Key Takeaways
Key findings about the Current State of the
Market for the 2014 18th Annual 3PL Study
include:
• Global markets continue to be volatile,
driving highly variable and sometimes
sluggish demand for outsourced logistics
services. While aggregate globalrevenues
for the 3PL sector continue to rise,
Armstrong and Associates’ figure of +9.9%
average growth represents a decrease of
about 1/3 from the percentage reported last
year. Latin America and Other Regions also
saw slowing of growth compared with last
year.
• One consistent finding throughout the 18
years of Annual 3PL Studies is a relatively
predictable “ebb and flow” of outsourcing
vs. insourcing in the 3PL marketplace. Data
from Armstrong & Associates supports
a key finding of this study: That shippers
in general are increasing their use of
outsourced logistics services.
• Shippers report an average logistics cost
reduction of 11%. The average inventory
cost reduction was 6%, and the average
fixed logistics cost reduction was 23%.
These figures are down modestly from those
reported in last year’s study, but confirm the
reasons 90% of shippers report that their
relationships with 3PLs generally have
been successful.
• Shippers and 3PLs are about equally
satisfied (70% and 69%, respectively) with
the openness, transparency and good
communication in their relationships, and
66% of shipper respondents judge their 3PLs
as sufficiently agile and flexible to meet
future business challenges.
• Nearly one-half of shippers (47%) have
engaged in “gainsharing” arrangements
with their 3PLs, and a nearly equal percentage
(48%) indicated they have collaborated with
other companies, even competitors, to achieve
logistics cost and service improvements.
Variances in these results over the years
suggest that, rather than reflecting levels of
maturity, these approaches simply fit better
with some shipper-3PL relationships than
they do for others.
• Consistent with past studies, transactional,
operational and repetitive activities tend
to be the most frequently outsourced, in
relatively stable numbers, but this year’s
results suggest some modest increases in
prevalence of outsourcing some activities
that are strategic, customer-facing, and
IT-intensive.
• For the past 12 years, this study has been
tracking the “IT Gap,” which is defined as
the difference between the percentage of
3PL users indicating that IT capabilities are
a necessary element of 3PL expertise (98% in
the current study), and the percentage of the
same users who agree that they are satisfied
with 3PL IT capabilities (55%). The results
from this year’s study again confirm that
the IT Gap is stabilizing to some extent,
but the research supports the idea that 3PL
IT capabilities are becoming increasingly
important to shippers, and that the shipper
satisfaction ratings are also increasin