The growing tendency to outsource logistics has been postulated for many years. The unrealised outsourcing potential in Europe has, however, been growing since the last 3-5 years. According to a recent survey a realistic outsourcing potential of 16 billions can be attributed to the German logistics market alone. Insufficient competence of Third Party Logistics (TPL) providers has been postulated as one of the underlying reasons for not realising this enormous market potential. Based on the results of a case study this paper presents a model for contract logistics competence and shows how much the expectations towards the logistics providers can differ from logistics providers’ self assessment.
