Can one 3PL handle my entire supply chain?
Yes. An integrated 3PL can manage multiple parts of a company's supply chain through a single logistics relationship, including warehousing, fulfillment, transportation, drayage, brokerage and value-added services. For companies operating across retail, B2B and e-commerce channels, this can reduce the number of logistics vendors involved and create clearer accountability across the supply chain.
Taylor Logistics runs all of it inside one company: seven facilities and roughly 3 million square feet of warehousing, fulfillment for retail, B2B and DTC channels, value-added services on the same floor and transportation including a dedicated fleet, brokerage across all 50 states and drayage.
You can use one service or use them all. Programs commonly start with storage and grow into fulfillment and transportation without changing providers or re-platforming inventory.
What is an integrated 3PL?
An integrated 3PL is a third-party logistics provider that operates several connected logistics functions for the same customer rather than one specialty. Storage, order fulfillment, freight handling and transportation sit inside one company, with connected visibility across services and one account team responsible for the whole scope.
A single-service provider does one thing: a warehouse stores, a broker covers loads, a fulfillment house ships parcels. In that model the customer owns every handoff between them: the inventory reconciliation, the appointment, the claim when a retailer charges back a late delivery.
Integration is not a product. It is an operating arrangement: connected visibility across services, one account team, one reporting set and scope that can expand without a new vendor selection.
- Clear accountability across services, including visibility into when transportation or other services are performed through qualified partners
- Connected inventory visibility across channels and sites
- Inbound and outbound freight planned against the same order data
- EDI and API integration between your ERP or order management system and ours
- One account team accountable for every service in scope
- Reporting that covers storage, orders and freight in one place
What logistics services can one 3PL manage?
Follow a container from the port to the customer's door. Every step below can sit with one provider, with inventory and shipment data connected across the operation.
Why use one 3PL for warehousing and transportation?
Most of the cost of a fragmented network is not in the rates. It is in the handoffs, and in the hours your team spends reconciling between providers.
Fewer handoffs
Every transfer between vendors is a place where inventory, paperwork or an appointment can go wrong. Fewer transfers, fewer failure points.
One point of accountability
When a retail order misses its window, there is no argument about whether the warehouse or the carrier caused it. One team owns the outcome.
Connected inventory visibility
Storage, order and freight data connected across services instead of three partial views held by three companies. What is on hand, what is allocated and what is in transit reconcile against each other.
Coordinated inbound and outbound planning
Receiving labor, dock doors and outbound loads are planned against the same order file, so a heavy inbound day is not also a heavy ship day by accident.
Simpler communication
One account team, one escalation path. Real people, real fast replies, instead of a group thread across four companies.
More consistent reporting
Storage, order accuracy, on-time performance and freight cost measured the same way, on the same cadence, in one set of reports.
Easier expansion into new channels
Adding DTC to a retail program, or a second region, is a change order inside an existing relationship rather than a new vendor search.
Consolidation is not automatically right. If one provider covers a region or a capability better than anyone else, keep them. The test is whether your handoffs are costing more than the specialization is worth.
Integrated 3PL vs. multiple logistics providers
Neither model wins on principle. Here is what actually differs, so you can judge which one your operation is built for.
Can the same 3PL handle B2B, retail and DTC fulfillment?
Yes. B2B case and pallet orders, retail distribution built to routing guides and direct-to-consumer parcel orders can run from the same network and, in many cases, the same inventory pool. What changes by channel is the pick path, the packaging and the compliance rules, not the building or the inventory pool.
This matters most for brands that sell through more than one channel. When retail and DTC inventory sit with separate providers, the two pools drift apart: one runs short during a promotion while the other sits on the same SKU. Shared inventory removes that.
Taylor can support retail, B2B and DTC channels within the same operation: retail and B2B orders picked to case and pallet with EDI, ASNs, SSCC labels and routing-guide compliance; DTC orders picked to parcel with cart and marketplace integrations, including Amazon prep. Value-added work (display builds, club packs, kitting) happens in the same building rather than at a separate co-packer.
Case and pallet picking, EDI 850/856/810, ASNs, SSCC pallet labels, retailer routing guides, OTIF and chargeback controls.
Parcel pick, pack and ship, cart and marketplace integrations, Amazon prep and FBA inbound, returns processing, DIM-aware packaging.
One item master and one on-hand balance across channels, with allocation rules by channel and lot or date-code control where the category requires it.
