New concept cuts shipper costs

The Port of Amsterdam has come up with a novel new concept to cut logistics costs for its customers. Its ‘matchmaking initiative’ involves smaller companies piggy-backing off the resources of larger businesses. It’s necessary to look at the logistics concept in its entirety in order to cut down costs, said Gert-Jan Nieuwenhuizen, director international projects with the Port of Amsterdam. “It’s about developing new models that are sustainable and that over the long term create a better supply chain,” he said. “At the Port of Amsterdam, for example, we signed a contract with a major shipper where we worked together to optimise the logistics chain. Through the port matchmaking model we saw costs cut by putting the large shipper in touch with much smaller companies that would not necessarily have crossed his path.” Nieuwenhuizen said by sharing intermodal connections and transport routes the smaller companies with very little clout were then improving their efficiency and cutting costs as much as the large operator by sharing operations. “We saw a much larger uptake on rail and a more balanced load sharing, which ultimately resulted in costs being cut.”