The right 3PL brokerage benefits your organization in countless ways. There’s their experience, technology, carrier relations, savings, and much more. These benefits are able to make enormous impacts on your organization; its processes and its bottom line. These benefits have become even more apparent and important now that the supply chain is under such heavy stress. Companies are looking for any way to improve their supply chain operations and 3PLs offer an easy solution.
Five Key Benefits Offered by a 3PL Brokerage
1. Experience
Possibly the greatest benefit a 3PL brokerage can offer is their experience in shipping and supply chain management. This experience results in processes and procedures that ensure freight gets handled with quality and care. It also means that they have already faced most problems that you are going to run into and know how to resolve the situation so that it works for everyone.
2. Technology
3PL brokerages also invest in technology specifically for shipping and transportation. This technology would be too costly for just managing a single company’s freight. However, 3PL’s are able to put this technology to use. This can be anything from a transportation management system that allows them to manage their carriers and shipments to a track and trace system to monitor shipments or digital freight matching that streamlines the entire operation.
3. Carrier Relations
Carrier relations is another key 3PL brokerage benefit. Most 3PL’s have partnerships with tens of thousands of carriers, this means that they are able to find the absolute best match for you. It also allows them to offer a much more flexible and robust service.
4. Save Money
What’s better than saving money? A 3PL partnership will result in cost savings that improve your bottom line. Shipping and transportation is typically around 10% of a company’s budget. Being able to bring that figure down has huge impacts. A 3PL brokerage will be able to save money by using their carrier base and experience to find the best deals.
5. Save Time
Managing freight and transportation is a huge undertaking that can require multiple people full-time. By partnering with a 3PL brokerage those people are freed up to work on the things that the company does best. Additionally, they will be able to handle any issue that arises which means you don’t have to.
Finding the Right 3PL Brokerage
Finding the best 3PL brokerage can be tough, there are multiple considerations that will all play a big role. This is a topic that has been covered in previous blogs but, in short, you want to look for a 3PL that has worked with other companies in your industry, has great communication, and has the technology mentioned in the section above. Additionally, it’s always a good bet to try out a couple of 3PLs before signing a contract with one.
How Quickly 3PL Brokerage Benefits Go Into Place
Once partnering with a 3PL, you should start to see the benefits immediately. Then, over time, once the lines of communication have been established and processes put into place they should only get better. After a couple of months, the 3PL should have found ways to improve transportation. Then, it is up to the shipper to actually implement these changes.
In Conclusion
There are many ways that a 3PL Brokerage benefits can help your organization overall. The first step, however, is finding the best one for you. After that, the benefits should start to fall into place immediately, and if not, then that might be a sign that you are not partnered with the best 3PL and need to look at other options.
At Becker Logistics we aim to provide the benefits mentioned in the blog to our customers in each shipment. We are now in our 25th year of business and have put together the team, processes, and technology to ensure success. If you want to find out more about how Becker Logistics can help you then feel free to reach out to us. Additionally, you can request a freight quote and get started today.