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A massive opportunity is opening up for 3PLs, authors of CSCMP's report said. (THEPALMER/Getty Images)

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Third-party logistics providers have been offered a rare opportunity by the Trump administration’s trade policy, according to the annual Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals .

However, to take full advantage, 3PLs must forge better relationships with less-than-truckload and last-mile carriers among other tweaks to their business activities, .

“Uncertainty [due to the tariffs] has made 3PLs increasingly critical, as shippers rely on them for end-to-end logistics support. This is especially true of shippers that historically have managed their logistics directly, and now find the high volatility and growing supply chain complexity of today’s environment too difficult to handle on their own at an acceptable cost,” they warned.

As a result, a massive opportunity is opening up for 3PLs, the authors said after surveying carriers, shippers and analysts for the trade group’s 36th annual report.

The 2025 report saw a doubling of the shipper, carrier and analyst interviews, said Korhan Acar, lead author and a partner in the strategic operations practice of global consulting firm Kearney, which formulated the report for CSCMP.

Gaining actionable insights through the fog of uncertainty shrouding the freight and logistics arena was especially difficult in 2025, Acar and executives said June 3 at the launch of the report.

“Not much has changed in logistics,” joked event moderator Kevin Smith, CEO of Sustainable Supply Chain Consulting and a former CVS Caremark and H.J. Heinz executive, noting the supply chain impact of the U.S. tariffs and reciprocal duties imposed by the Trump administration’s counterparts across the globe.

Acar noted 2024 had been difficult enough, with conflicts across the globe and disruptions to key international trade lanes such as the Suez Canal. Ocean carriers’ expenditures soared 93% because of rate hikes, he noted.

But 3PLs are facing ever more pressure to navigate the growing uncertainty and complexity in shippers’ supply chains in 2025.

To take full advantage, 3PLs must expand their own fourth-party logistics services, building freight orchestration and visibility capabilities needed to manage complex supply chains.

Historically, 3PLs concentrated on fixed origin-to-destination routes and charged shippers using a cost-plus model based on selected services, the authors noted.

Now, however, 3PLs will have to provide alternate routes — including origin and destination variations — and more agile systems, while devising sophisticated contingency planning.

4PL providers act as a single point of contact for an entire outsourced supply chain’s logistics requirements.

Penske Logistics sponsored the report, with senior vice president of solutions and sales strategy Andy Moses on a panel at the launch. Moses likens 4PL to a “big umbrella” where all the supply chain is located.

3PLs also will have to expand beyond intermodal logistics to meet shippers’ local fulfillment and same-day delivery in the last-mile needs if they want to take full advantage of the opportunity, the report authors said.

E-commerce demand continues to surge, and the key battleground is customer experience. Consequently, the report found, 3PLs will need to develop relationships with LTL and last-mile delivery carriers to provide fast, reliable delivery.

But cost efficiency must anchor these changes because shippers don’t want to carry the bulk of higher shipping costs, the report’s authors advised.

One way to do so is through greater use of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, the report found. For instance, AI can be used for demand planning and forecasting or inventory optimization and management, it added.

Aggressive warehouse automation may also buttress the ambitions, especially at facilities such as multi-tenant warehouses for pallet distribution and each-pick capabilities.