IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/sprchp/978-3-030-95764-3_7.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

The Future of 3PLs

In: Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies for the 2020s

Author

Listed:
  • Carl Marcus Wallenburg

    (WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management)

  • A. Michael Knemeyer

    (Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University)

Abstract

It is difficult to predict what will happen tomorrow, let alone predict the future of 3PLs in the coming decade. After all, in early 2020, who could have foreseen the upheaval the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to supply chains across the globe? Faced with so much uncertainty, one may want to take the approach of many futurists who think about time in a different way. Instead of thinking in linear terms and throwing darts several years into the future, they start with identifying more highly probable events in the short term and work outward (Webb, 2019). So, while we do not own a crystal ball, we are convinced that two currently emerging aspects, you could call them trends, will shape the foreseeable future of third-party logistics providers (3PLs). First, pronounced technological advancements pertaining to hardware and software increasingly impact the future of corporate supply chain management. Second, elements and events within supply chains are getting more difficult to predict. Looking at the next five to ten years, 3PLs will need to proactively address these trends because it directly influences the 3PLs success and because it influences the 3PLs’ clients’ success and their associated demand for logistics services. While both trends raise challenges, they also offer ample opportunities for 3PLs by enhancing their current services and developing new offerings. For this, 3PLs need to enhance their leadership and management skills. Moreover, 3PL need to emphasize establishing and managing collaborative relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Carl Marcus Wallenburg & A. Michael Knemeyer, 2023. "The Future of 3PLs," Springer Books, in: Rico Merkert & Kai Hoberg (ed.), Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies for the 2020s, pages 119-133, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-95764-3_7
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-95764-3_7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-95764-3_7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.