Page 59 - Linkline Autumn 2015

sMe 3PLs In The IrIsh TransPorT and LogIsTICs seCTor
Company category
Employees
Turnover
≤ € 50 m
or
Balance sheet total
Medium-sized
< 250
≤ € 43 m
Small
< 50
≤ € 10 m
≤ € 10 m
Micro
< 10
≤€2m
≤€2m
• 99.7% of active enterprises;
• Of which 90.7% were micro businesses;
• 50.3% of business turnover;
• 68% of persons engaged in the business economy;
• 829,000 employees in 2012, down from 1093,000 in 2007;
• and, € 168.037 billion business economy turnover.
660,000 goods vehicles came through Irish ports in 2011.
67% came from Europe.
33% of roll-on/roll-off freight came from the United Kingdom.
There were 1780 national operator licence holders, accounting for 4,461 vehicles.
There were 2549 international operator licence holders, accounting for 11,304 vehicles.
There was an estimated usage of diesel at 623.7 million litres by Irish hauliers.
Agriculture accounted for 40% of non-ETS emissions, transport approx. 29% and residential approx. 17%.
There is a signi cant academic body of are being sought after more and more as collaborators with globalised
knowledge in the area of supply chain
management (SCm). This article is based on research in which the objective was to compare and contrast views from this body of knowledge with contemporary industry practice for possible industry advancement. we will begin rst by discussing third party logistics (3pLs), small
and medium enterprises (SmEs), supply chain management (SCm) and business relationships
in the supply chain. Next the main results, conclusions and concepts are discussed based on a recent piece of research involving four Irish SmE 3pls, followed by the related industry practice and scholarly views. finally, the recommendations for industry advancement are presented.
Third Party Logistics
Berglund et al. (1999, p. 1) stated, “3PL are activities carried out by a logistics service provider on behalf
of a shipper and consisting of at least management and execution of transportation and warehousing (if warehousing is part of the process).” By outsourcing
its 3PL activities not only does the company get the highest industry standard or service without having to invest heavily in capital, but it also inherits the expertise and specialist knowledge of the service provider. The offset of the logistics function then enables the rm to centre their focus on whatever their core expertise is. In Table 1 statistics compiled by the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) in relation to the Irish 3PL sector can be seen.
Table 1: Irish 3PL sector statistics
companies. SMEs are de ned as enterprises with fewer than 250 persons engaged. In 2005 the European Commission adopted rules for de ning SMEs (see Table 2).
Table 2: Rules de ning SMEs
(Source: European Commission 2005)
Micro, small and medium enterprises are the engine of the European economy. Across the 28 countries in the EU last year, some 21.6 million SMEs in the non ∑ nancial business sector employed 88.8 million people and generated € 3,666 trillion in value added (European Commission 2014). The Central Statistics of ce (CSO, 2014) provides an overview of the structural business statistics currently produced by SMEs in Ireland. Notably Irish SMEs accounted for:
(Source: IRHA)
Small and Medium Enterprises
With the majority 3PLs being SMEs, their unique local knowledge, technical and cultural expertise means they
They have a clear role as drivers of the economic prosperity of the Irish State.
Supply Chain Management
Distinguished supply chain author Martin Christopher (2005, p. 5) de nes supply chain management as “the management of upstream and downstream relationships with suppliers and customers to deliver superior customer value at less cost to the supply chain as a whole.” Logistics is described essentially as a planning orientation and framework that seeks to create a single plan for the ow of products and information through
a business. Supply chain management builds upon this framework and seeks to achieve linkage and coordination between the processes of entities in the pipeline, i.e. suppliers and customers, and the organisation itself (Christopher, 2005).
In his book Perspectives on Supply Chain Management and Logistics, Sweeney (2007) put forward the ‘Four Fundamentals’ of SCM as an attempt to concisely yet comprehensively de ne the essence of SCM. The following is an adaptation of these ‘Four Fundamentals’.
44 The CharTered InsTITuTe of LogIsTICs & TransporT
SME 3PLS