The typical approach to finding a 3PL partner for your business is to invite the common and obvious choices – the so called “big players”. These are well know 3PL providers in the logistics industry which are common to logistics and procurement professionals due to their wide presence in the market. While this approach is more than appropriate, it lacks the element of the positive surprise or having a black horse in your race, so to speak.
Casting a wider net allows the company to include sometimes smaller or local 3PL providers who might have a competitive advantage over their bigger rivals. Some of these advantages might be a leaner and more cost effective overhead structure, more flexibility to adapt to change, quicker implementation timelines for new operations just to name a few. As logistics procurement is a tailor-made business, the particulars of any setup have to be addressed on an individual basis.
While expanding your search of 3PL suppliers has its advantages it also comes with additional effort. Looking for and screening for potential 3PLs matching a company’s requirements can be time-consuming and tedious. A simple “google” search might not reveal what you are hoping to find and if so would have to be repeated multiple times until you’ve been satisfied. And even then, how can you know if you still haven’t left your “black horse” in the stable for your race.
To address these challenges but more so the opportunities, Logistics Avenue Consulting has created 3PLfinder.io. The platform will help companies search for matching 3PLs for their procurement projects and allow 3PLs to post their available capacity on the market.
