By Elizabeth Wasserman

Aug. 1, 2005—More than 90 percent of international trade now involves shipping goods in sea-going vessels, including 95 percent of all goods bound for the United States, according to a study by the management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. But moving goods from factories to retail stores is becoming increasingly complex and that's leading to problems—problems radio frequency identification could help solve.

The logistics industry includes trucking, rail and shipping companies, which tend to transport bulk freight, and air cargo companies, which focus primarily in the express shipment market. But most manufacturers, rather than sort out the labyrinth of shipping lanes, ports, customs, trucking and air cargo issues, outsource the flow of goods and information management to logistics providers.

3PLs and 4PLs may be in the best position to provide end-to-end RFID solutions along heavily traveled and lucrative transportation routes.

Third-party logistics providers—or 3PLs, as they are known—provide transportation and warehousing arrangements, and act as brokers between shipping and other transportation companies and customs officials along certain specified trade routes. Due to the increasing volume and complexity of global trade, and a rash of consolidation between some freight, trucking and air cargo companies, manufacturers are increasingly outsourcing the management of their entire supply chain to fourth-party logistics providers—4PLs—that have global reach and access to different modes of transportation.