Outsourcing

Do you recognise any of these companies?

Not everyone is good at transport and warehousing.

Many companies want to concentrate on what they are good at such as production, innovation or sales and marketing. This is called concentrating on your core competencies. This is why some compaies use third parties to run their warehouses and supply the trucks to make the deliveries.

The trucks you see travelling up and down the motorways with Sainsbury, Marks and Spencer or Mothercare on them are not necessarily owned by or driven by employees of those companies. They may well be supplied by companies such as Wincanton, Gist or DHL.

The majority of our on-line purchases are delivered to us by the courier companies such as Yodel, Hermes, DPD, UPS and Federal Express.

Who do you blame if your delivery is late – the company you bought the item from or the courier company who delivered it? Just think – on Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Christmas you’re not the only person ordering on line expecting to get your parcel delivered on time – it’s you and millions of others – think about the pressure on these companies to deliver on time every time!

List all of the advantages of using a third party logistics company to deliver your goods. Then think about some of the disadvantages. Advantages might include not having to buy your own trucks whilst a disadvantage might be that you lose control over the delivery process for example.