1. The concept of third-party logistics comes from the concept of "outsourcing" in management, which means that an enterprise dynamically configures its own and other enterprises' functions and services and uses external resources to serve its internal production and operation. Introducing outsourcing into the field of logistics management, the concept of third-party logistics came into being. The so-called third-party logistics refers to a logistics management mode in which production and operation enterprises entrust their logistics activities to professional logistics service enterprises through contracts in order to concentrate their main business, and at the same time keep close contact with logistics service enterprises through information systems, so as to realize the management and control of the whole logistics process. Therefore, the third party logistics is also called contract logistics. Enterprises that provide third-party logistics services are generally engaged in logistics activities and related industries such as transportation and warehousing. Driven by the logistics demand of the entrusting party, enterprises engaged in third-party logistics have changed from simple warehousing and transportation to providing comprehensive logistics services, including the organization, coordination and management of logistics activities, the design and suggestion of the optimal logistics scheme, and the information collection and management of the whole logistics process. At present, the concept of third-party logistics has been widely accepted by the western circulation industry.
(1) The third party logistics is the result of social division of labor. Under the influence of new management concepts such as outsourcing, in order to enhance market competitiveness, enterprises put capital, manpower and material resources into their core business, seeking to maximize the efficiency and benefits brought by socialized division of labor and cooperation. As a result of specialized division of labor, many non-core businesses are separated from the production and operation activities of enterprises, including logistics. Entrusting the logistics business to a third-party professional logistics company can reduce the logistics cost and improve the service function of logistics activities.
(2) The emergence of third-party logistics is the requirement of new management concept. Since the 1990s, the rapid development of information technology, especially computer technology, and the further refinement of social division of labor have promoted the rapid update of management technology and management ideas, resulting in a series of new management concepts that emphasize external coordination and cooperation, such as supply chain and virtual enterprise, which not only increase the complexity of logistics activities, but also put forward logistics activities with zero inventory, punctuality and rapid response. Higher requirements, such as effective customer response, make it difficult for ordinary enterprises to undertake this kind of business, which leads to the demand for specialized logistics services. The idea of third-party logistics is to meet this demand. On the one hand, it caters to the changing requirements of professional cooperation (resource allocation) among enterprises in the era of personalized demand, on the other hand, it realizes the integration of logistics in and out, improves the quality of logistics services, strengthens the overall control and coordination of the supply chain, and promotes the overall optimization of the supply chain.
(3) The research and practice of budding logistics to improve logistics and strengthen competitiveness has gone through several stages, such as cost orientation, profit orientation and competitiveness orientation. The combination of logistics improvement and competitiveness improvement is a sign of the maturity of logistics theory and technology. This is the logical basis of the concept of third-party logistics.
(4) The intensification of competition in the logistics field leads to the development of integrated logistics business. With the development of economic liberalization and trade globalization, the policies in the field of logistics are constantly relaxed, which also leads to the intensification of competition among logistics enterprises, and the logistics enterprises continue to expand the connotation and extension of services, thus leading to the emergence of third-party logistics. This is the historical basis of the concept of third-party logistics.
In the past decades, logistics has played a more and more important role in determining whether an enterprise can win in the market. In essence, the performance of an enterprise in the market is mainly determined by three factors: product quality, price and product supply. Any one of these factors plays an important role in the competitiveness of enterprises, and these three factors are directly affected by logistics. The world economy will vertically reorganize the division of labor among industries, suppliers, customers, trade and logistics companies, and the emergence of logistics companies involved in production and sales will be an inevitable trend of logistics development. The third party logistics has brought many benefits and conveniences to all participants in the supply chain, so it has been greatly welcomed and has great market potential, and will surely become the mainstream of the logistics industry in the next century.
2. Third-party logistics and its market position: Third-party logistics is a service provided by middlemen in the logistics channel, and middlemen provide all or part of the logistics services required by enterprises in a certain period of time in the form of contracts. Third-party logistics providers are companies that manage, control and provide logistics services to external customers. They do not occupy a place in the product supply chain, but are only the third party, but serve the product supply chain by providing a whole set of logistics activities.
