Author(s): Libor Simek, Vaclav Cempirek
The paper aims to answer the question whether – and to what extent – providers of logistic services can benefit from implementing and maintaining a quality management system (QMS), increasing their competitiveness, especially at a time of market competitive pressure. The study hypothesizes that over the 2008-2009 economic crises there was an increase in the number of companies that – in their selection process of logistic services providers – required and/or preferred these candidates to have a QMS implemented. This is verified on a sample of 277 companies, by comparing the situation in the year shortly preceding (2007) with the year shortly following (2010) the crisis. The conclusions derived are then analogically applied to the 2020 “coronavirus crisis”, giving the logistic services provider’s guidelines on formulating their QMS policy and identification of a suitable target customer segment, enhancing their competitiveness in a period of the present COVID macroeconomic instability.