When Should You Outsource Transportation Management?

Your strength is selling products, but you are doomed without logistics

Outsourcing has been a vital resource for many retailers for some time now. It saves time, money and a whole lot of headache. As a retailer, your core strength is the ability to sell products directly to consumers. You have perfected the art of marketing and merchandising to move as many units as possible.

But, what happens when your fulfillment operations are unable to keep pace? The answer…gridlock.

That’s why most retailers have taken the jump to transportation management by a 3pl. If you think about it, the choice to outsource your transportation management is more important than any other service – more than IT, HR and marketing. The short of it, you need products to sell, and without them your business will suffer.

In the past, in-house transportation management has kept a low profile within most companies. As long as product arrived on time, there was no issue. We’d describe it as an out of sight, out of mind situation.

While this technically “works”, these same companies are missing out on the advantages that only a 3pl can offer. If you haven’t thought about your transportation management lately, here are a few reasons outsourcing could be the best solution for you.

Volume Discounts: If saving money isn’t a good reason to outsource, then we don’t know what is. Because 3pl’s ship so much freight, they are able to offer discounts based on volume. And in most cases, these discounts are far greater than any you could attain on your own.

Infrastructure: Your 3pl provider will be able to offer flexible warehousing solutions, which will save on infrastructure costs. This will come into play during peaks and valleys in demand.  Any 3pl should have the right infrastructure in the right place to sustain your growth.

Other Services: Retail is unpredictable, no matter the environment. A 3pl has a full list of value added services that you can take advantage of at any time. Instead of staying awake at night worrying if your internal logistics team can handle it, just know that a 3pl has the staff on-hand.

IT: The latest logistics programs are very powerful, but also very costly. A 3pl will have already have made an investment into this software, and you will benefit from it without making the investment yourself.

If there is one takeaway from this article, remember this, outsourcing your transportation management will save you money. 3pl providers like Clark Logistic Services, have the resources to take a very hard process and make it simple for you.

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