The third-party logistics in the modern sense is an industry with a history of about 10 to 15 years. In the United States, the third-party logistics industry is still considered to be in the development period of product life cycle; In Europe, especially in Britain, it is generally believed that the third-party logistics market has reached a certain maturity. At present, the proportion of using third-party logistics services in Europe is about 76%, and that in the United States is about 58%, and its demand is still growing. The research shows that 24% of non-third-party logistics service users in Europe and 33% of non-third-party logistics service users in the United States are actively considering using third-party logistics services; 62% of European third-party logistics service users and 72% of American third-party logistics service users think that they may increase their use of third-party logistics services within three years. Some industry observers estimated the size of the market. The market size of the third-party logistics industry in the United States is equivalent to 420 billion US dollars, and the most potential logistics market in Europe is estimated to be around 950 billion US dollars.
It can be seen that the world third-party logistics market has a special certificate of great potential, gradual progress and high growth rate. This situation makes the third-party logistics industry have a large number of service providers. Third-party logistics service companies are mostly developed from traditional "internal logistics" industries, such as warehousing, transportation, air transportation, shipping, freight forwarding and logistics departments in enterprises. They have succeeded in providing various services according to the different needs of customers. At present, there are hundreds of third-party logistics providers in the United States, most of which are not third-party logistics service companies at first, but gradually develop into industries. The service content of third-party logistics is mostly concentrated in the traditional transportation and warehousing fields. Storage and transportation enterprises have a deep understanding of these services and have certain experience in each individual service. The key is how to organically combine these individual service contents to provide the overall scheme of logistics and transportation.
In the practice of third-party logistics in western developed countries, the following points are worth noting: First, the scope of logistics business is expanding. In the face of increasingly fierce competition, commercial organizations and major companies have to focus on their core business, leaving transportation, warehousing and other related business links to more professional logistics enterprises to operate in order to save and be efficient; On the other hand, in order to improve service quality, logistics enterprises are constantly expanding their business scope and providing supporting services. Second, many successful logistics enterprises analyze the relatively self-care operating costs and agency fees according to the negotiation terms between Party A and Party B, and flexibly use self-care and agency to provide customized logistics services. Third, the logistics industry has great development potential and broad development prospects.
The rapid development of logistics industry after World War II is determined by the development level of social productive forces. After World War II, the internal production level of enterprises has further declined, and with the optimization of "zero inventory" between production and distribution, it means that the stocking time of raw materials and parts will be greatly reduced. At the same time, the rapid development of global economic integration and the formation of emerging markets force enterprises to adopt global strategies to find their production resources, and more and more products are sold around the world as global products. These demands constitute the source power of logistics development, among which the reduction of internal production level of enterprises is the main reason. At the same time, in order to participate in world competition, enterprises must reduce product costs (including production costs and sales costs), reduce inventory (including inventory during storage and transportation), and improve efficiency; Enterprises need accurate and timely information and increase the visibility of key supply processes. Third-party logistics providers have solved the above problems for enterprises. Therefore, more and more enterprises choose to send logistics services abroad.
3. Third-party logistics has brought many benefits to enterprises (customers), mainly in:
(l) focus on the main business. Enterprises can realize the optimal allocation of resources. Concentrate financial resources on core business, conduct key research, develop basic technology and develop new products to participate in world competition.
(2) Save funds and reduce the backlog of funds. Professional third-party logistics providers use the professional advantages and cost advantages of large-scale production to achieve cost savings by improving the utilization rate of each link, so that enterprises can benefit from the separation of cost structure. According to the investigation results of industrial vehicles, the main reason for enterprises to dissolve their own fleets and replace them with public transport services is to reduce fixed costs, which includes not only the investment in purchasing vehicles, but also the expenses related to workshop warehouses, delivery facilities, packaging equipment and employees.
(3) Reduce inventory. Enterprises can't bear the unlimited growth of all kinds of raw materials and products, especially high-value parts should be delivered to the assembly point in time to realize zero inventory and ensure the minimum inventory. With careful logistics planning and timely delivery means, third-party logistics providers can minimize inventory, improve cash flow of enterprises and realize cost advantages.
