Importance of context when specifying transport services

Abstract

This paper contributes to the transport purchasing knowledge by the synthesis of four contextual factors consisting of eighteen variables that contextualise shippers' specification of transport-related criteria. A survey study is used to examine how contextual variables influence shippers' specification of six transport-related criteria in Sweden: vehicles and equipment, subcontractors, mode of transport, work instructions, transport time and time precision. The findings indicate that shippers play a dominant role in the specification of transport services, specified as resources, processes and output of services. The specification of output is dominated by shippers, whereas the specification of one type of resource (i.e., subcontractors) is dominated by transport providers. Shippers' specification of transport-related criteria differs across industry, company size, profession (e.g., transport manager or procurement manager), purchase task (e.g., size of contract) and service type (e.g., variation in location of recipients). It is noted that shippers participate in joint specifications with transport providers when the context is complex.