Articles
3PL

Preparation: The Key to Successful Business…and Procurement Projects
Shippers everywhere are enjoying the "summer of ’16." Carrier capacity is abundant, and rates, particularly in the truckload spot market, have fallen by double-digit percentages relative to last year. Contrast this with the "winter of ’14" when the Polar Vortex drove spot rates to all-time highs. Since that time, decreasing fuel costs, coupled with favorable […]
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Become an Extension of Your Client’s Brand
As entities responsible for brokering appropriate carrier rates, ensuring accurate quantities of orders, and guaranteeing high quality of products, third-party logistics providers are extensions of companies’ brands. The functions 3PLs perform help shape their clients’ outwardly facing reputation. Here are the most effective ways to become an extension of your client’s brand. Cost Savings Carrier […]
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3PL Customer Service Specialization
Defining customer service can be difficult. Measuring it is even harder. Sometimes ambiguous, customer service is more than being courteous and helpful, it’s also about being knowledgeable. To solve complex problems, and to do so with speed, a 3PL must know a shipper’s needs inside and out. While intricacies of certain shippers and receivers will […]
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6 Technologies Guaranteed to Disrupt Your Supply Chain
As innovative technological solutions continue to shake up logistics, managing the supply chain is no longer business as usual.
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3PL Partnerships: How to Ink the Deal
How to form a relationship with your 3PL that’s so productive and strong, you’ll want to put it in a heart and wear it where everyone can see.
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3PL Perspectives 2016
MORE TO THE STORY: Perspectives Methodology 3PLs At A Glance 2016 Top 100 3PLs Ever get a tattoo? You don’t just go to the first place you stumble across. It usually takes some shopping around to find the right parlor. You ask your friends and acquaintances for recommendations. You go on the internet and read […]
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Readers’ Choice: Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards 2016
The global supply chain is ever changing. International trade deals, wars, embargoes, company failures, start-ups, and increasing regulations don’t even begin to complete the list of things shippers have to stay on top of. Many companies just don’t have the specialized knowledge in house to successfully manage complex logistics operations. MORE TO THE STORY: 3PLs […]
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Tapping Military Talent: Shoes on the Ground
Companies win the talent battle when they have troops in place in supply chain positions.
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Addressing Vendor Management and Shifting Global Trade Currents
Q: What are the most important aspects of good vendor management? A: Fairness is the first element that always comes to mind when this subject arises. Both parties need to be satisfied and gain benefits in each deal that is agreed upon. If not, deals tend to end faster than planned and turn into a […]
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Three Key Points to Communicate to Become Your Customers’ Dream Provider
Communication and transparency are key to being a good partner to your clients. If your logistics organization is in the process of responding to RFP questions from a plum potential customer, positioning your logistics organization as the ideal fit for that customer depends on clear communication of three defining factors of your business: specialization, size, […]
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Using RFPs to Optimize Partnerships
Transparency and communication are key in the RFP process to develop a true and lasting partnership with a 3PL provider.
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Logistics Technology: 3PLs Span the Gamut
The road to business growth is paved with data. Providing both software and expertise, third-party logistics partners keep small shippers in the fast lane.
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Should I Work With a Third-Party Logistics Provider Offering Foreign Trade Zone Services?
As products continue to be sourced globally, companies that import goods are always looking for ways to make their supply chains more efficient. Working with a 3PL partner who also offers foreign trade zones (FTZs) can provide big benefits in the right scenarios. Q: What is an FTZ? A: An FTZ is a designated area, […]
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Crossborder E-commerce Into the U.S. Just Got A Lot Easier, U.S. Retailers Should Take Note and Plan Accordingly
E-commerce retailers worldwide are celebrating the passing of a new bill, which sees the U.S. de minimis rate increase from $200 to $800. Below the new threshold, the U.S. does not require any formal customs procedures, and no duties or taxes need to be paid by the consumer. This creates a huge opportunity for e-commerce […]
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Georgia: Enabling Business Growth Through Collaboration
The business environment in Georgia is rich in everything a shipper might seek for responding to customers and competing in the global marketplace. From well-designed redundancies across intermodal shipping methods to creative solutions when the unexpected happens, Georgia’s logistics advantages can help shippers of all sizes and industries connect and grow. Shippers are the lifeblood […]
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Supply Chains that Rock Around the Clock: A Hard Day’s Night
They should be sleeping like a log, but Penske Logistics is working like a dog through storms and shakeups to make sure shipments arrive on time.
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The Supply Chain of the Past
The publisher talks about a coming global supply chain metastructure, citing an Adidas “speedfactory” where robots manufacture running shoes. Is this the supply chain of the future? Maybe. But let’s take a look at an imaginary supply chain of the past Meet Gan McManus, the hero of Strikepoint, a logistics novella we originally published in […]
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Advantages of Partial Truckload Shipping
Less-than-truckload (LTL) and full truckload transportation are regularly discussed, but an often overlooked mode is partial truckload, or volume LTL. This mode has benefits shippers should consider when looking for faster transit times, less handling, and a more cost-effective solution. Logistics professionals begin to look at partial truckload or volume LTL as an option when […]
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Accelerating Enterprise Logistics With Top-Tier Multi-Modal Solutions
Logistics has evolved into a strategic business concern—from a back office function to a boardroom agenda item—and as a result, enterprises now seek 3PLs with multi-modal capabilities for complete end-to-end integration. By linking all transportation modes, enterprise shippers leverage the entirety of the supply chain to achieve economical logistics performance. Today, it is important for […]
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A Five-Step Blueprint for 3PL Success
Companies are always on the lookout for ways to enhance their supply chain operations and make them more efficient. But 3PLs, in particular, face the unique challenge of regularly improving how they work with shippers, and, in the face of regular rate increases, finding new ways to reduce freight costs to keep prices down for […]
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