(4) Enhance corporate image. Third party logistics providers and customers are not competitors, but strategic partners. For the sake of customers, they make their supply chain management completely transparent through the global information network, and let customers know the situation of the supply chain at any time through the Internet. Third-party logistics providers are logistics experts, using complete facilities and well-trained employees to achieve complete control of the entire supply chain and reduce the complexity of logistics; They have greatly shortened the delivery time through the global transportation network and service providers (subcontractors), helped customers improve their services and established their own brand image. Third-party logistics providers make low-cost and high-efficiency logistics solutions for customers through tailor-made design, which makes customers stand out from peers and creates favorable conditions for enterprises to win in the competition.
(5) The third-party logistics mode adopted by the consignor enterprise plays an important role in improving the operational efficiency of the enterprise. First of all, it can enable enterprises to focus on their familiar businesses and allocate resources to core businesses. Secondly, third-party logistics enterprises, as experts specializing in logistics, have rich professional knowledge and experience, which is conducive to improving the logistics level of shippers. The first-party logistics enterprises can provide logistics services for many enterprises in society, and can stand at a higher angle than a single enterprise. With the expansion of a wider scope and the change of the external environment of the market, the production and operation activities of enterprises have become more and more complicated. In order to realize the rationalization of logistics activities, it is far from enough to limit the scope of logistics system to enterprises. It is the requirement of building a modern logistics system to establish an inter-enterprise and cross-industry logistics system network, organically combine the logistics activities of upstream and downstream related enterprises in the whole process of production and circulation, such as raw material production enterprises, product production enterprises, wholesale and retail enterprises, and form a chain-type commodity supply system. Third-party logistics enterprises, through their mastery of logistics system development and design capabilities and information technology capabilities, become the organizers of establishing inter-enterprise logistics system networks and complete the work that individual enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, cannot complete. All these reasons have greatly promoted the development of third-party logistics and made it the mainstream of international logistics development in 2 1 century.
4. The development prospect of third-party logistics It is common for Chinese enterprises to entrust some logistics activities to professional logistics enterprises. However, the scope of external entrustment is still quite narrow, limited to some business activities, and some entrustment has no long-term and stable relationship. In the field of short-distance transportation, warehousing, distribution and other logistics activities with cars as freight means, self-owned logistics is still the mainstay. On the one hand, it reflects that the logistics management level of enterprises is still relatively backward, on the other hand, it also shows that China's logistics industry does not have the ability to provide high-quality comprehensive logistics services for enterprises. Outsourcing is an effective way to realize the socialization and rationalization of logistics. Enterprises need to make new attempts in the scope and mode of logistics outsourcing in order to realize the effective utilization of business resources and meet the needs of production and operation for high-level logistics systems.
Developing the third-party logistics industry is undoubtedly an important way to promote the rationalization and efficiency of enterprise logistics activities, and then improve the rationalization of logistics in the whole society. Especially in today's information age, the application of advanced information technology and network technology to logistics management will greatly promote the development of logistics, and the third-party logistics has broad development prospects.
First of all, the consignor enterprises are required to break the traditional business philosophy of "big but small and complete", establish a brand-new business philosophy, attach importance to logistics management, and provide a market for the development of third-party logistics. Some modern production and circulation enterprises, emerging industries or formats should make new attempts in developing and utilizing third-party logistics.
Secondly, as an enterprise engaged in the third-party logistics industry, it must have the ability to provide a whole set of logistics services from logistics planning, system design, logistics management to implementation. Especially those large-scale transportation and warehousing industries with comprehensive logistics capabilities are not equal to the logistics industry, but traditional properties are not equal to third-party logistics enterprises. The key issue here is not how to call it, but the essential characteristics of the business it is engaged in and the nature of the logistics services it provides. Third-party logistics enterprises must be familiar with the development law of cargo owner enterprises and logistics activities and have the ability to develop and innovate logistics systems if they want to provide comprehensive logistics services that are conducive to logistics rationalization from the perspective of cargo owner enterprises. Obviously, this is quite different from the simple transportation, storage or chemical activities entrusted by the owner. Therefore, logistics enterprises must break through the existing business model, try their best to master the technology and activity methods of engaging in third-party logistics from the perspective of talents, and establish corresponding enterprise management organizations.
