Transportzeit

Transportzeit (German for “transport time”) is a term used in logistics and transport planning to denote the time required to move goods or passengers from an origin to a destination. It typically includes actual travel time, loading and unloading, waiting times at terminals or transfer points, and any intermediate handling or transfers. In practice, transportzeit is one element of total delivery lead time, alongside order processing and handling.

Measuring transportzeit involves recording timestamps along the journey and aggregating them for routes, modes, or regions. Distances, transport modes (road, rail, sea, air), speeds, congestion, weather, and regulatory steps (such as customs clearance) all influence the duration. Domestic transport might emphasize road speed and dwell times, while international routes must account for border procedures and container transfers.

Applications of transportzeit include informing delivery promises, inventory planning, and customer expectations. Key performance indicators include mean or median transit time and the on-time delivery rate. Transportzeit data support route optimization, capacity planning, and cost estimation in logistics networks.

Strategies to reduce transportzeit or improve predictability include optimizing routes and schedules, using multimodal transport and hub-and-spoke networks, consolidating shipments, scheduling at off-peak times, and employing real-time tracking and predictive analytics to anticipate delays. Evaluation often uses historical data and simulation to model variability.

Related concepts include Lieferzeit (delivery time), Durchlaufzeit (throughput time), transit time in supply chains, and logistics performance management.