When a product is at the manufacturer, ready to reach its final customer, a transportation form is needed to move it to its destination.
Products are transported through air, land, and water. One or more transportation modes could be used to support a cost-efficient, safe, and timely arrival to destination.
The transportation mode is arranged based on the product's final destination, volume, weight, regulations, and requirements.
If there is uncertainty on how to proceed further, logistics professionals are a great point of reference. They provide solutions to their customers towards handling, packaging, warehousing, transportation, process planning, and distribution. They also contribute to the informed-decision making process by using systems that integrate links in the supply chain and support the constant flow of information between all parties involved.
Some companies outsource the logistics expertise contracting the services of Third-Party Logistics firms or 3PLs.
3PLs
A 3PL is a company that provides multiple logistics services to be used by their customers, as defined in the CSCMP glossary. 3PL companies provide services like documentation, transportation, warehousing, cross-docking, inventory management, packaging, and freight forwarding.
3PLs are trusted to handle the transportation of goods, due to their knowledge about regulations, service contacts, and competitive rates. 3PLs can also offer packages that include a combination of services to adjust to their customer's needs.
A 3PL can become an extension to a company that produces physical products.
For this reason, the 3PL industry has been rising exponentially since 2000. Take a look at the following graph, showing the revenue generated by United States 3PLs from 2012 to 2018.
Globally, the 3PL industry generated 931.9 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2018, according to Statista.
This impactful multibillion-dollar industry offers solutions to all types of businesses, from healthcare to consumables.
We will be sharing more awesome facts about other links of the supply chain in further publications!!
Don't miss them!!
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References:
Data for graph: Statista, in cooperation with Armstrong & Associates, Inc.
Global data: Statista, in cooperation with Armstrong & Associates, Inc.
Definitions: Glossary, The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)
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Have a topic to suggest, questions, or comments? Please feel free to contact me. Send me an email with more details MyLogisticsLab@gmail.com or reach me via social media (Facebook / Instagram @ItsGloriaIsamar | LinkedIn @GloriaIsamarRivera).
About the Author: My name is Gloria Isamar Rivera. I have more than 17 years of combined experience in business administration, marketing, customer service, supply chain, logistics, and 3PLs. I consider myself a young professional, a supply chain leader, and an out-of-the-box strategist. I enjoy the simple things in life and value every process as a learning experience. Looking forward to sharing something interesting for you very soon! Thank you for reading! ;-)
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