What is 3PL?

With people's demand for commodity production, circulation and consumption, the concept of logistics has been paid more and more attention. At present, the word logistics is also used in China, such as logistics companies and logistics centers. Logistics plays an increasingly important role in determining whether an enterprise can win in the market. In essence, the performance of an enterprise in the market is mainly determined by three factors: product quality, price and product supply. Any one of these factors plays an important role in the competitiveness of enterprises, and these three factors are directly affected by logistics. The world economy will vertically reorganize the division of labor among industries, suppliers, customers, trade and logistics companies, and the emergence of logistics companies involved in production and sales will be an inevitable trend of logistics development. With the change of modern enterprise's production and operation mode and the change of market external conditions, the logistics form of "3PL" began to attract people's attention and showed great interest. In western developed countries, the logistics mode of advanced enterprises has begun to change to 3PL or even the fourth party logistics.

The concept of 1.3 PL (third party logistics) comes from "out-sourcing" in management, which means that an enterprise dynamically configures its own and other enterprises' functions and services, and uses external resources to serve its internal production and operation. Introducing outsourcing into the field of logistics management has produced the concept of 3PL. The so-called 3PL refers to a logistics management mode in which production and operation enterprises entrust their logistics activities to professional logistics service enterprises through contracts in order to concentrate their main business, and at the same time keep close contact with logistics service enterprises through information systems, so as to realize the management and control of the whole logistics process. So 3PL is also called contract logistics. Enterprises that provide third-party logistics services are usually engaged in logistics activities and related industries, such as transportation and warehousing. Driven by the logistics demand of the entrusting party, enterprises engaged in third-party logistics have changed from simple storage and transportation to providing comprehensive logistics services, including the organization, coordination and management of logistics activities, the design and suggestion of the optimal logistics scheme, and the information collection and management of the whole logistics process. At present, the concept of 3PL has been widely accepted by the western circulation industry.

The emergence of (1)3PL is the result of social division of labor. Under the influence of new management concepts such as outsourcing, in order to enhance market competitiveness, enterprises put capital, manpower and material resources into their core business, seeking to maximize the efficiency and benefits brought by socialized division of labor and cooperation. As a result of specialized division of labor, many non-core businesses are separated from the production and operation activities of enterprises, including logistics. Entrusting the logistics business to a third-party professional logistics company can reduce the logistics cost and improve the service function of logistics activities.

The emergence of third-party logistics is the requirement of new management concept. Since the 1990s, the rapid development of information technology, especially computer technology, and the further refinement of social division of labor have promoted the rapid update of management technologies and concepts, resulting in a series of new management concepts that emphasize external coordination and cooperation, such as supply chain and virtual enterprise, which not only increase the complexity of logistics activities, but also put forward logistics activities with zero inventory, punctuality and quick response. Higher requirements, such as effective customer response, make it difficult for ordinary enterprises to undertake this kind of business, which leads to the demand for specialized logistics services. The idea of 3PL is to meet this demand. On the one hand, it caters to the changing requirements of professional cooperation (resource allocation) among enterprises in the era of personalized demand, on the other hand, it realizes the integration of logistics in and out, improves the quality of logistics services, strengthens the overall control and coordination of the supply chain, and promotes the overall optimization of the supply chain.

(3) The research and practice of budding logistics to improve logistics and strengthen competitiveness has gone through several stages, such as cost orientation, profit orientation and competitiveness orientation. The combination of logistics improvement and competitiveness improvement is a sign of the maturity of logistics theory and technology. This is the logical basis of the 3PL concept.

(4) The intensification of competition in the logistics field leads to the development of integrated logistics business. With the development of economic liberalization and trade globalization, the policies in the field of logistics are constantly relaxed, which also leads to the intensification of competition among logistics enterprises and the continuous expansion of the connotation and extension of services, thus leading to the emergence of 3PL. This is the historical basis of 3PL concept.

In the past decades, logistics has played a more and more important role in determining whether an enterprise can win in the market. In essence, the performance of an enterprise in the market is mainly determined by three factors: product quality, price and product supply. Any one of these factors plays an important role in the competitiveness of enterprises, and these three factors are directly affected by logistics. The world economy will vertically reorganize the division of labor among industries, suppliers, customers, trade and logistics companies, and the emergence of logistics companies involved in production and sales will be an inevitable trend of logistics development. 3PL has brought many benefits and conveniences to all participants in the supply chain, so it has been greatly welcomed and has great market potential, and will surely become the mainstream of the logistics industry in the next century.

