Logistics buying support from FTA’s new specialist service

Logistics procurement will be made simpler and more effective with the Freight Transport Association’s (FTA) new Logistics Buyer Information Service (LBIS).

LBIS provides users with access to market data that influences demand patterns and rates, compliance developments – that affect logistics provider costs – and practical guidance on managing a third party logistics contractor relationship. A further feature of LBIS will be personalised, one-to-one logistics procurement advice for individual companies via FTA’s specialist consultancy team.

Mark Cartwright, FTA’s Product Manager, said: “LBIS will become indispensable for third-party logistics purchasers regardless of the scale of their outsourcing needs. It will answer the big questions, from ‘should I outsource?’ to the nitty-gritty matters concerning contractual procedures, for example.”

Many UK businesses have benefited in recent years from contracting out their transport and wider supply chain needs to third party logistics providers. However, by outsourcing parts of their supply chains, logistics buyers may have lost valuable in-house expertise.

Cartwright, concluded: “Logistics outsourcing is a feature of business for thousands of our members across the retail, manufacturing and processing sectors. FTA’s Logistics Buyer Information Service meets a need for a logistics information service tailored just for them. It has already been embraced by companies such as Asda, Thresher and Targus Europe.”

LBIS’s quarterly emails and online news is supported by historical information, trends and forecasts across a range of statistics and freight related indicators.