An Assessment of Third-Party Logistics Service Providers in the Zimbabwean Retail Industry

Abstract

The study focused on an assessment of third-party logistics service providers in the Zimbabwean retail industry. The study was guided by the study objectives that included establishing the need for third-party logistics service providers, to determine the challenges faced by organizations that make use of third party logistics service providers, to ascertain the factors that contribute to improved logistics services. Literature with regards to third-party logistics service providers was established in this study with the aid of empirical evidence. Pragmatism research philosophy and exploratory research design were utilized in this study as it aided on breaking new insights on third-party logistics service providers. The target population focused on 30 freight organizations in Zimbabwe that were sampled by simple random sampling. Census was adopted in the study as the target population was small. Both structured interviews and questionnaires were used in this study in gathering research data. All the 25 questionnaires were administered as well as the 5 interviews were also successfully conducted. Recommendations were made that retail organizations in Zimbabwe have to outsource well-recommended brands to reduce disappointments that can lead to loss of customers from the adoption of party logistics service providers for distribution and warehousing. The next researcher can now look into the influence of humanitarian logistics on economic growth.