Predictive supplier costing at Den Hartogh Logistics – Den Hartogh Logistics

 Overview

Company Description

Den Hartogh Logistics is one of the leading Logistics
Service Providers. Our family-owned organisation
was established in The Netherlands in 1920. As a
bulk logistics service provider for the chemical, gas,
polymer and food industry, we combine the best
elements to create the optimal solution for each
situation. Safety and operational excellence are
embedded in our culture.\

Den Hartogh has a presence in every region of the
world, with premises/offices in 47 locations within 26
countries. Our workforce consists of more than
1,800 people and our modern equipment includes
more than 20,000 tank containers, 6,100 dry bulk
containers and specialised dry bulk trailers, 350 tank
trailers and 625 trucks.

From our four business units, this project will take
place in business unit Liquid Logistics Europe. This
business unit is responsible for all the intraEuropean liquid chemical activities.

Project Description

Throughout Europe, Den Hartogh offers a door-todoor transport service to its customers. Typically,
this transport is carried out intermodally with tank
containers. Simply put, the tank container is:
1. Loaded by truck at the chemical producer;
2. Dropped at the nearest train, barge, shortsea
or deep sea terminal;
3. Transported by train, barge, shortsea or
container ship;
4. After arrival, picked up again by truck from
the terminal;
5. Delivered at another chemical producer.

To execute the first- and last-mile of this process,
Den Hartogh uses its own fleet of about 650 trucks.
However, there is work for about double the amount
of trucks every day. The remaining part that cannot
be transported by our own fleet is purchased at
external trucking partners by our purchasing
department.

Of course, Den Hartogh aims to purchase the
trucking service at the best price. Normally, you find
the best price when benchmarking with other market
players. However, benchmarking is time consuming
taking into account the high number of trucking
movements every day.

We therefore would like to develop a model which
helps us to predict the price of our trucking partners
based on the specific transport requirements. The
output of the model makes the supplier selection
process more efficient (reducing the selection of
trucking partners) and more effective (avoid
selecting an expensive trucking partner due to lack
of time).

Goals of the Project

Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the
trucking partner selection process.

Deliverables

Develop insights and a decision-model which helps
us predict the price of our trucking partners.

Essential Student Knowledge

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More information: escf@tue.nl