The 3PL shakeout is real. We’re writing a report and want to hear from operators living it. Body
I run a supply chain newsletter read by 8,000+ logistics professionals. We’re putting together a deep report on what’s happening to small and mid-sized 3PLs right now, and we want it grounded in operator reality, not just market data.
Here’s what we’re seeing from our side. We partner with a WMS platform, and over the past year we’ve watched their 3PL customers churn, not because the software failed, but because the businesses underneath stopped existing. Operators in the $2M to $50M revenue range, folding or getting absorbed. That signal is what prompted this report.
The numbers tell part of the story. U.S. 3PL gross revenue hit $405 billion in 2022. By 2023 it dropped 26%. Global revenue fell 18.5% in a single year. But the closures aren’t just hitting the big names. The quieter shakeout is happening at the operator level, the 15-person warehouse, the regional fulfillment shop that signed a lease in 2021 expecting volume that never came back.
Tariffs, freight rate collapse, normalized e-commerce demand, rising warehouse costs, client concentration risk. Every 3PL owner I talk to names a different thing that broke first.
We want to hear yours.
What hit your business first when demand softened?
How are tariffs and trade volatility actually showing up in your operations?
What separated the operators who survived from the ones who didn’t?
If you’re still standing in the $2M-$50M range, what’s keeping you alive?
Happy to do this on or off the record. DM me or comment below. Every contributor gets the piece before it publishes.