INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 8, ISSUE 09, SEPTEMBER 2019 ISSN 2277-8616 2010 IJSTR©2019 www.ijstr.org 3 rd Party Logistics Providers: Comparative Study And Analysis By Using SPSS In Indian Market Veerandra Patil, Dr. Manoj Modi Abstract: With competitive pressures placing an increasing dependence on the ability of organizations to deliver customer adapted products quickly and on time, logistics has been an area that has been subjected to investigation. While, there is a growing evidence of organizations increasingly seeking to outsource their logistics activities, there have been few comprehensive studies on the outsourcing of logistics in the Middle Eastern region. The purpose of this paper is to examine the usage of third party logistics (3PL) services. In India the logistics industry is evolving rapidly and it is the interplay of infrastructure, technology and new types of service providers that will define whether the industry is able to help its customers, reduce their logistics costs and provide effective services . Third party logistics (3PL) is drawing attention at government, industrial, academicians and practitioner’s levels. This project is an attempt to provide 3PL practices perspective in India. The project focuses on present extent of usage of third party logistics services based on data collected from the working professionals in 3PL companies. Data analysis is done using SPSS software and descriptive statistics analysis, correlation, regression analysis and reliability test of collected data is performed. This has helped to compare the best third party logistics provider in Indore and Nasik cities of India. Analysis shows that there are similarities on the use of contract logistics services in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. These include the proportion of firms utilising contract logistics, the extent of involvement of functional managers, and activities outsourced. Notable differences between the 3PL providers include process, and the benefits to the firms from the use of contract logistics. Index Terms: Logistics, Third Party Logistics, logistics outsourcing; service providers; India, SPSS software, statistics analysis. ———————————————————— 1 INTRODUCTION In the today’s era supply chain management (SCM) is growing rapidly and the business of supply chain management is increasing every places in the world Supply chain management includes many logistics function such as transportation, warehousing, distribution management and freight consolidation etc. Supply chain management is the man concern to represent this project and the intention of the research is to identify the most effective ways of choosing a third party Logistics (3PL) provider. Third party logistics is defined as when a third party is brought to manage various logistics functions. A 3PL provider is an independent economic entity that creates value for its client. A trucking company, a warehouse operator, and a contract manufacturer can all be considered third parties. The 3PL industry is constantly changing, although its existence is nothing new. The range of value propositions they offer today has changed dramatically in recent years. Global industry consolidation, technology integration, Third-party logistics (3PL) refers to outsourcing transportation, warehousing and other logistics related activities to a 3PL service provider that were originally performed in-house. More and more corporations across the world are outsourcing their logistics activities due to various reasons, some of which are outlined below. • Due to globalization, corporations across the world are increasingly sourcing, manufacturing and distributing on a global scale making their supply chains very complex. Hence they have to outsource their logistics activities to experienced 3PL providers, who have global operations. Today’s 3PL providers with their sophisticated IT capabilities and state-of- the-art transportation and material handling equipment and warehousing facilities offer complete supply chain Solutions. • Logistics outsourcing is used to complement the logistics activities the corporations do not have competency in, and also to increase the geographic reach. When a corporation expands business overseas, it may not be conversant with the customs duties, tax structures, rules and regulations, import/export policies of the government, and culture of the foreign country. A 3PL provider, who has long been operating in that country, will be better able to carry out the logistics operations. • Logistics may not be one of the core activities of a corporation. So, inefficiency may creep in if it is looked upon as a secondary activity. By outsourcing logistics, corporations may focus on their core competencies. • Logistics outsourcing may also reduce costs as the 3PL providers can get the advantage of the economies of scale, which is otherwise not available to the corporations. • By outsourcing logistics, corporations can reduce their asset base, and deploy the capital released for other productive usage. • Logistics outsourcing improves cycle time and delivery performance, thereby increasing customer satisfaction. • Since the 3PL providers are now offering a number of value- added services such as customs clearance, freight forwarding, import/export management, distribution, after sales support, reverse logistics and so on, corporations can outsource all these activities, and concentrate on their core business operations. • Due to an incredible growth in electronic retailing since the late 1990’s, many firms around the world with virtually no distribution systems rely heavily on the 3PL providers for delivery of the merchandise at the customer’s doorstep. This has resulted in a significant growth in the order fulfillment ————————————————  Veerandra Patil, Acropolis Institute of Technology & Research Indore, India, E- mail: virgipatil@gmail.com  Dr. Manoj Modi Acropolis Institute of Technology & Research Indore, India,E- mail: manojmnitjaipur1@gmail.com