The term third party logistics – often abbreviated to 3PL – refers to a specific logistics model: 3PL providers take over third party transportation and warehousing. For this purpose, they maintain their own fleet of vehicles and warehouses. If needs be, services also include inventory management, warehousing, labeling, packaging, customs clearance and IT services such as delivery status determination and product tracking. In other words, using 3PL service providers, manufacturing companies can completely outsource all logistics processes and concentrate fully on their core competencies.