2.3 PL and its market position: 3 PL is a service provided by middlemen in the logistics channel, and middlemen provide all or part of the logistics services required by enterprises in a certain period of time in the form of contracts. The third party logistics provider is a company that manages, controls and provides logistics services for external customers. They do not occupy a place in the product supply chain, but are only the third party, but serve the product supply chain by providing a whole set of logistics activities.

3PL in the modern sense is an industry with a history of about 10 to 15 years. In the United States, 3PL industry is still in the development period of product life cycle. In Europe, especially in Britain, it is generally believed that the third-party logistics market has reached a certain maturity. At present, the proportion of using 3PL services in Europe is about 76%, and that in the United States is about 58%, and its demand is still growing. Research shows that 24% of non-3PL service users in Europe and 33% of non-3PL service users in the United States are actively considering using 3PL service. 62% of European 3PL service users and 72% of American users think that they may increase the use of 3PL services within three years. Some industry observers estimated the size of the market. The market size of the entire American 3PL industry is equivalent to $420 billion, and the potential logistics market in Europe in the near future is estimated at around $950 billion.

It can be seen that the world 3PL market has a special proof of great potential, gradualism and high growth rate. This situation makes the 3PL industry have a large number of service providers. Most 3PL service companies are developed from traditional "internal logistics" industries, such as warehousing, transportation, air transportation, shipping, freight forwarding and logistics departments. They have achieved success by providing unique services according to the different needs of customers. At present, there are hundreds of 3PL suppliers in the United States. Most of them were not 3PL service companies at first, but gradually developed into this industry. The service content of third-party logistics is now mostly concentrated in the traditional transportation and warehousing fields. Transportation and storage enterprises have a deep understanding of these services and have some experience in each individual service. The key is how to organically combine these individual services to provide an overall logistics and transportation plan.

In the practice of 3PL in western developed countries, the following points are worth noting: First, the scope of logistics business is constantly expanding. In the face of increasingly fierce competition, commercial organizations and major companies have to focus on their core business, leaving transportation, warehousing and other related business links to more professional logistics enterprises to operate in order to save and be efficient; On the other hand, in order to improve service quality, logistics enterprises are constantly expanding their business scope and providing supporting services. Second, many successful logistics enterprises analyze the relatively self-care operating costs and agency fees according to the negotiation terms between Party A and Party B, and flexibly use self-care and agency to provide customized logistics services. Third, the logistics industry has great development potential and broad development prospects.

The rapid development of logistics industry after World War II is determined by the development level of social productive forces. After World War II, the internal production level of enterprises has further declined, and with the optimization of "zero inventory" between production and distribution, it means that the stocking time of raw materials and parts will be greatly reduced. At the same time, the rapid development of global economic integration and the formation of emerging markets force enterprises to adopt global strategies to find their production resources, and more and more products are sold around the world as global products. These demands constitute the source power of logistics development, among which the reduction of internal production level of enterprises is the main reason. At the same time, in order to participate in world competition, enterprises must reduce product costs (including production costs and sales costs), reduce inventory (including inventory during storage and transportation), and improve efficiency; Enterprises need accurate and timely information and increase the visibility of key supply processes. 3PL suppliers have solved the above problems for enterprises. Therefore, more and more enterprises choose to send logistics services abroad.

3.3 Third-party logistics has brought many benefits to enterprises (customers), mainly in:

(l) focus on the main business. Enterprises can realize the optimal allocation of resources. Concentrate financial resources on core business, conduct key research, develop basic technology and develop new products to participate in world competition.

(2) Save funds and reduce the backlog of funds. Professional 3PL providers use the professional advantages and cost advantages of large-scale production to achieve cost savings by improving the utilization rate of each link, so that enterprises can benefit from the separation of cost structure. According to the investigation results of industrial vehicles, the main reason for enterprises to dissolve their own fleets and replace them with public transport services is to reduce fixed costs, which includes not only the investment in purchasing vehicles, but also the expenses related to workshop warehouses, delivery facilities, packaging equipment and employees.

(3) Reduce inventory. Enterprises can't bear the unlimited growth of all kinds of raw materials and products, especially high-value parts should be delivered to the assembly point in time to realize zero inventory and ensure the minimum inventory. With careful logistics planning and timely delivery means, third-party logistics suppliers can minimize inventory, improve corporate cash flow and achieve cost advantages.

