This preliminary study utilizes a data envelopment methodology to assess the strategic orientations of LTL motor carriers and their impact on customer satisfaction and firm profitability. Strategic orientations are described in terms of seven dimensions previously identified in the motor carrier literature. The study demonstrates that there are "best practice" configurations of the intensities of these strategic dimensions that most efficiently generate the maximum levels of customer satisfaction and perceived levels of service quality. It is shown how the data envelopment methodology provides motor carriers with a means of benchmarking their strategic orientations as well as identifying the competitors against whom such benchmarking should occur.
