Outsourcing as a Challenge for Achieving Competitive Advantage in Road Freight Industry – The Case of Croatia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore outsourcing as a possible source of competitive advantage for road freight operators, with the empirical research directed towards the road freight transportation sector. Methodologically, this study drew on the data collected from a sample of Croatian road freight transporters. Because a certain number of transportation companies tend to outsource their resources, the insight into outsourcing activities was gained through analysing (1) the number of hired vehicles in the fleet (outsourced vehicles), and (2) the number of hired drivers (outsourced drivers). A variance inflation test, correlation and multiple regression analysis were conducted to test the model assumptions. The research results confirmed the connection between the externalised resources and the differentiation of services and staff. The main contribution and managerial implications included that the companies with a more significant number of hired vehicles in their fleet should differentiate their services. In contrast, the companies that own the majority of their vehicles should build their competitive advantage through staff differentiation.

Road Haulier Competition: Implications for Supply Chain Integration

“…There is a recent interest in the value-creation of TPL firms' offers to the industrial supply chain [9,25] and in the competitive advantages of road hauliers [10,11,27,28]. A typical challenge for competitive high-quality transport services reported from Central Asia, such as Uzbekistan are the necessity of regional cooperation to manage border disputes, common infrastructure, trade and communications, and security concerns that are regulated in agreements.…”

“…Outsourcing important resources such as vehicle fleets and drivers enables and influences Croatian road hauliers' differentiation strategies such as differentiation of services, price differentiation, image differentiation, technological differentiation, and staff differentiation [28]. Yarashova and Hoshimov argue that the effective competitive transport system depends on high-quality transport services, highperformance safe vehicles and transport infrastructure, and conditions that foster the development of transport services [27].…”