3PL news: Armstrong, Chainalytics partner up for 3PL benchmarking services

Two leading supply chain consulting firms announced this week they have launched a multi-year marketing and co-branding partnership to provide third-party logistics (3PL) services providers with various benchmarking capabilities.

The firms in this partnership are Armstrong & Associates, a supply chain consultancy focused on 3PL market research, and Chainalytics, a supply chain consulting firm focused in enabling fact-based supply chain decisions.

Through this new partnership, these firms will develop what they described as Model-Based Benchmarking (MBBC) for 3PLs, which Chainalytics has offered in the past to Fortune 100 retail, consumer packaged goods, and manufacturing industries. Armstrong will serve as Chainalytics strategic marketing partner.

Officials at the firms said in a statement that this partnership encompasses a joint marketing and industry analysis methodology to target all domestic 3PLs with significant transportation spend in truckload and intermodal, including dry van, refrigerated, and flatbed equipment types. And as part of the service, 3PLs will receive a wealth of transportation information, including 3PL-specific surveys, benchmarking rate comparisons, peer fuel program and operational factor analyses, and online tools for batch rating.

“This makes sense for us,” said Evan Armstrong, president of Armstrong & Associates, in an interview at the eyefortransport 3PL Summit in Atlanta this week. “We do a lot of 3PL benchmarking and have done a lot of pricing benchmarking for warehousing and some on the transportation side, too. But really what Chainalytics has done is build a practice that is focused on transportation benchmarking and it has primarily been with shippers. We have been talking and decided to work together in helping to target the 3PL space and build some benchmarks for 3PLs.”

The first phase of this partnership will focus on domestic over-the-road purchased transportation, which will be followed by LTL, ocean import/export, and heavy air models. And Armstrong and Chainalytics will host a webinar on Wednesday, June 30 at 3 p.m. ET to discuss the current state of the 3PL industry and the working relationship between the firms.

Armstrong said the focus of the webinar will be to get 3PLs on board and building enough of a base for the consortium to drive 3PL participation, develop benchmarks and provide visibility for 3PLs.

“Armstrong & Associates’ track record as the de-facto standard in 3PL industry analysis and consulting is a big reason why we made the decision to partner,” said Matthew Harding, Principal Chainalytics, in a statement. “The depth of Armstrong & Associates relationships and the breadth of its customer base and analysis in the 3PL market provide a unique opportunity to expand transportation market intelligence.”