A sector magazine of the newspaper Valor Econômico de Agosto 2016 deals with Outsourcing, a controversial topic that has been frequently debated in the legal and regulatory spheres, and which involves a multitude of activities, such as cleaning, telemarketing, security, IT, accounting and logistics. Political decisions on this subject may directly affect the business of companies, both those that contract outsourced services and those that offer such services.
One of the magazine's articles deals specifically with outsourcing logistics, a segment that has a strong presence of service providers, especially in transport activities, where the level of outsourcing is around 90% according to a survey by the ILOS Institute.
The reasons that lead to logistics outsourcing are many, but, in summary, it can be seen that industries seek to work with logistics service providers because they consider that these are capable of reducing costs, performing logistics activities better than the contracting company itself. specific. In addition, the company gains flexibility to expand or reduce its operations, as logistical costs become variable, an essential factor in periods of economic instability.
Figure 1 – Main reasons for logistics outsourcing
Source: ILOS
As logistics operators work for many different customers, demand variations can be mitigated in the event that one sector is down, but another is up. In addition, service providers can bring greater scale to logistics operations, reducing idleness, such as, for example, transporting full trucks with loads from different customers and sharing space, equipment and storage technology to move products from several contracting companies.
Debates related to legislation on outsourcing, however, question the labor rights of outsourced workers. The motivation is certainly valid, however, great care must be taken not to penalize the efficiency of operations.
Maria Fernanda Hijjar
https://ilos.com.brManaging Partner of ILOS, she holds a master's degree and a bachelor's degree in Production Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). With over 10 years of experience in Logistics and Supply Chain, she has worked on various projects, managing and participating in research related to the topic. She has published more than 20 articles in newspapers, magazines, periodicals and conference proceedings, and is co-author of several titles in the COPPEAD Collection published by Atlas and in the ILOS and CEL/COPPEAD Logistics Panorama Collection.
