Why A 3PL Company Can Benefit Your Business

If you own your own small or medium sized business, it is always your goal to increase your sales and turn the corner into "the big time". Then the moment comes when it happens and it looks like your sales are starting to go through the roof. For a minute, you are happier than you have ever been in your business lifetime. However, then you start thinking about things like transportation and warehouse space and your dream quickly turns into a nightmare. If you find yourself in a position like this, a 3PL or a public warehouse company might be a life saver.

These types of companies are important due to the fact that everyone is not a major retailer. Many major retailers are big enough companies that they actually have the ability to have their own warehouses, their own trucks and their own drivers. All of the transportation that has to happen in order to get their products from the production line to all of the stores across the country is handled by their employees. However, there are very few companies in the country who are large enough or have enough money to be able to handle all of this. Many other companies, however, hire a 3PL (third party logistics) company to handle these aspects of the business.

As a small or medium-sized business, you cannot afford to hire drivers to carry your products to all of the stores that sell them. If you tried to do this, you would have to triple the cost of your products, which means that nobody would buy them. However, a 3PL company can handle all of the transportation for you. It might sound confusing, but there is really a simple explanation - "Economies of scale" is how the 3PL companies can handle this process so much less expensively than your company could.

Let us continue with a major retailer example to explain this. When a major retailer sends a truck to one of their stores throughout the country, the truck is completely full of office supplies, groceries, home decorating pieces and clothing. However, when your business sends items to a store in a certain city, chances are the truck is only 25% or 50% full.

The driver gets paid to drive to a certain city whether the truck is completely full or it is only half full. The cost of gas is mostly the same and the cost to purchase the truck was the same whether it will always be carrying a full loan or it will only be half full. If a 3PL company already has a contract to fill half a truck, they can add your business products to their delivery route without adding any expense to their bottom line. That means they can offer their services to all companies at a much cheaper rate than the companies would be able to do on their own. If you are still handling your own warehouse and transportation services, you should check into a few of the 3PL companies. Your business could save a lot of money.

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Stewart Wrighter recently hired a Houston 3PL company to do his logistics. For more information about 3PL companies go to
http://www.schulzecontainer.com/ .

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