The Freight Transport Association has released a Logistics Buyer Information Service (LBIS), in a bid to make logistics procurement “simpler and more effective”.
The service will provide users with access to market data that influences demand patterns and rates, compliance developments – that affect logistics provider costs – and practical guidance on managing a 3PL contractor relationship.
It also features one-to-one logistics procurement advice for individual companies via the FTA’s specialist consultancy team.
Mark Cartwright, FTA’s product manager, said: “LBIS will become indispensable for third-party logistics purchasers regardless of the scale of their outsourcing needs. It will answer the big questions, from ‘should I outsource?’ to the nitty-gritty matters concerning contractual procedures, for example.”
Many UK businesses have benefited in recent years from contracting out their transport and wider supply chain needs to 3PLs. However, by outsourcing parts of their supply chains, logistics buyers may have lost valuable in-house expertise, says the FTA.
“Logistics outsourcing is a feature of business for thousands of our members across the retail, manufacturing and processing sectors. FTA’s Logistics Buyer Information Service meets a need for a logistics information service tailored just for them. It has already been embraced by companies such as Asda, Thresher and Targus Europe,” said Cartwright.
Price and competitiveness indicators covered by the service include: inflation; exchange rates; fuel costs; marine freight rate indicators; fuel prices for road, rail, sea and air.
* The FTA has also launched a 12-minute DVD: Routine Checks for Large Goods Vehicles. The DVD provides a practical demonstration of how drivers should carry out routine checks of large goods vehicles, and features an 18-tonne curtainside truck, an artic combination with a tank semi-trailer and a rigid fitted with a dropside body.
