Definition of Logistics

he paper aims to understand the current status of China Logistics Industry in particular under situational and competitive environment analysis. As an introduction, this chapter will starts with an explaination of the major components in Logistics and logistics definition which will facilitate the fundamental concepts as we discuss in greater details on the analysis in the following chapters.

Definition of Logistics

Logistics involve the planning, implementation and control of the flow for transporting and storage of goods, inventory and services from one point to another within the defined customers’ supply chain requirements. Services can range from warehousing, custom brokerage, consultancy, pick and pack and many more that be further customized based on different customers’ requirements.

Logistics Infrastructure

This mainly includes transportation infrastructure, transportation vehicles and warehousing. Transportation infrastructure will be in areas such as rail, road, air, ocean, logistics parks, bonded zones etc. Transportation vehicles will be such as planes, trucks, trailers, railway, cranes etc. Warehouses will be the physical venue for storage of customers’ goods for either temporary or a defined period could be under normal temperature or within a stipulated temperature due to the commodity type requirements.

Logistics industry structure

The industry is divided into Domestic, International Third Party Forwarders (3PL) and also Fourth Party Forwarders (4PL or Lead Logistics Providers which is another term, LLP). Domestic mode in the form of trucks, rail and air is used mainly to service the cities within China. At 2007, it was calculated to be around 656 cities within China. Some are well developed with planes while some are under developed with only road as the main mode of transportation in order to deliver goods