(4) Enhance corporate image. Third-party logistics suppliers and customers are not competitors, but strategic partners. They are considerate of customers, and through the global information network, make the supply chain management of customers completely transparent, so that customers can know the supply chain situation at any time through the Internet. Third-party logistics providers are logistics experts, who use complete facilities and well-trained employees to achieve complete control of the entire supply chain and reduce the complexity of logistics. Through the global transportation network and service providers (subcontractors), they have greatly shortened the delivery time, helped customers improve their services and established their own brand image. Third-party logistics providers develop customer-oriented, low-cost and high-efficiency logistics solutions through "tailor-made" design, which makes customers stand out from their peers and creates favorable conditions for enterprises to win in the competition.

(5) The adoption of the third-party logistics model plays an important role in improving the operational efficiency of the owner's enterprise. First of all, it can enable enterprises to focus on their familiar businesses and allocate resources to core businesses. Secondly, as an expert specializing in logistics, 3PL enterprises have rich professional knowledge and experience, which is conducive to improving the logistics level of shippers. The first-party logistics enterprises can provide logistics services for many enterprises in society, and can stand at a higher angle than a single enterprise. With the expansion of a wider scope and the change of the external environment of the market, the production and operation activities of enterprises have become more and more complicated. In order to realize the rationalization of logistics activities, it is far from enough to limit the scope of logistics system to enterprises. It is the requirement of building a modern logistics system to establish an inter-enterprise and cross-industry logistics system network, organically combine the logistics activities of upstream and downstream related enterprises in the whole process of production and circulation, such as raw material production enterprises, product production enterprises, wholesale and retail enterprises, and form a chain-type commodity supply system. 3PL enterprises, through their mastery of logistics system development and design capabilities and information technology capabilities, become the organizers of establishing inter-enterprise logistics system networks, and accomplish tasks that individual enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, cannot accomplish. All these reasons have greatly promoted the development of third-party logistics and made it the mainstream of international logistics development in the 2 1 century.

4.3 PL Development Prospects It is common for enterprises in China to entrust some logistics activities to professional logistics enterprises. However, the scope of external entrustment is still quite narrow, limited to some business activities, and some entrustment has no long-term and stable relationship. In the field of short-distance transportation, warehousing, distribution and other logistics activities with cars as freight means, self-owned logistics is still the mainstay. On the one hand, it reflects that the logistics management level of enterprises is still relatively backward, on the other hand, it also shows that China's logistics industry does not have the ability to provide high-quality comprehensive logistics services for enterprises. Outsourcing is an effective way to realize the socialization and rationalization of logistics. Enterprises need to make new attempts in the scope and mode of logistics outsourcing in order to realize the effective utilization of business resources and meet the needs of production and operation for high-level logistics systems.

Developing the third-party logistics industry is undoubtedly an important way to promote the rationalization and efficiency of enterprise logistics activities, and then improve the rationalization of logistics in the whole society. Especially in today's information age, the application of advanced information technology and network technology in logistics management will greatly promote the development of logistics, and 3PL has broad development prospects.

First of all, the consignor enterprises are required to break the traditional business philosophy of "big but small and complete", establish a brand-new business philosophy, attach importance to logistics management, and provide a market for the development of third-party logistics. Some modern production and circulation enterprises, emerging industries or formats should make new attempts in developing and utilizing third-party logistics.

Secondly, as an enterprise engaged in 3PL industry, it must have the ability to provide a whole set of logistics services from logistics planning, system design, logistics management to implementation. Especially those large-scale transportation and warehousing industries with comprehensive logistics capabilities are not the same as the logistics industry, but the traditional attributes do not mean 3PL enterprises. The key issue here is not how to call it, but the essential characteristics of the business it is engaged in and the nature of the logistics services it provides. If the third-party logistics enterprises want to provide comprehensive logistics services that are conducive to logistics rationalization from the perspective of the owner enterprises, they must be familiar with the development law of the owner enterprises and logistics activities and have the ability to develop and innovate logistics systems. Obviously, this is quite different from the simple transportation, storage or chemical activities entrusted by the owner. Therefore, logistics enterprises must break through the existing business model, strive to master the technology and activity methods of engaging in 3PL, and establish corresponding enterprise management organizations.

In addition, the characteristics of 3PL determine various wholesale enterprises and trading companies. In addition to logistics enterprises, other enterprises can also penetrate into the third-party logistics by giving full play to their information advantages, channel advantages and logistics functions, thus promoting the further development of the third-party logistics.

The development of third-party logistics needs to strengthen the construction of infrastructure, personnel quality and information system. Nowadays, logistics technology based on e-commerce is in the ascendant. High-quality infrastructure, high-quality talents and highly reliable and efficient information systems are the most direct manifestations of enterprise competitiveness.

With the continuous development of logistics technology, third-party logistics, as an effective means to improve the speed of material circulation, save storage costs and funds in transit, has been paid more and more attention.