating contracts with clients, the fuel supplier, and the insurer delivered a measurable margin improvement without investing in new vehicles.
220 carriers on the roster, only 90 actively managed: cleaning up a forwarder's carrier network
An audit of the carrier base and client rates found the company was only really working with a fraction of its registered network, while rates for 30% of its client portfolio hadn't been updated in years. Segmenting carriers and renegotiating the price list restored control over margin.
Let's talk about costs in your company in the following industry: Logistics and Transport.
You don't need to have it fully defined yet. That's what the first conversation is for. Tell us what's happening in your company, and we'll assess how we can help.