Are you really outsourcing?

'Most companies today are subcontracting; few are outsourcing.'

A lot of people talk about third-party logistics but precious few shippers are doing anything about it. That's not all bad because it means there is a vast untapped market out there, according to Douglas E. Christensen, president of TNT Contract Logistics.

"Third-party logistics has a lot of different definitions. It means different things to different people," Christensen told an audience at the annual meeting of the Council of Logistics Management in early October.

"Some people think of third-party logistics as outsourcing. But outsourcing is when a company subcontracts an entire function to a single provider. That's not the same as subcontracting.

"Most companies today are subcontracting; few are outsourcing," he said.

Mature Industries. Looking for models in subcontracting to third-party logistics providers means looking primarily at Europe and North America, …