MADISON, Wisconsin—In its comprehensive report, Armstrong & Associates, Inc (A&A) estimates the total US warehousing market for 2015 will be US$141 billion. Commercial warehousing will account for $65 billion. The Third-Party Logistics (3PL) Value-Added Warehousing and Distribution (VAWD) market segment will be $39 billion.
The 3PL VAWD market segment grew 2.5 percent in 2014. Of the VAWD third-party logistics providers (3PLs) reporting to A&A yearly, three had gross revenue growth exceeding 10 percent. Overall, net income margins averaged 3.7 percent. Warehouse vacancy rates have reached a level in key markets where growth should improve in late 2015 and 2016.
A&A’s Top 60 VAWD 3PLs have 3,540 facilities between them with 763 million square feet. The Top 60 have an average of 59 warehouses. The average size is 215,456 square feet.
Modern VAWD 3PLs all have significant transportation management capabilities. This report’s survey participants commonly have network transportation management and dedicated contract carriage (DCC) trucking operations.
Three-fourths of the participants have asset trucking operations including DCC. Over half of those with network transportation management capabilities have control centres operating with major transportation management systems (TMS) platforms. The participants use 87 percent of their total warehouse space for contract warehousing and 13 percent for public warehousing.
Commodities handled by the participants were split into 13 vertical industries. The largest was retail & consumer products at 26 percent. Beverages and food was 17 percent while high-tech/computers accounted for 12 percent. The smallest vertical was aerospace at 1 percent.
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