Shipping Cost Calculation Model for Road Freight Transport Companies

The road haulage sector is facing increasing challenges, dictated by the growing demand for faster and more efficient shipments. For a company operating in this sector, being able to maintain market competitiveness in order to create profit in a jungle of many realities squeezed into an increasingly saturated market share becomes highly complicated. For this reason, a cost control system that is flexible and adaptable, and with a high degree of customisation, would be an effective way to help companies monitor costs. The objective of this thesis is to provide a tool to effectively monitor cost items related to freight companies to which long-distance transport services are outsourced. The study aims to include all the costs that a transport operator incurs which are often difficult to monitor and keep under control, especially at the individual trip level. The methodology was divided into several stages: a) identification of all the costs incurred for the transport of goods, divided into fixed and variable costs; b) representation of the cost scheme by means of flow charts created with the draw.io. software; c) definition of the algorithm for calculating each of the identified costs; d) definition of the overall calculation model to support routing choices. To this end, estimates and literature data were used to test the model and build a demo with three main scenarios. Each scenario envisages the origin of the trip in Turin, but with different characteristics to represent three generic trips carried out daily in the territory: one towards the North, one towards the South and one towards the Islands, so as to be able to analyse similarities and differences between the various scenarios. The model obtained makes it possible to effectively monitor the economic impact of the type of route chosen, depending on variables such as the number of kilometres travelled and the travel time, with respect to the economic resources required for vehicle maintenance, and constitutes a powerful tool for the company in its choice of transport service providers.