Are You Ready for a Third Party Logistics Provider?

3PLs can provide cost savings that businesses can’t achieve on their own while still maintaining an exacting level of service.

Because logistics is a 3PLs core mission, they make it their business to do it the best they can, day-in and dayout.

They succeed exactly the same way you do – by focusing on their core business and doing it better than their competitors.

If you find a 3PL that works for you, works with you, and works to help your relationships with your clients, your business will be able to improve its supply chain and bottom-line results year-over-year.

Introduction: What’s a 3PL?
The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), the supply chain industry’s leading trade association, defines a third party logistics provider (3PL) as, “A firm [that] provides multiple logistics services for use by customers. Preferably, these services are integrated, or ‘bundled’ together, by the provider. Among the services [3PLs] provide are transportation, warehousing, cross-docking, inventory management, packaging, and freight forwarding.”¹

The Questions to Ask a 3PL
Outsourcing your supply chain is a big step. The 11th Annual Logistics Customer Survey presented to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals in 2006 found that
companies that did not outsource repeatedly cited lack of confidence in 3PL providers and insecurity about maintaining transparency, security, and control over their supply chain if outsourced.²

Many companies build their logistics right alongside their business and keep their supply chain management in-house. A company choosing to outsource their logistics should be confident that their 3PL partner will maintain (and strengthen) a company’s relationship with their clients and customers.

1. Is Your Current Supply Chain Working as Well as It Should Be?
2. Are You Losing Focus of Your Core Mission?