F. Curtis Barry & Company Blog

After months of working with prospective third-party logistics (3PL) vendors, you likely received hundreds of pages of selling materials and many verbal promises. A contract will memorialize:

• the statement of work (SOW) and the 3PL services you are contracting for
• the standards of performance
• the pricing of various 3PL services
• the payment terms
• a host of legal clauses such as warranty and guarantees, and termination of the agreement

This blog acts as a checklist of contractual considerations to assist you in negotiating a 3PL contract that is fair and a win/win for the client and the 3PL provider acting as your outsource fulfillment provider. 

Companies that utilize third party fulfillment (3PL) services sometimes reach a point where they consider transitioning from the 3PL services to internal warehousing and order fulfillment. Some of what drives these decisions is to control costs, whereas others have had a bad experience with 3PLs and now only trust themselves with their product. Using a 3PL isn’t for every company.

Reviewing contracts for third party logistic (3PL) providers can be a daunting task – especially for those not familiar with the process.  One of the most critical aspects in any 3PL contract is the language surrounding pricing and rate increases.  It is vital to ensure that the language is fair for both the customer, as well as the 3PL.   

There are hundreds of competent third part fulfillment (3PL) facilities in operation today. Many have multiple facilities, which allows clients to be closer to the customer and save shipping costs. Additionally, private equity investors have acquired many major 3PL companies and consolidated them into 3PLs with dozens to hundreds of facilities. Many of these have specialized fulfillment for channels like DirectTV (DTV).

In assisting multichannel companies with deciding on whether to use third party warehousing, third party logistics (3PL) or contact center solutions, we have found that many companies have been able to grow their businesses profitably by outsourcing.  Our blog post, 10 Ways Companies Can Profit from Ecommerce Fulfillment Services, shows how many of our clients use third party warehousing advantageously. 

Getting the most from your third party logistics (3PL) provider this peak season starts with your forecasting accuracy. In order for you to get the most from 3PL solutions, you need to have established measurable service levels that are agreed to by both parties as part of your agreement. Establishing these service levels, and having the 3PL vendor meet them requires that you supply realistic forecasts for calls and order volumes by day, by week a month in advance so that the vendor can plan staffing accordingly.

Problems:

• You’re a start-up company with limited financial resources; or a company where fulfillment is not a core competency, but you have the need to upgrade your infrastructure (website, order management system, call center and or fulfillment operations) means an increase in expenses or requires new capital.
• You have seasonal spikes that run 10:1 or higher (peak vs. average sales week) and wish you could service these peaks in another way.
• You’re trying to build your business, and know fulfillment and customer service are critical to getting and growing sales—but fulfillment is not your core competency.
• Internal fulfillment costs continue to increase, impacting the bottom line.

In all of these situations,third party logistics might be the answer.