2 April 2026
The cost-to-serve map Australian SMEs skip
Quotes in this country are often honest about materials and a day rate. They are shy about kilometres, waiting time at a dock, and the person who stays back because the customer ‘can only receive after four’.
Cost-to-serve is not a logistics buzzword. It is the list of activities that happen because this customer exists, even when the invoice looks the same as the customer next door. Regional New South Wales makes the list longer: fuel, empty return legs, and a radius that was promised in a better year.
What belongs on the map
Start with delivery and pickup. Add after-hours labour at the actual award, not at the weekday daydream. Add custom packing, special payment terms that delay cash, and the courtesy extra that the founder still does personally because ‘it takes ten minutes’. Ten minutes across a year is a role.
The Cost-to-Serve Mapping clinic exists because spreadsheets that stop at gross margin will keep recommending the unprofitable account. Loyalty is allowed. Unpriced loyalty is a different product.
You do not have to drop the customer
Most maps end in a conversation, not a breakup. Raise a delivery minimum. Shorten a radius. Charge for the second visit. Keep the account if the relationship is the point — just stop calling it a margin win.
If your file cannot name which postcodes cost more than others, you are still averaging. Australia is too large a country for averages to be kind.