Investigate the possibility of real-time availability of non-processed statistical data that are directly submitted by national statistical authorities, prior to the processing, verification and publication of the final processed data.
At industry/3PL level, it is suggested to allow the logistics industry to decide what types of performance data it should monitor and potentially share. A recommendation would be to encourage the industry to undertake benchmarking studies that can provide an overall view about where the sector is in terms of performance.
Recommendation 6: Consideration of supply-chain-wide performance assessment
A significant finding of the literature review for logistics performance assessment at company level is the adoption of a narrow focus of performance assessment. This focus highlights intra-organisational logistics performance and overlooks performance at supply chain level. However, as global competition has shifted from company level to supply chain and even supply network level, the expansion from a logistics performance assessment to a supply chain performance assessment viewpoint is crucial. Third-party (3PL) and fourth party (4PL) logistics service providers (in cooperation with focal firms and upstream and downstream supply chain partners) can play a decisive role in measuring supply chain-wide performance as they can have a more holistic view of the supply chain activities of the focal firms using their services. It is therefore recommended to encourage/promote the consideration of integrated supply chain performance assessment (in parallel to logistics performance assessment at firm level) to the European logistics service provision sector.
More specific actions that could be undertaken in this direction include:
Training of 3PLs on integrated supply chain performance assessment;
Dissemination of the importance of the EU-wide logistics performance assessment framework in order to persuade 3PLs to adhere to its requirements.