In addition, the characteristics of third-party logistics determine that all kinds of wholesale enterprises and trading companies can give full play to their information advantages, channel advantages and logistics functions, and penetrate into the third-party logistics business, thus promoting the further development of their business.
The development of third-party logistics needs to be strengthened in infrastructure, personnel quality and information system. Nowadays, logistics technology based on e-commerce is in the ascendant. High-quality infrastructure, high-quality talents and highly reliable and efficient information systems are the most direct manifestations of enterprise competitiveness.
With the continuous development of logistics technology, third-party logistics, as an effective means to improve the speed of material circulation, save storage costs and funds in transit, has been paid more and more attention.
Transaction Cost, Intermediary Organization and the Development of Logistics Industry
Transaction cost, also known as institutional cost, is all the costs that do not exist in the economy of Robinson Crusoe. Transaction costs can be partly attributed to people's ignorance or lack of information, and another factor is people's maximization behavior. In this maximization behavior, due to information asymmetry, there have been acts such as theft, deception, lying, laziness or dishonesty. In this case, the transaction cost will be high. If the transaction cost is too high, it will lead to stagnation or even collapse of economic development.
/kloc-since the industrial revolution in the 0/8th century, with the deepening of division of labor and the improvement of specialization, the efficiency has been continuously improved and the production cost has been continuously reduced. They are like two fast-rotating wheels, promoting economic development; However, the deepening of this division of labor makes the transactions between enterprises more and more complex and frequent, and the transaction costs between enterprises are also increasing. The requirements of enterprises to reduce transaction costs are getting higher and higher, which leads to the formation and innovation of some organizational systems. Intermediary organization is an organizational system innovation to provide information services to reduce the transaction cost of enterprises in this world of asymmetric information and deepening division of labor. Its main function is to provide intermediary services for both parties in order to reduce transaction costs, especially information costs.
Intermediary organizations in the economic field mainly include: (1) intermediary organizations with official nature; (2) Semi-official trade organizations; (3) Notary intermediary service organizations; (4) Service intermediary organizations; (5) Brokerage intermediary organizations and so on.
Logistics enterprises face higher transaction costs in their operations, which often leads to difficulties in the operation and development of small and medium-sized logistics enterprises.
Modern logistics and supply chain management mode requires enterprises to find the best strategic partners in the shortest time and win the market with the lowest cost, the fastest speed and the best service quality. Large-scale logistics enterprises have obvious advantages in scale, capital and reputation, and are more likely to gain the trust of their partners, so it is easy to reach an agreement with them, that is, the transaction cost of reaching an agreement is lower. However, in the choice of specific partners, small and medium-sized logistics enterprises often need more time to negotiate and negotiate because of limited service resources and low brand credibility, and need to spend more financial, material and human resources. Even with great efforts, it is still difficult for small and medium-sized logistics enterprises to reach an agreement with the partners they need, that is, the transaction cost of building a supply chain for small and medium-sized logistics enterprises is very high. High transaction costs often dampen the enthusiasm of small and medium-sized enterprises to seek partners, thus hindering their pace towards modern logistics.
Logistics is a highly socialized activity. With the development of economy and the refinement of division of labor, the requirements for logistics specialization are constantly improving. Small and medium-sized logistics enterprises are often unable to provide logistics services in a certain link or aspect, and it is unsustainable to rely solely on their own development. It is urgent to realize the resource reorganization and cooperation of the whole society (even on a global scale), and it is necessary to cooperate with other logistics enterprises in division of labor. Small and medium-sized logistics enterprises complete the search and identification in the vast ocean of information, which is very heavy in workload and high in cost, and it is difficult to form a cooperative game in the mixed market, which leads to the fact that small and medium-sized logistics enterprises can not allocate resources globally, nationally and across provinces like large logistics enterprises, and often show obvious geographical and spatial limitations and narrow contact range in their operations.
