Third-party logistics

Author: Chen Wenruo
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Since the 1980s, with the further refinement of social division of labor, the rapid development of information technology, and the changing diversity of customer needs, market competition has become increasingly fierce. The management philosophy of concentrating corporate capabilities on core businesses has been widely recognized and practiced by many companies. They have gradually outsourced non-core business operations such as transportation, warehousing, and information management to specialized service providers, giving rise to third-party logistics. Although third-party logistics has only been around for less than 20 years since its inception, it has developed very rapidly in Western countries and has become mature in some European nations. Currently, third-party logistics in China is in the stage of transitioning from non-existence to rapid development, with a sharp increase in the number of third-party logistics enterprises. However, at the same time, theoretical research on third-party logistics in China is still relatively lacking, especially systematic studies are rare. Therefore, we have developed this textbook to comprehensively and systematically introduce readers to the theoretical knowledge, current development status, operational content, and strategic planning of third-party logistics. The structure of this book is as follows: Chapter 1 elaborates on the theoretical knowledge of third-party logistics; Chapters 2 and 3 separately describe the development status of third-party logistics in developed countries and China, analyzing the experiences gained and the problems encountered; Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 discuss the operational aspects of third-party logistics in detail; Chapters 9 and 10 explore the development strategies and integration strategies of third-party logistics enterprises. The writing (: division of labor) for each chapter is as follows: Chapters 1 and 4 were written by Chen Wenruo; Chapters 2 and 10 were written by Guo Jing; Chapters 3 and 9 were written by Zhou Linlin; Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 were written by Jin Yu, Zhang Yang, Yang Ling, and Xu Xuan, respectively. The completion of this book is due to the support and assistance from all parties. Here, we would like to express our special gratitude to Professor Yang Changchun, Deputy Director of the Graduate School of the University of International Business and Economics and Deputy Director of the Dantian Logistics Research Center, for his continuous concern for our writing work and for providing us with academic insights and help; we also want to thank Associate Professor Wang Qiang and Associate Professor Wang Xiaodong from the Department of Transportation and Logistics at the University of International Business and Economics for providing the compilers with many valuable materials and important insights.