4 New States Added to 3PL Directory

To ring in the beginning of 2010, we have again expanded Logistics List into 4 new states in our continued mission to expand the depth of our leading 3PL directory serving the warehousing, transportation, and distribution industries.

The new states added to Logistics List include:

• Indiana (logistics providers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Elkhart, IN)

• North Carolina (3pl companies in Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, NC)

• Tennessee (3rd party logistics providers in Nashville & Memphis, TN

• Colorado (logistics companies in Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs, CO)

We'd like to thank you for your continued support and patronage of our growing logistics directory. We've taken great pride since 2005 in helping companies find quality third party logistics providers and trusted partners that can meet the specific requirements of their supply chain.

Logistics Executive's Strategies for Weathering the Recession

Over the last year, logistics and supply chain management executives worldwide have been working tirelessly to respond to the recession and develop next generation supply chain strategies to get their respective organizations back on track.

The Aberdeen group recently released a valuable year end report titled "The Supply Chain Executive's Agenda 2009: Weathering the Recession" examining the strategies leading companies are adopting to weather the recession and better position themselves as the market begins to remove.

Find out how your organization can achieve best-in-class results

• Develop cost reduction strategies
• Increase perfect order deliveries
• Boost perfect shipments received
  
• Create accurate supply chain forecasts
  

Access these valuable strategies and research for free (a $399 value)

Request free copy of "Supply Chain Executive's Agenda 2009"

(a $399 value, offer ends Jan 1, 2010)

Also check out more free logistics white papers from Logistics List

Florida & New York added to 3PL Directory

In our continued expansion into additional regions, we are happy to announce the addition of new extensions to Logistic List's regional offerings covering logistics companies in Florida (focusing on 3PL providers in the FL marketing including Jacksonville, Orlanda, Miami, and Tampa) as well as a long overdue section for New York 3PL companies for logistics providers serving the greater New York area.

Also for you folks that are into social media we also would like to announce our arrival on twitter. Feel free to follow us @logisticslist. If there is a state that you think we should add next to our logistics directory please let us know.

3pl Study 2009

This year's annual 3pl study sponsored by Oracle, Capgemini, Georgia Institute of Technology and Panalpina was just recently released.

Since its inception 14 years ago, the Annual Third Party Logistics study has documented the growth and evolution of the 3PL industry.

The 2009 3PL study includes four streams of research:

• a web-based survey
• workshops with shippers
  
• leveraging the Capgemini Accelerated Solutions Environment
• focus interviews with industry executives.

To request a copy of the full study click here

New Regional 3PL Directories

We are pleased to announce the launch of two new regional directories at Logistics List covering Logistics Companies in Texas and 3PL Providers in Ohio. Our mission is to continue building out our directory to serve all of the major markets for warehousing and transportation services. While a good number of the logistics companies listed have a national presence it continues to be valuable to our visitors to be able to drill down and get a list of leading 3PL's in each individual market.

If there is a state that you are looking for that we don't presently cover look out in the coming months as we begin to add new states to our directory.

Also if you are looking for warehousing, transportation, or logistics quotes in any city or region please complete our logistics information request form to receive up to 5 competitive quotes from respected providers in the industry. Click Here

Logistics Service Providers & Lead Logistics Providers

In this increasingly volatile business environment, logistics providers continue to look for ways to define themselves and deliver best-in-class services. But a lot of times these attempts at differentiation lead to confusing jargon and acronyms that continue to be built upon year after year.

A few years ago I wrote a post to help distinguish the difference between 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th party logistics. The other day I read a great article in DC Velocity that claimed there was a consultant out there that was trying to define "5th party logistics".

The latest jargon that is now gaining adoption is that of the Logistics Service Provider and Lead Logistics Provider

Logistics Service Provider - An LSP is really what most people would see as a traditional 3PL provider offering a combination of warehousing and transportation services or one or the other. As global and multi national providers enter the game, things have certainly changed, but the Logistics Service Provider at its core is fundamentally the same.

Lead Logistics Provider - An LLP is the new term that consultants now more frequently use instead of 4PL. At the most basic level a Lead Logistics Provider is nothing more than a Non-Asset Based 3PL, but there is certainly an emerging field of logistics providers that oversee and manage a portfolio of warehousing and transportation providers from a higher level.

At the end of the day you can call 3PL providers whatever you want but its still about storing and shipping things.

Get a free subscription to DC Velocity

3PL News - Where & How to Get It

One of the best ways to keep abreast of the latest news and trends in the 3PL industry is to take advantage of the internet and the many different delivery methods available to you. No matter how you are in involved in the logistics industry you should be taking the time to keep yourself up to date with the latest 3PL news, trends and competitive activity. By investing less than 15-20 minutes a day in reading the right resources you can become more knowledgeable and effective at what you do.

5 Ways to Get Your 3PL News Fix

Email- Good old reliable email. It's still the best way to reach most of us, and it is a great way to keep up to date with the latest 3PL industry news. Sign up for key industry email newsletters like Supply Chain Digest and newsletters from your favorite 3PL trade publications whether its Inbound Logistics or Traffic World. Of course don't blindly sign up for newsletters (no reason for unwarranted spam), but do check out what your colleagues and other leaders in the industry read.

RSS Feeds - RSS is quickly becoming one of the most effective ways of filtering noise and effectively reading business information. Sign up for free services like Google Reader or Bloglines and subscribe to news feeds for a number of key sources like Logistics Management, prominent 3PL news bloggers like 3plwire.com and news aggregators like 3PLnews.com. And not to self promote but you can also subscribe to the logisticslist.com rss feed to get our latest posts sent directly to you.

Logistics Blogs - While almost all logistics bloggers have RSS feeds, sometimes people just like to bookmark their favorite ones and visit them once a week or month or so. There are definitely some great blogs out there like Eric Joiner's FreightDawg and the infrequently updated but incredibly authoritative BlogonLog.

Social Networks - Most of you already know about LinkedIn (and if you don't then I highly recommend you create an account). From a career & business development standpoint, LinkedIn is a highly effective way to do deeper research into companies you may want to work with and provides insight into their experience and how long their employees have been with the company, tenure etc..

Another great 3PL oriented social network that you may not have heard of is Supply Chain Daily which allows you to vote on the best articles in the logistics industries, aggregate 3PL news, and build a network of logistics influencers to share articles and industry news with.

Logistics Magazines - If all this technology stuff doesn't do it for you, then I suggest you go back to where it all started and subscribe to leading logistics trade magazines still available in print form. Its also worth mentioning that most of the best print trade publications typically also have accompanying websites.