Contract Logistics

The Contract Logistics Challenge

Several recent studies performed among contract logistics providers (3PL) and freight forwarders (4PL) show that contract logistics providers are feeling an increased pressure to cut costs, while their customers are demanding enhanced customer service. Rapid changes such as the increasing role of Eastern European countries and the need to use different modalities are changing the landscape for contract logistics providers.

Mergers and take-overs are leading the market into a landscape of a small number of large logistics service providers and a large group of smaller 3PL companies. Large companies should benefit from the advantage of higher network density and corresponding higher shipment consolidation potential, resulting in better network utilization. Smaller more specialized 3PL/4PL companies need to make bold choices and only focus on those niche markets where they can excel. Quintiq understands both the needs from larger logistics service providers and more specialized 3PL’s.

Combining an increasing number of multi-modal resources into a competitively priced, executable service schedule, requires a dynamic comprehensive planning and resource optimization solution – one that takes into account the increasing customer demands and the globalization of your customer’s supply chains, creating the need for complex multi-modal networks.

Quintiq Solutions for Contract Logistics

Quintiq delivers a dynamic planning and visibility solution suite for shared carrier networks, enabling you to respond rapidly to opportunities and challenges as they occur. It supports consolidation of part loads with full loads and generates optimal transport plans for return loads and round-trips, simultaneously taking into account considerations such as revenue and cost requirements, available resources, delivery windows, load compatibility and customer priorities.

Quintiq additionally offers strong network optimization functionalities, capable of managing automatic, multi-modal planning, and offering full visibility through air-, sea- and land networks. It also generates scenario analyses, sufficient to support your bid teams. Quintiq is unique in supporting not only your transport planning processes, but also the added services that your customers require. Quintiq is able to support your warehouse stock planning and goods fulfillment requirements, allowing you to offer state-of-the-art software solutions to lower your customer’s supply chain costs.