BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - October 8, 2008) - Newly released research by Aberdeen, a
Harte-Hanks Company (
NYSE:
HHS), reveals that with their hands tied behind
their backs when it comes managing fuel costs, today's Best-in-Class
companies are turning their focus on improving tactics and visibility to
help decrease shipping costs. To obtain a complimentary copy of the latest
Transportation Management report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5312.
Aberdeen Group surveyed over 150 logistics professionals and found that
over 50% of them were turning their attention to improving their routing
and scheduling of their fleet as one way to help offset the rising costs of
managing those fleets. This new report, titled "Tending the Fleet: Paving
New Roads with Effective Fleet Management," uncovers the key pressures
facing today's transportation managers and the actions and capabilities
they are putting in place to deal with the rising cost of fuel and
surcharges.
Almost 100% of the companies surveyed will be reviewing and improving fleet
operations in the next 12-24 months, hoping to bring even more visibility
to procedures and personnel that are currently in place in order to
identify strategic areas for improvement. According to the research, two
of the most prominent areas of focus for today's logistics professionals
are (1) improving vehicle and operator utilization with better scheduling
and routing, and (2) increasing visibility and real-time activity tracking
in order to reduce the amount of idle time across the fleet.
While the Average and Laggard companies are beginning to improve their
routing and scheduling efforts, the Best-in-Class have moved on and are
focusing on being more strategic and improving visibility between vehicle
and operator assets and the back-office for improved planning and
flexibility. Today's Best-in-Class have been able to reduce the number of
safety incidents by 5% and decrease overall freight spend by 1%, despite
the rising costs associated with operating and maintaining their fleet.
"It's clear that today's Best-in-Class have turned their attention away
from trying to control the uncontrollable, in this instance the cost of
fuel, and instead focused their energy on improving areas that are within
their control," said Brad Wyland, Sr. Research Analyst, Aberdeen. "By
utilizing the technology available, today's logistics professionals have
been able to connect in real-time with their vehicles and operators in
order to help reduce idle time, empty loads, and other costly
inefficiencies and actually increase overall utilization and flexibility."
A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the
following underwriters: Cadec Global, TeleNav and XATA Corporation. To
obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5312.
To access all of Aberdeen's complimentary research, please visit:
http://research.aberdeen.com.
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market
intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more
than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely
positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating
demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment
analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets,
corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.
As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in
context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's
analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of
Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement -
Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role
Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit
Aberdeen
http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more
about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to
http://www.harte-hanks.com.
© 2008 AberdeenGroup, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
451 D Street, Suite 710
Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928
Telephone: (617) 854-5200
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Brad Wyland
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(617) 854-5392
Brad.wyland@aberdeen.com