Every Season is Peak Season: How 3PLs Meet Customers' Growing Demands

3Gtms and FreightWaves discuss complexities facing 3PLs and explore today’s toughest 3PL and supply chain challenges.

To support the increase in demand and ensure customer satisfaction, 3PLs need fast, reliable, and highly advanced systems to allow for shipping high volume at a rapid pace without driving up costs.

A recent survey by 3PL Central found that 85% of third-party logistics (3PL) warehouses experienced volume growth in 2021. 3PLs rose to the occasion, demonstrating agility, adaptability, and flexibility while maneuvering endless obstacles – operating above capacity, supply chain latency, and labor shortages.

To discuss the complexities facing 3PLs, 3Gtms hosted a webinar featuring Mark Southey, Managing Partner at Traffix, Ron Lee, Chief Product Officer at 3Gtms and FreightWaves expert, Zach Strickland, Director of Freight Market Intelligence. They explored today’s toughest 3PLs and supply chain challenges, and generously shared real-life experiences and valuable advice.

The panel of experts dove into the quick and expansive pivot to eCommerce and how it has created a high demand for experts in shipping, logistics, and inventory management. 3PLs, in particular, are under tremendous pressure to perform at breakneck speed while exponentially increasing capacity and maintaining customer satisfaction.

When asked about the top challenges facing 3PLs today, the panel covered everything from capacity to visibility and control, the difficulty forecasting demand, and disruptions that are causing an already volatile industry to become even more unpredictable.

These complexities require 3PLs to be more agile than ever before because they need to respond to market shifts quickly. Additionally, contingency plans must be developed to deal with disruptions wherever they may occur.

Echoed throughout the panel were tips and opportunities for 3PLs. Traffix’ Mark Southey stressed the importance of listening to customers and understanding their pains. “Our purpose as a 3PL is to help our customers solve problems,” shared Southey. He continued by sharing a customer story about how they successfully used live data displays to help manage and improve operations.

“One of the things 3PLs need to do now, more than ever, is to manage expectations…make sure customers understand the situation you are dealing with,” shared FrieghtWaves Zach Strickland. He stressed that no one can control the market changes, but helping customers understand the situation will help avoid knee-jerk reactions. Ron Lee of 3GTMS shared the importance of iterative improvements to help everyone get to some level of predictability.

When asked about opportunities for 3PLs, the panel of experts shared their experiences with modern shipping requirements. 3PLs have a chance to solve problems that their competitors are not solving, such as the intricacies of transporting “a wood stove into the Ozarks.”

You can watch the webcast replay for the complete discussion here: Every Season is Peak Season: How 3PLs Meet Customers’ Growing Demands.

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NOTE: Content for this blog post was originally posted by 3Gtms, Mar 22, 2022.