Logistics Outsourcing : Current state of the market of outsourcing logistics services

In this thesis the market of outsourcing logistics services was studied. The thesis is divided into three major parts. First part regards the outsourcing itself: types of outsourcing, reasons to outsource, activities that company may outsource, possible risks, consequences and decision-making process. The second part concerns providers: types of providers, parameters for choosing the right provider, the decision-making process in terms of choosing provider and management of relationships with providers. The last part dedicates to Finnish and Belarussian markets. It includes an experience of an existent service provider DHL, comparison between Belarus and Finland in terms of the development of outsourcing and currently figures. The objectives of this study were: 1.To define the reasons for outsourcing; 2.To investigate existent providers and compare them; 3.To define the main issues to be regarded by management about outsourcing; 4.To analyse the current market of outsourcing logistics services through comparison between Finland and Belarus. The main sources of information for this thesis were scientific articles, researches, books, interview with representative from DHL company and statistics. There are many books related to logistics which consider this topic, but due to relative novelty of trend of outsourcing, it was difficult to find a wide range of information. Nevertheless, English and Belarussian literature have been used. The study showed that logistics outsourcing is a worldwide famous trend which on the one hand attracts companies by numerous benefits and possibilities and on another hand may bring unpleasant consequences. This trend is different in Finland (the country with already developed market of outsourcing logistics services) and Belarus where outsourcing appeared not that long time ago. However, in both countries the development is very slow due to external, independent issues