Transportation National Group

Consultant Tom Li, an expert on the airline industry's use of yield management, had been asked by two colleagues to speak with trailer-leasing client TNG about the technique, which incorporates customer segmentation and other steps to optimize pricing. Li felt unsure whether the technique would work in trailer leasing, a highly fragmented commodity business in which companies rent out semitrailers to customers needing to ship merchandise. In this case students examine the trailer-leasing industry and lease data from one of TNG's branches before deciding whether yield management should be introduced by TNG management.