Third-party serviceproviders once tradedlargely on their deeptransportation expertiseand relationships withcarriers. Now, they’reincreasingly called on tobe tech wizards as well.
FOR YEARS, FREIGHT MANAGERS AND LOGISTICS SERVICE PROVIDERShave leveraged the value of relationships, those whom you’ve worked with successfully in the past, as the door-opener to engaging and retaining clients and serviceproviders. It has been a fairly common practice for logistics managers, as theymoved to new companies, to bring along their third-party logistics service providers, or 3PLs.
That certainly still happens today. Yet the speed and scope of change in how ship-
pers engage and utilize 3PLs, and the emergence of new enabling technologies, have
created more complex, demanding, and data-driven service requirements that are
foreshadowing the rise of the next-generation 3PL.
These next-generation players and their service portfolios are defined by speed,agility, adaptability, and continuous improvement. They have to operate reliablyand seamlessly in an e-commerce-defined world. They are embracing digitizationand technology for automating manual processes and creating even more data. Andperhaps most important, they’re emerging as an “integration hub” connecting a far
BY GARY FRANTZ, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
THIRD-PARTY LOGISTICS TRANSPORTATION
The rise of thenext-generation 3PL
