3 Types of Logistics
As a company providing a product, knowing the types of logistics helps with the challenges you face, keeping track of your inventory and making sure your products are successfully delivered to your customers. This workflow generally involves 3 types of logistics, each of which functions a little differently—and Bonded Service is able to help you facilitate any or all of them. Let’s take a brief look at these different types of logistics.
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Freight Services
When transporting large items, or large quantities of items, you’ll need to enlist one or more forms of freight shipping. Within the U.S., this will generally involve the use of trucks or trains, while overseas freight is usually transported on cargo ships. Freight services can be used to deliver larger shipments to your customers, or for drayage from port to your warehouse. Larger loads may require full truckload (FTL) freight services, while for smaller quantities, less-than-truckload (LTL) services enable you to share the cost of freight with other parties. Depending on the need, Bonded Service manages our own fleet of trucks for freight delivery, as well as coordinating with other LTL carriers.
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Courier Services
For smaller orders, time-sensitive orders or those requiring a higher level of care, you’ll want to use a courier service (for example, Fedex, UPS or any of a number of local couriers). Courier services provide safe, speedy delivery to your customer’s door with less risk of damage to your product.
Aside from the logistics of receiving your product from a manufacturer or delivering it to your customer, there is the ongoing challenge of how to manage your inventory. This is where warehousing comes in. Not only do you need space to store your products safely until they are shipped, but you also need an effective and accurate system for cataloging and tracking your inventory until it is delivered to your customers. These tasks all fall under the banner of warehousing.
Depending on our customers’ needs, Bonded Service has both the resources and expertise to coordinate any or all of these 3 types of logistics. From a full array of warehousing solutions to courier service to cross-country or international freight, we can help you manage your products from acquisition to delivery. To learn more, contact us today.