An innovative survey in the transportation and distribution sector

Describes an experiment begun in 1994 at Eindhoven University in The Netherlands, which aimed for the integration of research, education and knowledge transfer to industry. This experiment focused on the transportation and distribution (T&D) sector in a province in The Netherlands. The aim was threefold: to find the key success factors for companies in the T&D sector; to involve a group of students who were ready to start their graduation project; and to help T&D companies to improve their competitiveness. Benchmarking was used to find the key success factors. Discusses the organizational setting and the methodology of the experiment. Pays attention to the issue of segmentation, which is considered to be crucial in benchmarking.