Benefits of hiring a third-party logistics provider

Kevin Hill of Quality Scales takes a look at the advantages of working with a third party logistics (3PL) provider and what that can mean for your business

Every company wants to grow and become successful. While company growth looks great on paper, it is actually quite common to see that as businesses grow, they run into various challenges to meet the demands of the market and customers. Focusing on aspects like logistics can get tricky if you try to handle it on your own. Moreover, it is important for businesses to spend more time focusing on their core competencies. Therefore, you must invest in technology to improve logistics to benefit the business.

There may be instances where you need a little help to achieve various tasks like managing inventory, packaging or shipping. This is where third-party logistics (3PL) providers come in. Let’s look at some reasons of the pros to working with one …

You save money

Hiring a third-party logistics provider may seem like an expensive move but it may well actually save you money in the long run. You won’t have to spend money on hiring additional labour, building warehouses, installing technologies or facilitating transportation, as 3PL providers would take care of all that. Moreover, they would also eliminate the burden of billings, paperwork, audits, staffing, training and optimization that are usually involved in the various associated processes. They help in strategizing to decrease the company’s overall delivery costs and improve management to reduce the inventory costs.

They bring their industry expertise

Third-party logistics providers are usually operating towards the forefront of the technology landscape in logistics, such as incorporating artificial intelligence into picking operations or using floor scales for maximizing logistics processes. Moreover, they are also knowledgeableof industry best practices and help you incorporate them into your business. They are also capable of inventory management, advanced reporting and provide visibility to monitor various processes through online tools.

Relatively low investment

As a business, you would have to maintain and manage your own warehouses, operations, staff and transportation, which can be extremely challenging and expensive. By hiring a 3PL provider, you need not worry about all that as they will handle everything effectively. Hiring a 3PL provider generally proves to be less expensive than what you would have to spend on logistics operations if you were handling it yourself.

Aids in market expansion

Third-party logistics providers offer you the opportunity to strategically position yourself to serve your customers better. You can position yourself even in markets where you don’t have an established presence. You will be able to locate and track products in a new market without having to spend any extra money. The business will grow in new areas by being able to ship goods efficiently to any place in the world.

Allows you to focus on core competencies

Running a business is quite complex and challenging. It would be almost impossible for a company to be an expert in each and every business department. When you hire a 3PL provider, you would be bringing in professionals who are experts in their field. While they take your company ahead with their expertise, you can allocate your core competencies, time, energy and resources on other business initiatives.

Continuous optimization

Customer satisfaction is a priority in any business. You can get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work and effort that goes into ensuring that you accomplish a lot with limited resources and keep your customers satisfied at the same time. When you partner with a 3PL provider, you can offer faster delivery times and more accurate order fulfilment, thus keeping your customers happy.


Choose an experienced third-party logistics provider. Outsourcing will help in ensuring that continuous improvements are implemented to your logistics. Additionally, you can achieve maximized profits, improved customer service and minimized wait times.


Author Bio:

Kevin Hill heads the marketing efforts at Quality Scales Unlimited in Byron, CA. Besides his day job, he loves to write about the different types of scales and their importance in various industries. He also writes about how to care for and get optimized performance from different scales in different situations. He enjoys spending time with family and going on camping trips.

 

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