Smart Logistics & Fulfilment

Transportation & Logistics Research and Advisory

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Transportation & Logistics Research and Advisory

Market intelligence, supply chain and operations analytics, real-world evidence studies, capital advisory, and investment support for transportation and logistics operators, infrastructure owners, supply chain-heavy enterprises, logistics technology platforms, and the investors and investment firms active across the transportation and logistics ecosystem.

The Sector Today

The transportation and logistics sector is absorbing structural change from several directions simultaneously. Digital freight platforms have disrupted traditional freight brokerage economics by increasing rate transparency and reducing empty miles, compressing margins for asset-heavy operators while creating significant value for technology-enabled intermediaries. The unit economics of last-mile delivery have become the defining question for both logistics operators and the e-commerce and Q-commerce platforms that depend on them, the cost per delivery at scale determines which business models are sustainable and which are subsidised by investor capital.

Multimodal freight, the integration of road, rail, air, and sea transport within a single coordinated network, is gaining commercial relevance as shippers seek to manage cost, carbon, and resilience tradeoffs that no single mode optimises simultaneously. Rail's cost and carbon advantage over road for long-haul freight is well established; the barrier has been the first-and-last-mile connectivity that makes multimodal routing operationally viable. As logistics technology infrastructure improves, that barrier is lowering in several markets.

For investors, the technology-enabled logistics platform thesis has matured significantly since 2021. The question is no longer whether digital logistics creates value but which platforms have unit economics that support the valuation, which asset-light models have genuine defensibility, and which asset-heavy operators have the technology integration to compete in a market where digital routing and dynamic pricing are table stakes.

The logistics investments that will generate durable returns are the ones where the technology creates a structural cost or service advantage, the unit economics work at scale rather than at pilot, and the market position is defensible against the next wave of platform entrants.

Who We Serve

Transportation and Logistics Operators

Road, rail, air, and maritime transport operators, warehousing and fulfilment companies, freight forwarders, and asset-light logistics service providers that need market intelligence, operational analytics, network optimisation, and strategic analysis to improve network performance and competitive positioning.

Infrastructure Owners and Developers

Port authorities, logistics parks, cold chain infrastructure developers, and transport infrastructure asset owners that need market demand analysis, feasibility assessment, capital advisory, and investor communication support across infrastructure investment decisions.

Investors and Financial Stakeholders

PE firms, infrastructure funds, and institutional investors with transportation and logistics mandates that need independent investment research, deal diligence, portfolio monitoring, and market intelligence to identify, evaluate, and manage positions across logistics operators, infrastructure assets, and logistics technology platforms.

What We Deliver

Strategic Market Intelligence · Supply Chain & Operations Optimisation · Real-World Evidence Studies · Capital Advisory · Investment Support

Strategic and Market Intelligence

Market intelligence and demand analysis for logistics operators and investors assessing freight volume dynamics, digital platform disruption, and infrastructure investment opportunity across transportation modes and geographies.

Market sizing and demand segmentation

freight demand estimation across modes, sectors, and geographies to determine market potential and growth zones.

Competitive landscape analysis

logistics operator and platform benchmarking by service offering, pricing model, market share, and operational capability.

Logistics technology ecosystem mapping

assessment of IoT, TMS, WMS, and automation technologies reshaping logistics economics and operational efficiency.

Digital freight platform analysis

unit economics, market share, and competitive positioning of digital freight brokers and platform logistics providers.

Freight rate and volume forecasting

global freight volume and pricing dynamic modeling to anticipate demand shifts and support capacity and pricing strategy.

Multimodal freight opportunity analysis

cost, carbon, and service trade-off assessment across road, rail, air, and maritime modes to support modal shift strategy.

Intermodal connectivity and bottleneck analysis

the economic advantage of multimodal routing is only realisable if the intermodal transfer points work efficiently. Port-to-rail and rail-to-road connectivity, dwell time at intermodal terminals, crane productivity, and yard utilisation are the operational variables that determine whether a multimodal freight strategy delivers its projected economics. The financial model for a modal shift strategy captures intermodal transfer cost and time explicitly, not as a residual assumption.

Analytical Outputs We Produce

Multimodal freight cost, carbon, and service trade-off models for modal shift strategy decisions.

Intermodal connectivity assessments covering port-to-rail and rail-to-road transfer economics, dwell time analysis, and terminal productivity benchmarking.

Digital freight platform unit economics analyses covering load matching rates, take rate dynamics, and empty mile reduction.

Last-mile delivery unit economics models at current scale across owned, crowdsourced, and third-party operating models.

Scope 3 freight emissions models covering emissions intensity by mode, freight tonne-kilometre calculations, and modal shift financial impact.

Logistics infrastructure demand and feasibility assessments for port, rail, and logistics park investments.

