- Achieves Unmatched Quality and Performance 
- Exceeds Customer Expectations
- Displays a Caring Attitude 
- Provides Total Team Support
- Strives Toward Mutual Growth and Profitability

Even in our digital age, "stuff" still needs to be transferred from one place to another, to be shipped from here to there, whether the trip is across the warehouse floor or around the world. That is the reason that jobs for laborers such as freight-, stock-, and materials-handlers are projected to "increase by almost a quarter of a million positions from 2004 to 2014," according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of these jobs require few skills but pay $12 to $15 per hour, about double the federal minimum wage, which rose to $6.55 in July, 2008.

More recent indicators from the federal 2008-2009 Occupational Outlook Handbook predict the following, equally optimistic predictions, despite the current dismal economy: "Employment will grow in the warehousing and storage industry as more firms contract out their warehousing functions to this industry." The National Employment Matrix also indicates growth, if less buoyant than the BLS data cited above: "Laborers, freight, stock, and materials handlers, hand" are expected to witness a 2% expansion by 2016; however, Warehousing and Storage is anticipating a whopping gain of 20.21%.

In order to meet the targeted growth anticipated by 3PL companies, intelligent marketing strategies must be aligned with projections.

"The conventional assumption in industrial marketing is that good salespeople identify prospects and convince them to buy. This is more the exception than the rule. Today, the buyer takes the initiative" (Jim Bierfeldt, president of Logistics Marketing Advisors, LLC). Customers now are extremely proactive in their search for 3PL providers: they conduct their own research online through websites and by gleaning the contents of white papers.

It is imperative that the service provider ensure straightforwardness and a trouble-free environment for prospective customers to determine for themselves what their needs are and how the provider ultimately may meet those needs. The manner in which this sales-driven initial delivery-of-services most likely occurs is through the provider's user-friendly and substantively informative website, the development and presentation of which may very well reap substantial benefits for consumer and provider alike. It should not be incumbent on the customer to flounder in the market while searching for the best logistical solution, nor does it seem productive for the 3PL company to "cold call" the prospective consumer of services.

As green becomes a factor in operating a supply chain, those companies outsourcing these functions will inevitably rely on 3PL's to help satisfy green goals. It is no longer feasible in our globally warming environment to ignore the reality of the harm done to the planet by our industry.

According to The State of Logistics Outsourcing 2008 13th Annual Logistics Study, "3 PL users would prefer that green supply chain initiatives not incur extra costs, but feel when costs do occur, they should be shared equally between the 3PL and the customer.

"Early adopters are finding that green projects can generate savings. The ultimate challenge is to find ways that green can simultaneously reduce costs, increase revenues, and improve the environment." These challenges must be met.