Energy, labour and other external costs continue to put pressure on freight forwarders. Many of these costs can only be influenced to a limited extent within the business. This makes it all the more important to identify further opportunities for efficiency in day-to-day operations.
The DSLV Groupage Freight Forwarding Cost Index highlights the issue: In the first half of 2026, per-shipment costs in the German groupage market were 4.7% higher than in the same period of the previous year. Labour costs rose by 6.2%, while fuel and energy costs increased by 10.7%. Toll costs remained largely stable over the same period.
A recent Bitkom survey also highlights the pressure on the industry: 100% of the logistics companies surveyed identify high energy prices as a challenge, 87% cite the shortage of skilled workers and 71% report supply chain disruptions.
This guide explains which costs freight forwarders can influence themselves and where existing vehicles, staff and processes can be used more efficiently.
Key Points at a Glance
| ✓ External costs such as energy prices, wage trends and statutory toll rates can only be influenced to a limited extent. |
| ✓ Empty running and detours, vehicle utilisation, planning quality and administrative processes offer opportunities for improvement within the business. |
| ✓ Visibility into costs and profitability helps identify unprofitable transport operations and recurring variances at an early stage. |
| ✓ A Transport Management System can digitally support planning, analysis and recurring workflows. |
Why Cost Pressure on Freight Forwarders Continues to Rise
Cost pressure comes from several directions at once. Energy and labour costs make day-to-day operations more expensive, while skilled labour shortages and volatile supply chains further complicate planning. Freight forwarders cannot control many of these developments themselves.
Their scope for action therefore lies primarily in how efficiently they use existing resources. Even small inefficiencies can add up to significant additional costs across large numbers of trips and shipments.
Which Costs Can Freight Forwarders Influence?
Freight forwarders have little direct influence over external cost factors such as energy prices, wage trends and statutory toll rates. However, they can influence route selection, kilometres travelled and the resulting costs.
| Largely Beyond Direct Control | Within the Business’s Control |
|---|---|
| Energy prices | Empty running and detours |
| General wage trends | Vehicle utilisation |
| Statutory toll rates | Route selection and planning quality |
| External market and price developments | Resource allocation and dispatching |
| Supply chain disruptions | Administrative processes and automation |
| Profitability of individual transport operations |
7 Opportunities for Efficiency Freight Forwarders Can Act On
1. Reduce Empty Running and Detours
Every unnecessary kilometre incurs costs without generating additional revenue. It is therefore worth taking a closer look at trips, return loads and stop sequences, particularly on regularly operated routes.
Possible measures include:
- Matching transport orders with suitable vehicles
- Considering return loads early in the planning process
- Optimising stop sequences
- Identifying unnecessary detours during planning
2. Improve Vehicle Utilisation
Underutilised vehicles also increase the cost per unit transported. At the same time, additional capacity is expensive and not always available. Transport orders should therefore be considered alongside existing vehicle and loading capacities, rather than in isolation.
- Which vehicles still have spare capacity?
- Which orders can be combined efficiently?
- Where do trips regularly operate with low vehicle utilisation?
3. Factor in Toll and Route Costs Early
The shortest route is not necessarily the most economical. Alongside distance and driving time, toll costs can also affect the profitability of a transport operation. These costs should therefore be considered during planning wherever possible, rather than only becoming apparent after the transport has been completed.
Digital route planning makes it possible to assess different routes and their associated costs in advance. This helps dispatchers compare planning options and select the most economical route for the job.
4. Use Staff Time and Resources More Efficiently
Rising labour costs and persistent skilled labour shortages increase the pressure to use available working time efficiently. Dispatchers should therefore spend as little time as possible on repeated data searches, manual analysis and avoidable rework.
Key areas include:
- Central access to order and planning information
- Clear responsibilities and standardised processes
- Automated reports and regular analysis
- Less manual data transfer between different systems
5. Identify Unprofitable Transport Operations Through Reporting and Post-Costing
Not every transport operation that runs smoothly is profitable. Whether an order has actually paid off often only becomes clear when the original cost estimate is compared with the costs actually incurred.
Reports and post-costing help answer questions such as:
- Which transport operations or routes are regularly unprofitable?
- Where do actual costs differ from the original estimate?
- Which customers or orders generate particularly low margins?
- Where do additional costs repeatedly arise that were not accounted for during planning?
Regularly analysing these variances helps identify recurring cost drivers and account for them earlier when planning future transport operations.
6. Reduce Planning Errors and Last-Minute Rescheduling
Last-minute changes cannot be eliminated entirely in the transport business. However, additional work arises when important information becomes available too late or planning errors only emerge while a transport is already underway.
