Fourth Party Logistics (4PL) was first proposed by Accenture, a well-known American consulting company, in 1998. Fourth Party Logistics provides customers with comprehensive supply chain solutions by integrating the resources of multiple suppliers. Based on the functions of the third-party logistics platform, the fourth-party logistics platform has also expanded the management consulting function. By integrating resources including third-party logistics, technical service providers, management consultants and other value-added service providers, it effectively reduces the real-time operation cost of logistics, provides complete supply chain solutions, and provides customers with the best service. Its main functions include the following four aspects.
(I) Providing a complete supply chain solution
Through the overall management of external resources such as third-party logistics, contract suppliers, information technology service providers, call centers, etc., the fourth-party logistics platform has the advantage of resource integration, and can efficiently organize and control multimodal transport activities such as air transportation, sea transportation, railways, roads, waterways, warehousing, collection and distribution, and can provide customers with the best logistics services. Combine the best logistics providers in each link to provide the best logistics or supply chain management solutions for cross-border e-commerce, thereby creating value for every customer in the supply chain.
(II) Realize the utilization and integration of enterprise resources
The fourth-party logistics platform uses relatively independent solutions to coordinate supply chain operations from a strategic perspective. It integrates logistics services, consulting services and IT services, integrates different industry knowledge, relatively independent logistics systems and assets, and creates excess value for customers. Specifically, it includes pre-services such as marketing, customer consulting, solution design, cost control, timeliness and full-process customer service, and process services such as transportation, tallying, warehousing, supporting operations, loading and packaging and supervision.
(III) Realize high-quality and low-cost services
The fourth-party logistics platform integrates and coordinates supply chain resources to provide enterprises with more scientific and effective solutions at a lower cost. It is mainly manifested in making the entire logistics process more transparent through the IT system of the fourth-party logistics platform, fully reducing the capital investment of enterprises in logistics facilities and equipment, reducing the warehousing costs of each enterprise in the supply chain, and achieving the goal of “zero inventory” in the supply chain.
(IV) Increasingly high information service capabilities
The information service capabilities of the fourth-party logistics platform, such as strong information technology support capabilities and information service network coverage capabilities, can enable enterprises to gain more trust from customers, thereby obtaining more long-term large orders, and help enterprises expand domestic and foreign markets and reduce logistics costs. At present, the vast majority of cross-border e-commerce requires the use of information systems such as electronic procurement, order processing, inventory management, and visible supply chain, as well as essential integration technologies, to achieve substantial improvements in service levels. The fourth-party logistics platform can effectively meet the growing information needs of target customers through the construction and use of logistics information-related systems, such as barcode technology, global positioning system (GPS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other logistics management software.