What Are Logistics Services?

Any company that is in the business of manufacturing and selling products or offering services must figure out a way to deliver them to its customers. This becomes even more important for companies selling their products or services online. They must consider transporting it from one location to other using the appropriate logistics services.

As businesses grow, you will have to deal with the complexities related to delivering your products to customers. This is where logistics services come into play – they can simplify the process of delivery for your company. Logistics services companies are specialized in helping your products reach their expected destinations by using multiple channels of delivery. 

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• How can logistics services help your business?
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Logistics services are useful right from resourcing goods for manufacturing to warehousing and eventually delivering it to the customers. All the finished products are first sent to warehouses where they are stored. When an order is placed by a customer, they are dispatched from the warehouse to their respective destinations. 

Transportation is a complex process and is governed by multiple factors, such as weather, distance, type, and nature of products. Hence, logistics services must choose the most suitable means of transport to deliver products to the retailers or customers.

The logistics services ensure seamless movement of the product from one point of the supply chain to the other. In case of a small order (which may not fill a vehicle’s carrying capacity), logistics services will fill up the remaining space with other shipments and orders.

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• Types of logistics services
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Given the expansive logistics sector, the range of services offered is varied. Logistics service providers play a key role in deciding how a product needs to be shipped from the place of manufacturing to the end user. That apart, tracking the shipment is an important feature that both companies and customers expect today. It is here that the logistics service providers’ live tracking option comes into play.

So, let us now delve into the different services offered by logistics service providers.

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• Warehousing services
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After the completion of production, the products are stored in warehouses. The logistics service providers help companies transport their products to these warehouses from their manufacturing facilities and are kept there until they need to be shipped. While many big companies have their warehouses, quite a few manufacturing companies have also tied up with service providers to avail their warehousing facilities. By tying up with logistics service providers, companies can save on the cost of establishing warehouses. Based on the storage requirements, the warehousing facilities become a little complex.

Several factors come into play based on the demand for storage, like the ease of access to the products and how dynamic the space should be to store them. 

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• Freight Shipping
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Companies dealing with a large-scale order require multiple channels of transport to move their goods. In such a scenario, the preferred choice for moving goods is freight shipping, in which goods and cargo are transported by air, land, or water. The most used means of transport in freight shipping are trucks, railways, and ships that carry containers. The onus is on the logistics serviceproviders to ensure that despite all the complexities of freight shipping, goods and cargo would reache their destination as per the schedule. 

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• Courier Shipping
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Courier services are one of the most used shipping services. Companies use this service to ship fragile products, and are fewer in number, and also have proper handling during transportation. Given the small scale, courier services are usually faster than freight shipping. Companies or retailers use this logistics service mostly when the product finally must be delivered directly to the customers. 

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• Third-party logistics services
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The use of 3PL services connects manufacturers with consumers. Third-party logistics firms do not produce the goods but ensure that they reach the consumers in good condition by coordinating with all the parties involved in the process, besides providing their warehousing services. Unlike other logistics services, 3PL services take responsibility for all the shipping and transportation requirements.

The logistics services sector has evolved exponentially over the years and now empowers millions of businesses with its offerings. They have perfected the art of time management, coordination, and organization.