Collaborative logistics management and the role of third‐party service providers

Purpose This paper aims to derive and verify a collaborative framework that specifies the role of different parties in contemporary logistics setups. Design/methodology/approach To prepare this paper, a study of the logistics literature has been conducted together with several case studies. The empirical evidence has been collected in Europe as well as in the USA. Different aspects of collaboration between organizations in logistics setups have been studied where the services and the activities have been analyzed to understand the characteristics of the role of third‐party service providers. Findings The results from the work cluster the different third‐party service providers in three different groups: carriers, logistics service providers (LSPs) and logistics service intermediaries (LSIs). All of these parties have different roles and provide various services in outsourced logistics setups. A collaborative logistics management (CLM) model has been derived that embraces the role of the different parties, the information and material flows between them, the interface attributes and the information systems architecture. In this paper, a focus is mainly on the part of the model that reveals the role of the third‐party service providers. Practical implications The practical implications of the work has its foundation in that activities, performed by two parties, can be adapted to each other so that their combined efficiency is improved. The CLM model can be applied when designing and negotiating third‐party services for specific logistics assignments. Originality/value The paper offers a model of logistics collaboration between the different parties in contemporary, outsourced logistics setups.