Logistics enterprises have a strong demand for industry comprehensive information, peer information, professional technical information, government policies, talent information and financial securities information. However, due to the weak awareness and ability of open communication of small and medium-sized logistics enterprises, the lack of funds for information construction is uneconomical, the government information network is imperfect, and the information services provided by social intermediaries are not targeted. The channels for small and medium-sized logistics enterprises to obtain information are often blocked, and the cost of obtaining effective information is high.
Small and medium-sized logistics enterprises are facing the constraints of insufficient funds in their business development, but financing is very difficult. It is difficult for most small and medium-sized logistics enterprises to borrow money from banks, and only a few enterprises can borrow enough money from banks. This is mainly because the current domestic economic policies tend to favor large-scale logistics enterprises intentionally or unintentionally, which makes small and medium-sized logistics enterprises face unfair competition environment. With the national specialized banks accelerating the transformation to commercial banks and strengthening the prevention of financial risks, it is difficult for small and medium-sized logistics enterprises to enter the direct financing market, and they also encounter many difficulties in entering the indirect financing market. Some financial institutions also implement different loan conditions for enterprises of different ownership and sizes. The loan conditions of non-state-owned and collective enterprises are much stricter than those of state-owned or collective enterprises, and the loan conditions of small and medium-sized logistics enterprises are much stricter than those of large logistics enterprises. In order to ensure the safety of their own operations, commercial banks have always adopted the traditional methods of guarantee and mortgage loan. Small and medium-sized logistics enterprises are short of funds and limited mortgage items, making it difficult to obtain loans.
A mature logistics market often presents a pattern of effective competition, and all kinds of logistics enterprises constantly and effectively explore new logistics service fields through service innovation and give play to their respective advantages. However, at present, the logistics market in China shows a lot of immaturity: on the one hand, the competition among logistics enterprises is becoming increasingly fierce, and it seems that the logistics market in China has entered the seller; On the other hand, various logistics enterprises are constantly emerging. While there is a large potential demand for logistics, there is a phenomenon of relative excess logistics capacity. At present, the level of competition in the logistics market is still at the low level of vicious competition to carve up the existing market, and the external cost of market competition is high, which brings many difficulties to the development of small and medium-sized logistics enterprises.
The practice around the world shows that small and medium-sized logistics enterprises occupy a decisive position in the logistics field of most countries, both in quantity and proportion. Distributed in procurement, manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, freight forwarding, distribution, sales, e-commerce and other logistics links. Together with large and medium-sized logistics enterprises, they are forming a regional, national or global logistics system and promoting the development of regional national economy.
In order to promote the development of small and medium-sized logistics enterprises, western developed countries often cultivate relatively mature and perfect intermediary service systems, and their intermediary organizations are very developed. According to North et al.' s estimation of the scale of transaction-related industries in the American economy from 1870 to 1970, the proportion of transaction-related industries in the American economy in the late 20th century was as high as 45%, while it was only 25% a century ago. As far as the logistics intermediary organizations in western developed countries are concerned, they provide help and support for the logistics development of small and medium-sized enterprises from three aspects: first, the services provided by regional logistics intermediary organizations; Second, the services provided by logistics industry organizations in various countries; Third, the services provided by regional or professional logistics intermediaries. Various logistics intermediary organizations strive to provide a wide range of services according to the needs of enterprises. For example, by holding various meetings, issuing publications and briefings, timely informing member enterprises of trade, market, investment and industry development trends; Conduct various forms of training for member enterprises from senior managers to ordinary employees; Help member enterprises to explore the market, especially the international market, and so on. In order to make members know the relevant information and work trends faster, a website has been established on the Internet, so that members can keep abreast of the latest information through computers. Because these intermediary organizations pay attention to expanding service content and improving service quality and efficiency, they are supported and welcomed by the majority of small and medium-sized logistics enterprises, and their influence is growing and their members are increasing. Because logistics intermediary organizations have extensive contacts in the industry, their positions and angles of observing problems are different from those of individual enterprises, so some * * * problems of member enterprises can communicate with government departments and make suggestions; Government departments are generally very willing to grasp the situation of the industry through logistics intermediaries and analyze the trends and development trends of the industry. With the help and coordination of logistics intermediary organizations, some government policy intentions can be easily realized.
