With the logistics industry continually growing and redeveloping, freight brokers and 3PLs are taking to new heights for becoming more efficient. The reasoning? Efficiency = increased revenue. Trailer pools are the new hot topic of the logistics industry, could this increase shipper and carrier efficiency?
Presently, the 3PL industry is over $150B in annual revenues with a total of $50B in gross margin generated from the revenue total. Most trucking companies are outsourcing 42% of their capacity to other carriers and roughly 20% of for-hire freight is facilitated by brokerages and 3PLs.
This is evidence of how significant 3PLs have become within the trucking industry. Now let’s look at the differences between brokerage & 3PLs:
Brokerages:
3PLs:
In the future, experts believe the industry is likely to see the usage of trailer pools. What is a trailer pool? Essentially, trailer pools are a way to tranche together a subset of trailers in an area that doesn’t have much freight and get them to a better area without them having to deadhead there for $0. These trailers don’t necessarily have to come from the same carrier – that’s the beauty of it.
Shippers benefit from a cheaper average price. While carriers benefit from a guaranteed move.
When we consider the practical usage of trailer pools, it’s a tough call on how to best use them. Are these trailer pools a good thing or a bad thing? It’s a situation that can have effects on those using a pool and those without.
Pros:
Cons:
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