The difference between third-party logistics and fourth-party logistics

Third-party logistics means that in order to concentrate on the main business, production and operation enterprises entrust the logistics activities that were originally handled by themselves to professional logistics service enterprises in the form of contracts. At the same time, they maintain close contact with logistics enterprises through information systems to achieve the goal of logistics. A kind of logistics operation and management method that controls the whole process.

Fourth-party logistics is defined as "a supply chain integrator that mobilizes and manages the organization's own resources, capabilities and technologies as well as those of complementary service providers to provide a comprehensive supply chain solution." It provides influence through the entire supply chain, provides comprehensive supply chain solutions, and also brings greater value to its customers. It can integrate social resources on the basis of solving corporate logistics, and solve the problem of full sharing of logistics information, Issues such as full utilization of social logistics resources.

Compared with "third-party logistics", "fourth-party logistics" has more services and covers a wider area. It has higher requirements for companies engaged in freight logistics services, requiring them to open up new service areas and provide more Value-added services. The biggest advantage of "fourth-party logistics" is that it can ensure that products are delivered to demanders "faster, better and cheaper". In today's economic situation, cargo owners/shippers are increasingly pursuing With the global integration of supply chains to meet the needs of cross-border operations, multinational companies must rely more on logistics outsourcing because they want to focus on their core businesses. Based on this reason, they not only rely on external forces at the operational level, but also At the strategic level, it is also necessary to rely on external forces to obtain "faster, better, and cheaper" logistics services day and night. According to expert analysis, fourth-party logistics is more profitable than third-party logistics because they have professional expertise. Consulting services. Although this service is currently small in scale, it will be a rapidly growing segment in the highly competitive Chinese logistics market.