Compared with developed market economy countries, although various intermediary organizations have mushroomed in China since the 1990s, overall, the development of intermediary organizations in China is seriously insufficient, and the development of intermediary organizations is far from meeting the needs of market economy development. The number of intermediary organizations in China is not only insufficient, but also because they are usually developed as subsidiary organs of administrative organs, so there are many defects in professional skills and professional ethics. For example, at present, the coverage of some regional logistics industry associations in China is too narrow to play the comprehensive coordination function of the associations. Another reason why regional logistics intermediaries cannot provide high-quality intermediary services is that it takes a hard learning process to master relevant technologies. Intermediaries provide a kind of high-intelligence service with high professional requirements, and their professional knowledge and experience in this field are still very lacking.
2 1 century, China's small and medium-sized logistics enterprises are facing rare historical opportunities. With the rapid economic growth, the transformation of industrial structure and the gradual promotion of post-industrialization in the middle stage of industrialization, China faces a huge logistics market with broad development prospects. Under the background of economic globalization, foreign logistics enterprises have entered the China market in succession and are completing their strategic layout in China. The grim situation makes those small and medium-sized logistics enterprises that are at a disadvantage in the competition urgently need the support and services of intermediary organizations and service organizations, which greatly reduces the excessive transaction costs in operation and development.
The development of logistics industry in China urgently needs a good legal environment.
The development and prosperity of modern logistics industry depends on a unified, transparent, fair and efficient legal environment. At present, the bottleneck of the development of China's logistics industry lies in the defects and deficiencies of the legal environment. To improve and perfect China's logistics legal environment, we should unify the national logistics industry development plan, pay attention to the market role of policies and regulations, eliminate departmental and local protectionism, change government functions and improve logistics industry associations.
First, the prosperity of modern logistics industry must be based on a good legal environment and motivation.
In the process of upgrading the logistics structure, the government's logistics development policy and the logistics legal environment formulated by a country are extremely important. This includes policies and regulations on logistics infrastructure construction, policies and regulations related to logistics services, and policies and regulations related to product production, processing and circulation. This system guidance, combined with the market mechanism, enables the government's macro-control to greatly guarantee and promote the healthy and stable development of the logistics industry.
Developed countries generally attach importance to the policy guidance and rational planning of logistics development. As early as 1966, Japan compiled the Law on Street Maintenance of Circulation Enterprises, with the aim of making an overall plan for the rational distribution of materials circulation facilities in the center of big cities. According to this law, the circulation facilities crowded in the center of a big city will be moved to the suburbs about 20 kilometers away from the city center. From 65438 to 0968, Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Communications successively formulated some policies and measures, and made specific provisions on the concept of circulation systematization and the systematization of Japanese commercial flow, logistics and information flow. At the same time, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Economic Planning have also made joint efforts to formulate a unified overall logistics framework throughout the country and decided on specific cities to build logistics bases. These cities determine the location, quantity, location, scale and function of logistics bases according to the overall urban planning, and report them to the central government for approval. The Japanese government adopted the "Comprehensive Logistics Policy Outline" to guide the establishment of an efficient market competition environment and the necessary infrastructure environment. In this way, in the past 25 years, Japan has established 24 circulation groups in 22 cities across the country, organically combining the functions of transportation, distribution, transit, warehousing, distribution, leasing, ordering, sales and after-sales service, greatly improving the utilization efficiency of logistics facilities, ensuring smooth roads, optimizing the circulation function of big cities and enhancing the comprehensive service function of cities, thus establishing a convenient, safe, transparent and efficient.
On the basis of overall consideration of the planning and construction of traffic trunk lines and main hubs, the German federal government plans and guides the establishment of the spatial layout, land use scale and future development of logistics parks nationwide by investigating the layout of productive forces and the present situation of logistics and according to the possibility of connecting various modes of transportation. Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries also have their own logistics parks.
It can be seen that the prosperity of modern logistics industry can not be separated from good policy guidance and matching market legal environment. The development of a country's logistics needs the effective intervention of the government, the mutual cooperation and coordination of government management departments, and the unified formulation of national industrial development policies.
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