More than 80% of domestic Fortune 500 companies outsource their logistics operations and most expect to use third party logistics (3PL) providers more in the coming years, according to the University of Tennessee (UT) study sponsored by Kenco.
The study—Selecting and Managing a Third Party Logistics Provider—finds that companies are still struggling to optimize their use of 3PLs despite growth in every sector of the supply chain over the last quarter century.
“Today’s 3PL is not your grandfather’s 3PL,” says Paul Dittmann, executive director of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business. “The scope of third party logistics has widely increased and expectations of them accelerated, but that does not mean firms are using 3PLs to their full advantage.”
Material Handling & Logistics is an IndustryWeek companion site within Penton's Manufacturing & Supply Chain Group.
