THE ERA OF THIRD PARTY LOGISTICS

The coming years are crucial for the Indian industry, as the third party logistics (3PL) industry is being revolutionized, which is going to bring about a dynamic change. Technologies like mobile applications, big data, cloud computing, 3D printing and augmented reality are completely changing the face of the industry. Thus, for some tech-savvy optimists the future is already here. The industry itself is gearing up to capitalize on the opportunities offered by latest technological developments and satisfy the needs of the customers. Most of the technologies are already in use, as mentioned above and others like automated vehicles and drone delivery are not far behind and will catch up soon.

A 3PL (third-party logistics) is basically a provider of outsourced logistics services. These services include anything that involves management and movement of resources to places where they are required. A 3PL service may provide single services such as transportation or warehouse storage or it can be wide range of services which are capable of managing the entire supply chain. For storage and warehousing, they have upcoming logistics parks. India is a growing market for the logistics industry and with such developments, it can only get better, as connecting 3PL companies will be the main objective of these upcoming technologies. There will come a time where customers won’t face any issues regarding the packages which keep getting misplaced, as they will be fitted with chips that can be tracked as shipments will be delivered by automated vehicles and drones. All of this will help improve the quality of services provided to the clients as collaborating and engaging with them would become simpler.

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It is estimated, that in India only about 30% of third party logistics companies are using cutting edge technologies. The companies that are using these technologies are quite big and are equipped with financial resources to maintain their own IT servers and dedicated staff. The technologies that are being used are; Transportation management system (TMS) and warehouse management system (WMS) application systems. Small companies, who cannot afford the cost of these applications and find them out of their budget, do not use them. To overcome this problem, application developers are targeting small to mid-sized companies to increase the scope of these applications, which makes a lot of difference because these firms constitute the largest segment of the market. If the costs of TMS and WMS drop considerably, they will become universal. Applications are also gaining the ability to respond to dynamic markets instantly.

At the pace with which new technologies are coming up, specifically targeting the third party logistics market, we’re not far away from an era where almost the entire logistics process will be automatically handled, hardly needing human intervention only in serious situations. With the automation of logistics, we will be able to eliminate human errors, cut down unnecessary costs, have fast transportation and delivery, and improve the safety of goods and help out managers in taking quick and effective decisions. If you’re looking for intelligent logistic parks then India is the place to witness such developments, as industrial real estate developers like indospace are coming up with many such projects.

Cell phone technology is revolutionizing the logistics industry to a great extent. A host of 3PL companies have already started using mobile devices and apps to improve agility. Use of devices, fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips that are not only capable of transmitting their location but also have the potential to hold data so that they can be instantly traced and identified, is of great significance in this regard. 

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