For more than three decades, the Annual 3PL Study has been the supply chain industry’s most consistent window into how shippers and third-party logistics providers build, measure, and improve their working relationships. This year, as the study enters its 31st edition, it comes home to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The study’s founder, Professor Emeritus John Langley, spent 28 years on the UT faculty before becoming a supply chain faculty member at Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial Engineering and, most recently, at Penn State University’s Smeal College of Business. Following Langley’s retirement at Penn State, the research will now continue as a collaboration with the Global Supply Chain Institute. UT’s supply chain management programs have long been recognized among the premier centers of supply chain research and education in North America.
“I’ve been involved with this study for the past 30 years,” Langley told attendees at UT’s Spring 2026 Supply Chain Forum. “We survey 3PLs and shippers, seeking a better understanding of how relationships can be formed, sustained, and made favorable. This study has a lot of legs. It’s still very strong and well received, and we’re going to keep it going with the University of Tennessee involved from here forward.”
Each year’s study focuses on the current state of how shipper and 3PL relationships are formed, sustained, and improved. With the rising perceived importance of supply chain management, these studies provide valuable perspectives on how these relationships may deal with new objectives, challenges, and disruptions.
“This study continues to be well-received, and our immediate objective is to keep it moving forward in collaboration with the University of Tennessee,” Langley said. “As Professor Emeritus at the institution, I am honored that key faculty members will be involved with the upcoming studies.”
Why The Study Matters
The 3PL Study began with a simple premise: when a shipper partners with a logistics provider, a relationship forms. How that relationship is structured, measured, and kept healthy over time has enormous business consequences. However, remarkably little formal research existed on the subject when Langley launched the study in the mid-1990s.
Today’s landscape has grown far more complex. Shippers are consolidating their provider relationships, demanding AI-enabled capabilities, navigating freight fraud and cybersecurity risk, and renegotiating what a strategic partnership actually means. The study tracks all of it.
Among the key findings from the 2026 Annual 3PL Study:
- 88% of shippers report that their 3PL relationships are successful.
- 50% of shippers are consolidating the number of 3PL partners they use, giving each remaining partner a larger share of business and changing the nature of those relationships.
- Only 5% of shipper-3PL relationships are truly strategic—even though 55% of shippers self-describe their relationships that way.
- 74% of shippers say they would switch 3PL providers based on AI capabilities.
What’s Ahead: The 2027 Study
The 2027 study, which is underway, was shaped in real time with practitioners. At the Spring 2026 Supply Chain Forum, Langley led an interactive workshop to stress-test the survey’s focus areas before the questions were written. The conversation was substantive: participants raised real operational challenges around AI governance, relationship cadence, freight fraud, and geopolitical exposure.
Those discussions directly informed the four special topics the study will explore this year.
1. AI Adoption Across Supply Chains and 3PL Networks
AI is reshaping how shippers select and evaluate logistics partners. Nevertheless, implementation remains uneven. The 2027 study will examine the barriers organizations most frequently encounter when adopting AI in supply chain contexts: data quality and availability, legacy system integration, talent gaps, unclear ROI, governance and security concerns, and the perennial challenge of change management. The goal is to move beyond headline statistics and understand where the friction actually lives.
2. Alignment & Collaboration
Strategic relationships don’t sustain themselves. The 2027 study will assess what shippers and 3PLs consider the true markers of a successful relationship, from strategic and cultural alignment to operational agility, innovation and digital maturity, and trust and open communication. The forum made clear that the gap between perceived and actual strategic depth is one of the study’s most persistent and important findings.
3. Resiliency and Risk Mitigation in Shipper-3PL Relationships
Supply chains are under simultaneous pressure from multiple directions: transportation capacity disruptions, supplier instability, cybersecurity threats, labor shortages, extreme weather, and regulatory change. The 2027 study will examine which risks generate the most concern, as well as the resiliency capabilities organizations have in place: multimodal strategies, inventory buffering, alternative sourcing, scenario planning, control towers, and formal business continuity plans.
4. Global Conflicts & Geopolitical Disruptions Impacting Supply Chains and Logistics
Geopolitical instability is a front-line supply chain concern. The 2027 study will probe which conflict-driven risks—freight cost volatility, route availability, supplier reliability, insurance premiums, inventory positioning, and customer service impacts—are weighing most heavily on shippers and their 3PL partners today. An open-response question will capture how leading organizations are actively responding.
Your Participation Shapes the Research
The 3PL Study draws its value from broad, cross-industry participation. Responses come from shippers across consumer packaged goods (CPG), oil and gas, healthcare, and manufacturing, as well as from providers on both the asset-based and non-asset-based sides.
“One of our highest priorities this year is to bump up our response rate,” Langley said. “Practitioner input is exactly what helps us shape the direction of the research.”
The Annual 3PL Study is affiliated with the University of Tennessee Global Supply Chain Institute. Participating organizations include Penske, NTT Data, and CSCMP. Findings will be presented at the CSCMP Edge Conference in Nashville in October 2026. All 30 years of Annual 3PL Study reports are available for free at 3PLStudy.com.
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