Most, if not all, retail businesses these days have to have a functional shipping department. Gone are the days of simply selling out of your brick and mortar store, which is definitely a good thing. As a small business owner, you’re not limited to the local market — thanks to the internet you can sell to pretty much anywhere in the world, which opens up a lot of opportunity. The problem is that selling to people means having to also ship to them and chances are, you’re not a shipping expert. Here are a few reasons it might benefit you to work with a third party logistics company.

1. Expertise
The number one reason small businesses choose to partner with third party logistics companies is for their expertise. Transportation itself is a remarkably huge industry that includes airplanes, boats, trucks, and more, and coordinating how to get your product to the right place at the right time can get pretty complicated. As much as you’d like to, you can’t depend on your carriers to take care of everything on your end as well, which is why outsourcing some of that management is beneficial.

2. To Save Time and Money
Another one of the reasons small businesses choose to work with a third party logistics company is to save time and money. Handling some parts of shipping department business like shopping for the best freight rates, filing transportation claims, freight auditing, and trying to secure refunds from parcel carriers all take time and know-how, which many small business owners just don’t have. These are actually all things that a third party logistics company exists to do, and taking advantage can save you on what you’re paying for shipping and on the payroll it would take to hire someone to do it in-house.

3. The Resources
Aside from the expertise and just the convenience and money saving nature of outsourcing work, another reason small business owners turn to third party logistics companies is for the resources — usually technology. An example of this is transportation software, which can help make any shipping department more efficient and accurate. Transportation software can also cut down on the use of paper.

Have you partnered with a third party logistics company? Feel free to share your experience with us in the comments section below. See this link for more references.