A shared database for orders, vehicles, routes and restrictions helps highlight problems earlier. Dispatchers can respond more effectively and spend less time on avoidable corrections.
7. Automate Administrative Processes
Efficiency opportunities extend beyond the road. Recurring office tasks also take time: entering data, processing documents, creating reports and transferring the same information multiple times.
Clearly defined routines involving regularly repeated steps are particularly well suited to automation. The aim is to relieve staff of tasks that can be standardised, rather than to automate every decision.
Where Should Freight Forwarders Start Optimising?
Not every business loses time or money in the same areas. Before introducing new measures, it is worth carrying out a brief self-assessment:
- What proportion of our mileage consists of empty running and unnecessary detours?
- Which routes or trips regularly have low vehicle utilisation?
- Are toll and route costs already visible during planning?
- How often do dispatchers have to reschedule at short notice?
- Which tasks are repeated manually every day?
- Can we identify which transport operations are actually profitable?
The more precisely these questions can be answered, the easier it becomes to prioritise measures. Rather than optimising everything at once, freight forwarders should start where the greatest measurable costs or workload arise.
Digital Support with CarLo
CarLo brings together key areas of transport operations in a Transport Management System – from order entry and transport and trip planning to routing, toll costs, resource planning, invoicing and analysis. This helps businesses put many of the efficiency opportunities described above into practice in their day-to-day operations.
- Plan more economical routes and trips: Route optimisation in CarLo helps optimise trips and stop sequences during planning. Route costs, distances and tolls can be considered early, and different planning options can be compared. This helps reduce unnecessary detours and plan more economical trips.
- Reduce empty running with the AI Planning Radar: The AI Planning Radar helps dispatchers find suitable return and follow-on loads. At the click of a button, it identifies suitable orders for available vehicles. This helps businesses make better use of spare capacity, reduce empty running and improve vehicle utilisation.
- Automate order entry with Document Intelligence: Administrative processes also offer opportunities for savings. Document Intelligence automatically recognises information from incoming documents, such as emails and PDFs, and transfers it into order entry. This significantly reduces manual data entry and gives staff more time for higher-value tasks.
- Make profitability visible through statistics and dashboards: In principle, every database field in CarLo can be used for analysis. This enables businesses to create customised statistics and dedicated dashboards to regularly analyse indicators such as profitability by trip and vehicle, revenue per customer, planned versus actual variances and other relevant metrics. Recurring issues and unprofitable transport operations become visible sooner and can be taken into account in future planning.
- Automate recurring workflows: Workflows and automated reports support administrative processes that can be standardised. This reduces the need to transfer or reprocess information manually.
The key advantage is the shared database: Order, planning, cost and invoicing information is available in one place and can be used directly for operational decisions and analysis. This provides greater visibility into actual transport costs and a stronger basis for using existing vehicles, staff and capacity more economically.
Frequently Asked Questions
Freight forwarders can primarily influence their internal processes. These include empty running and detours, vehicle utilisation, route selection, planning quality, administrative workflows and visibility into the profitability of individual transport operations.
Empty Trips can be reduced by matching orders with suitable vehicles more effectively, identifying return loads early and optimising trip planning. However, it cannot be eliminated entirely in every transport network.
A TMS cannot prevent external cost increases. However, it can bring together information on orders, vehicles, routes and costs. This enables a more structured approach to planning, capacity utilisation, cost calculation and analysis.
Depending on the business model, relevant metrics include planned versus actual variances, costs and revenue per transport operation or route, vehicle utilisation, the proportion of empty running and recurring cost variances. The key is to analyse these metrics regularly and in the appropriate context.
Conclusion
Freight forwarders have limited influence over rising energy and labour costs. This makes it all the more important to act on the factors within their control: reducing unnecessary mileage, making better use of capacity, factoring in costs early and minimising manual work.
Transparent data and digital transport planning provide the foundation. They reveal where efficiency gains can be achieved within the business – and which areas should be prioritised for improvement.
Sources
- DSLV Bundesverband Spedition und Logistik: „Sendungskosten im Stückgutmarkt um durchschnittlich 4,7 Prozent gestiegen”, https://www.dslv.org/de/aktuelles/meldung/sendungskosten-im-stueckgutmarkt-um-durchschnittlich-47-prozent-gestiegen
- Bitkom e. V.: „Die Logistik investiert in KI – doch es fehlt Knowhow”, https://www.bitkom.org/Presse/Presseinformation/Die-Logistik-investiert-in-KI-doch-es-fehlt-Knowhow
