Tuesday 18 March 2014

How to select a third party logistic company?

There is a rise in the third party logistics and supply chain management because most of the businesses want to focus on the core business process, reducing their assets and other responsibilities. Most logistics in the U.K. provide a wide range of services for the delivery of the products to the retail distribution. The growth of such companies depend upon how reliable they are and what services they provide, It is a little difficult task to choose a third party logistic provider. There are few points to be taken into consideration while selecting a 3PL provider. Let us have a look at some of those points. Here we go...

The first task is to prepare a detailed RFI (Request for Information) which should contain the details like scope of the contract, locations, information about deliveries and warehouse, number of items, logistic tasks and the level of performance required. Once this is done, check the following details about that 3PL provider and logistics in the U.K.
  • First, check if the 3PL provider gives the services that you require or not. If it provides, then enquire further.
  • Secondly, check out if the logistic company has got the technologies that are required to carry out the services that you need.
  • Once you know that the logistics solutions provide the services that you need as well as they have got the tools and technologies needed for that, check if they have got the space to perform the tasks, like warehouse or a dock.
  • Enquire if they have more than enough fund to execute the tasks you have asked them to do. The financial condition will tell you all about the company.
  • Also, check where the company is located and if it will be able to cover the locations of the retail distribution you have asked for according to the weather conditions.
  • The last but not the least, it is advisable to check if the company has a suitable number of years of experience in the logistics industry.
I hope that the above mentioned points related to logistics and supply chain management help you in choosing the right logistic solutions in accordance to your needs. Good luck with that!