Identify your company's strategic objectives: check your price positioning, change service providers, expand your network, support international expansion, etc.  

Consider the current dynamics of freight transport: understand trends and developments to better position yourself in a competitive market.  

• Financial objectives: Set clear objectives in terms of cost reduction and return on investment. This can include specific targets for reducing transport costs, optimizing routes, and consolidating shipments.   

• Operational objectives: Define operational objectives such as improving delivery times, reducing delays, and increasing supplier reliability, for example. These objectives must be measurable and aligned with business needs.   

• Environmental objectives: Integrate sustainability objectives, such as reducing CO2 emissions and adopting environmentally friendly transport practices.  

Price trends in the freight market depend on several factors:    

• Balancing supply and demand: demand for transport is influenced primarily by the overall economic situation, but also by seasonal factors in certain sectors. At the same time, transport supply is also subject to change. The balance between transport demand and available capacity plays a decisive role in the evolution of transport prices.  

• Costs: transport service providers are faced with fluctuating costs. In road haulage, personnel costs and fuel costs are the two most important items, but other factors also come into play, such as tolls and maintenance costs.  

• Regulations: the freight transport industry must constantly adapt to changes in the regulatory framework, and to targets for reducing CO2 emissions. Companies are increasingly being assessed on their sustainability initiatives. The need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions influences their choice of service providers. Other regulations, such as the Mobility Package, also influence operating costs.   

• Technological innovation: from optimizing supply chains to developing new propulsion systems for trucks and ships, the freight transport sector is currently undergoing profound transformations. The use of tools based on artificial intelligence and the management of large volumes of data is helping the sector to become more efficient.