Many small to medium size businesses have problems with escalating freight costs. They can’t afford to operate their own fleet of trucks, and it’s not always easy to find most cost-effective and efficient shipping services. Also, some companies have varied needs for shipping services and finding the right trucking companies for the job can be a daunting task. Thankfully, there is professional help available from 3PL services. What are these companies and how can they help you? Let’s explore the issue a little closer to see.
What is 3 PL?
3 PL stands for third-party logistics services. These services are not shipping or warehouse companies. Instead, they are there to find the best services for businesses. But why would you want to use a third-party service to find the best trucking companies when you could do it yourself? Let’s take a fictional example to demonstrate what a 3 PL company can do.
Fred ran a medium size business that rebuilt industrial machinery and manufactured parts. They had many customers because they could reverse engineer parts and find the most cost-effective materials. He served small, medium, and large customers, and each one had different shipping needs. Some customers only needed parts, and this sometimes called for LTL loads. Other customers ordered full truck loads of supplies and materials. Some customers shipped in large machinery for remanufacturing and this required oversized load shipping. It was easier to use the same carrier for all these services but very expensive.
One day Fred talked to a 3PL company offering freight brokerage services. They had contacts with hundreds of trucking companies and found Fred much cheaper shipping for each load type. Fred not only saved money on shipping services, but his job was also now easier because he had someone to organize his shipping, track loads, and his business flourished.
