Quest for Quality 2020: Third-Party Logistics

As executive editor Patrick Burnson has been reporting over the first tumultuous half of 2020, today’s third-party logistics (3PL) marketplace is certainly not for the faint at heart.

Leading industry analysts maintain that in the current volatile business environment, an increasing number of logistics service providers are being forced to take dramatic action to generate positive impact quickly through technology—or risk losing clients who need innovative services more than ever.

According to many industry thought leaders, the impact made by the pandemic has yet to realign the current 3PL sector. But when it does, shippers may expect to find 3PLs offering more technology designed to help better manage the intricacies of e-commerce fulfillment.

“Given the massive coronavirus windfall for omni-channel and e-commerce companies, some might think that 3PLs have a tremendous opportunity,” Michael Gravier, associate professor of marketing and supply chain management at Bryant University, told Burnson last month. “Even before this disruption, the world was a volatile place with tariffs and raw material costs fluctuating as quickly as a Twitter blast, and it was pushing companies to focus more on innovation-based core competences and allowing 3PLs to take more charge of supply chains.”

And according to the readers of Logistics Management, the 38 3PLs taking home Quest for Quality gold in 2020 have already taken many innovative steps to keep their service levels well ahead of the pack.

Averitt Express Supply Chain Solutions put up the top weighted score in our 2020 Transportation Management Solutions category with a 50.33. Averitt led the way in Carrier Selection/Negotiation (10.51), Order Fulfillment (10.20) and Transportation Distribution (11.28) en route to the winning weighted score.

In this year’s Valued-added Warehousing and Distribution Solutions category, UPS Supply Chain solutions posted a 53.79 weighted score, followed closely by DAMCO Logistics with a 53.24, topping off one of the most closely contested categories of this year’s survey.