Network design and route optimisation analyses for multi-depot logistics networks.

Transportation and logistics M&A target screening and investor pitchbooks.

Portfolio performance dashboards tracking fleet utilisation, cost per delivery, on-time performance, and ESG logistics metrics.

Transportation & Logistics in Practice

Case Study

Digital Freight Platform Investment Thesis and Due Diligence for a Logistics-Focused PE Fund

A PE fund evaluating an investment in a digital freight platform operating across India's road freight market engaged Perusal Global for investment thesis validation, unit economics assessment, and competitive landscape analysis. The work covered digital freight platform economics including load matching rates, empty mile reduction benchmarks, take rate comparisons across domestic and international platforms, market share and competitive positioning analysis, and a three-statement financial model with scenario analysis across penetration rate assumptions. The output informed the fund's investment committee submission and shaped the commercial due diligence scope.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last-mile unit economics modeling builds the cost per delivery from first principles: fixed cost per delivery point from hub infrastructure and fleet, variable cost per delivery from fuel, driver time, and packaging, and the density assumptions determining how many deliveries can be made per route per hour in the target geography. The model tests how cost per delivery changes as density increases because last-mile economics are highly sensitive to delivery density. For operators serving Q-commerce platforms with ten-to-thirty-minute delivery windows, the density constraint is severe and the cost per delivery is structurally higher than for next-day or same-day platforms. The financial model needs to capture this difference rather than applying a blended cost per delivery across delivery types with fundamentally different economics.

Digital freight platform assessment covers platform economics, market structure, and competitive defensibility. Platform economics: load matching rate, take rate, empty mile reduction versus the traditional brokerage baseline, and contribution margin per transaction at current scale versus the unit economics target at scale. Market structure: is the freight market in the target geography concentrated enough for a platform to achieve the matching density that makes unit economics work? Competitive defensibility: what prevents a new entrant, a large shipper, or a carrier from replicating the matching algorithm and the network? The network effect claim requires scrutiny because most freight platforms serve fragmented markets where the network effect is weaker than in consumer platform analogies.

Multimodal freight strategy assessment covers the cost, carbon, and service trade-off for each corridor where multimodal routing is being evaluated against single-mode alternatives. For a given origin-destination pair, the model compares total landed cost across routing options, transit time and variability for each mode combination, carbon intensity by mode, and infrastructure availability in the specific corridor. Rail typically offers cost and carbon advantages over road for long-haul freight above approximately 500 kilometres, but the advantage is only capturable if first-and-last-mile connectivity works. The strategic assessment identifies which corridors have the strongest case for modal shift based on freight characteristics, available infrastructure, and the shipper's service requirements.

Logistics infrastructure due diligence covers demand, competitive position, and regulatory risk. Demand: freight volume projections for the catchment area, the industries and trade routes the infrastructure serves, and the sensitivity of demand to changes in those trade flows. Competitive position: the infrastructure asset's cost, service, and location advantages relative to competing facilities, and the realistic market share it can maintain against new or expanding competitors. Regulatory risk: exposure to changes in trade policy, port regulation, environmental compliance requirements, and planning restrictions affecting capacity or operating cost. For cold chain infrastructure, the assessment also covers the specific temperature-controlled product categories served, their demand growth trajectory, and competitive dynamics among cold chain operators.

Technology readiness assessment for a logistics operator covers four layers. Data infrastructure: what proportion of operations are generating real-time data on fleet position, warehouse throughput, and delivery performance? Route and network optimisation: is the operator using dynamic routing optimisation or static routes? The gap between dynamic and static routing is typically ten to twenty percent of fuel and driver cost. Integration with customer systems: how deeply is the operator integrated into customer supply chain systems, and does that integration create switching costs that improve contract retention? Technology investment trajectory: what has the operator invested in technology over the past three years relative to revenue compared to best-in-class logistics operators?

A logistics M&A assessment covers commercial due diligence, operational due diligence, and financial modeling as integrated rather than sequential workstreams. Commercial: market position, customer concentration, contract renewal profile, and competitive dynamics in the specific logistics sub-sector. Operational: network efficiency, technology readiness, fleet age and maintenance cost, and the specific operational levers that drive margin. Financial: earnings quality assessment confirming whether reported EBITDA is a true representation of ongoing cash generation, and a deal model with scenario analysis across key value drivers. For logistics transactions specifically, the integration of the three workstreams is critical because the synergy case almost always depends on operational assumptions that must be validated in the operational due diligence before they can be modeled.

Ready to Work?

The first conversation is about the specific decision your team is facing: a logistics investment thesis that needs validating, a freight platform that needs unit economics modeling, a logistics infrastructure project that needs feasibility analysis, or a network that needs optimisation. We will tell you precisely how we approach it.

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