If you’re a beneficial cargo owner, working with a third-party logistics (3PL) partner — especially one that provides both transloading and warehousing services — can offer a number of efficiencies for your business.
In this post, we’ll discuss how the combination of these services can result in three key benefits: cost savings, increased flexibility, and better risk management.
1. Cost savings
Transloading enables quick and easy freight movement and consolidation. By moving products out of the port in a timely manner, you can avoid unnecessary charges like demurrage fees and storage fees. Transloading also empowers you to choose the most cost-effective mode of transportation for each leg of the journey.
If you work with a 3PL that offers both transloading and warehousing services, they can move your freight into a warehouse, where it can be sorted, consolidated, and either loaded onto another form of transportation or stored until it’s ready to be shipped.
Over the past several years, warehouse space has gotten more expensive, especially near ports and transportation hubs. While demand has recently decreased, rent continues to rise, making it difficult for smaller companies to compete with big box stores for prime warehouse real estate.
In addition to the cost of warehouse rent itself, there’s also the cost of utilities, staffing, maintenance, and more to consider. Partnering with a 3PL that has warehouse space near the port can help you save on all these costs.
2. Increased flexibility
As mentioned above, transloading allows for the allocation of goods between different modes of transportation. This enhances supply chain flexibility by giving you the opportunity to optimize transport modes, shipping routes, and delivery schedules according to your needs at any given time. A 3PL partner can help you maximize these benefits by determining the fastest, most cost-efficient, and/or most energy-efficient way to transport your freight.
Working with a 3PL provider who offers warehousing space in a strategic location, like near a port and/or transportation hub, also gives you better flexibility as conditions change. With a warehousing partner, you can easily scale up or down according to inventory fluctuations, demand fluctuations, seasonality, etc. This is especially important during times of economic uncertainty and high inflation, when demand may be more difficult to predict.
3. Better risk management
Risk management is another key benefit of utilizing a 3PL for combined transloading and warehousing services.
When your freight is unloaded, sorted, and palletized in a warehouse, your 3PL partner can ensure everything is correct and in good condition. If your freight was damaged in the previous leg of transport, or if there’s a discrepancy between what was ordered and what was received, you can move to rectify the situation then and there (rather than finding out when the freight reaches its final destination).
Because it supports a wide variety of transport modes, transloading also leaves ample room for contingency plans in case of disruptions (road closures, natural disasters, etc.).
Working with a 3PL can help with warehouse risk management as well. Working in a warehouse can be a dangerous job, and operating your own means your business is responsible for worker health and safety. Outsourcing warehousing to a partner can help limit your liability.
Conclusion
When it comes to 3PL partnerships, the combination of transloading and warehousing services is a valuable attribute that can provide cost savings, increased flexibility, and better risk management.
If you’re looking for 3PL warehouses near Long Beach, GlobeCon is your ideal partner. We offer transloading services and warehouse space — along with drayage, trucking, cross-docking, and other services — just outside the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. We’re your one-stop freight logistics provider at the ports.
Ready to partner with an experienced 3PL in Long Beach and Los Angeles? Contact us.