How Taylor Logistics connects warehousing and transportation
Four capability groups, one company. Family owned since 1850, seven facilities, roughly 3 million square feet and brokerage across all 50 states.
Fulfillment
Transportation
Seventh generation of family ownership
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Maine
Public, dedicated, food-grade and cold
Freight brokerage on Revenova TMS
Who is an integrated 3PL best for?
An integrated 3PL model can be particularly valuable for established and growing brands whose supply chains have become too complex to manage across multiple disconnected providers.
CPG brands shipping to retail and DTC
Promotional volume, display builds and parcel orders out of one inventory pool, with routing-guide compliance on the retail side.
Food and beverage companies
Food-grade storage and transportation together: lot and date-code control, SQF-supported handling, FIFO and FEFO rotation, cold storage where required.
Omnichannel brands on shared inventory
B2B and DTC fulfilled from the same on-hand balance, with allocation rules by channel instead of two separate pools that drift.
Manufacturers needing near-plant capacity
Overflow and finished-goods warehousing close to the plant, with dedicated transportation running the shuttle lanes.
Retail suppliers managing compliance
EDI, routing guides and OTIF requirements handled where the order is picked and where the load is covered, not across two vendors.
Mid-market food, beverage and CPG brands running omnichannel programs with retail compliance requirements, on Midwest and East-oriented supply chains. Not sure? A 15-minute call sorts it out.
Integrated 3PL FAQs
Can one 3PL handle warehousing and transportation?
Yes. A 3PL that operates both warehouses and transportation can store inventory, pick and pack orders and move the freight inbound and outbound through one logistics relationship. The people loading the trailer and the people covering the load work from the same information, which matters most on appointment changes, short-notice reloads and detention.
What is an integrated 3PL?
An integrated 3PL manages multiple parts of a company's supply chain through a single logistics relationship, including warehousing, fulfillment, transportation, drayage, brokerage and value-added services. Scope is defined in one relationship, inventory and freight data stay connected across services and one account team is accountable across the services in use.
Can a 3PL handle both B2B and DTC orders?
Yes. B2B case and pallet picking, retail orders built to routing guides and direct-to-consumer pick, pack and ship can run from shared inventory in the same building, with different pick paths, packaging and labeling by channel.
What is the difference between an integrated 3PL and a freight broker?
A freight broker arranges transportation. An integrated 3PL holds and handles the inventory as well, running warehousing, fulfillment and value-added services alongside transportation. Taylor operates a brokerage inside a warehousing company, so a load can be brokered, or it can be picked, packed and shipped under the same account.
Should I use one 3PL or multiple logistics providers?
Multiple providers can be the right answer when each one covers a distinct region or capability well. One provider tends to fit when the handoffs between vendors are where problems start: inventory disputes, missed appointments, unclear accountability on a late order. The practical test is how much time your team spends reconciling between providers.
Can a 3PL manage drayage and warehousing?
Yes. Containers can be pulled from the port or ramp, transloaded or cross-docked and put away into storage by the same provider, with one set of receipts and one inventory record from the container to the pallet position.
Can one 3PL handle retail fulfillment and e-commerce?
Yes. Retail distribution and e-commerce fulfillment can run from the same network and, in many cases, the same inventory pool, including EDI, retailer routing guides, OTIF requirements, Amazon prep and parcel-ready DTC orders.
What should I look for in an integrated 3PL?
Which services the provider operates directly and which are performed through qualified partners, how inventory and freight data stay connected across those services, EDI and API integration capability, compliance to your category's requirements, a named account team and reporting that covers every service in scope.
When should a company consolidate logistics providers?
Common triggers are adding a sales channel, a retailer compliance program that spans storage and transportation, a contract coming up for renewal, repeated inventory discrepancies between providers or a team spending more time coordinating vendors than managing the supply chain.
Does Taylor Logistics provide both warehousing and transportation?
Yes. Taylor operates public, dedicated, food-grade and cold storage warehousing, B2B, retail and DTC fulfillment, value-added services and transportation including dedicated fleet, FTL, LTL, brokerage and drayage. The company has been family owned since 1850 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Go deeper on any single service
Integration is the point of this page, but every service under it has its own operating detail.
Tell us how many vendors you're juggling.
We'll help determine which parts we can support, what information we need to price the program and what implementation could look like. We'll come tour your facility, you come tour ours.
Useful details for a first call: channels you sell through, pallet or unit volumes, order profile, storage requirements, systems you need to connect to and your target start date.