Newsletter 42

Nightfreight says can save retailers up to 50 per cent of their existing transport costs if they switch to a pay-as-you-go two-man home delivery service it is launching.

The scheme is aimed mainly at medium and large retailers – companies that traditionally are likely to use dedicated transport and warehousing resources, provided either in-house or by third-party logistics providers under fixed-price contracts relating to volumes.

The Nightfreight proposition is that by replacing this approach with a flexible Nightfreight package, users can cut down on the fixed costs they currently have to bear. Instead, its pay-as-you-go service adopts the shared-user philosophy of applying charges that relate directly to the number of deliveries required. Prices will vary automatically with peaks and troughs.

In a sense, this is a direct appeal to retailers to re-think their fulfilment operations from the ground up in response to the current economic climate, and move away from the dedicated approach. Its merit is that it packages this proposition in a smart, easily-understood form that could win it early converts.