The North American Third-Party Logistics Industry in 2008: the Provider CEO Perspective (Notes and Comments) (Industry Overview‪)‬

The third-party logistics (3PL) industry continues to change as a result of large-scale consolidations, the pressures to globalize service offerings, and market pressures on prices and margins. Management is challenged on a regular basis to develop global positioning strategies, restructure their organizations, and deliver solid value propositions to increasingly demanding customers. For more than a decade several co-authors and I have attempted to give insight into the provider side of the 3PL industry by conducting annual surveys of the CEOs of many of the largest 3PL companies in the world. While these surveys began in 1994 in the North American 3PL marketplace, in 2004, recognizing the increasing globalization of the 3PL industry, we decided to restructure the annual CEO surveys, and focus on three separate third-party logistics marketplaces. The three areas selected were North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Separate questionnaires were developed that specifically focused on those three regions, and the CEOs of major companies operating in each of those regions were contacted and asked to participate in the market-specific surveys.