Contemporary tendencies in third party logistics

Abstract

Contemporary third party logistics (3PL) companies tend to broaden their competences in different fields and apart from traditional logistics services provide various value-added services to their customers. An inductive analysis of 3PL related literature is required, in order to define possible directions for development of contemporary 3PL companies. The purpose of this paper is, foremost, to discover contemporary tendencies of 3PL activities through investigation of literature. Second, to systematically classify 3PL activities discussed in scientific literature. Third, discover areas that require further development. The paper is based on systematic review and classification of articles related to 3PL activities that were published in scientific journals and databases. This paper is organized as follows. First part contains quantitative analysis of literature and description of authors’ developed directions of 3PL activities. Subsequent sections contain qualitative review of modern 3PL tendencies by each of pre-defined areas. Last section aims at providing conclusions and suggestions for further research. The key findings are following. Majority of studies of 3PL activities are based on particular business case or survey that does not allow to make conclusion about industry in general. Main emphasis in contemporary research is done on knowledge-based services. It is agreed that core logistics services are tended to be replaced by value-added services.