3PL’s – Beyond Shipping

Here’s an excellent article written by Bob Violino on Globalsourcesmedia.com about the different roles that the 3PL’s play in the global marketplace. As supply chain’s become more sophisticated, 3PL’s will contine to be called upon to fill various growing needs because of their unique service offerings. In the article he highlights some of the different roles that 3PL’s play in servicing their customers including:

1. Reverse Logistics
2. Service parts logistics
3. Repair and returns maintenance
4. Inventory management
5. After market services
6. Warehousing

DHL, with it’s recent acqusition of Exel in December of 2005, is now the world’s single largest provider of contract logistics services.