DEAR READER, I WILL START NOW  THE NEXT CHAPTER :  WHAT IS THIRD PARTY LOGISTICS

WHAT ARE THE THIRD PARTY LOGISTICS SERVICES AND THE DEFINITION OF 3PLs:

THIRD PARTY LOGISTICS PROVIDERS ARE BUSINESSES THAT PROVIDE ONE OR MANY  OF THE FOLLOWING THIRD PARTY LOGISTICS SERVICES:

• Transportation or Freight Management (including technology,freight accounting, services around claims, Public/Contract warehousing.

• Distribution Management

• Freight Consolidation

Now for a more academic definition.  the  define third party logistics services and 3PLs as:

Outsourcing all or much of a company's Logistics operations to a specialized company. The term "3PL" was first used in the early 1970s to identify inter modal marketing companies (IMCs) in transportation contracts, At that time contract for transportation had featured only two parties, the shipper and the carrier. When IMCs entered in the picture as intermediaries they accepted shipment from the shipper and tendered them to the rail carriers-they became the third party to the contract, the 3PL. Definition has broadened to the point where these days every company that offers some kind of Logistics Services for hire calls itself 3PL.

Preferably, these services are integrated, or “bundled,” together by the provider. Services they provide are transportation, warehousing, cross-docking, inventory management, packaging, and freight forwarding. In 2008 legislation passed declaring that the legal definition of a 3PL is “A person who solely receives, holds, or otherwise transports a consumer product in the ordinary course of business but who does not take title to the product.”