Agility
Founded 1979 | Global | Asset & Non-Asset Based
Agility is a 3PL well named. Having a presence in more than 100 countries certainly provides the tools needed to be flexible enough to adapt quickly to the ever-changing complexities of the global supply chain. From its start as a warehousing provider in Kuwait, Agility has invested billions and acquired more than 40 logistics firms, building a truly global company that now specializes in industries ranging from automotive to pharma to consumer goods and many others. agility.com

C.H. ROBINSON
Founded 1905 | Global | Non-Asset Based
On the last page of the C.H. Robinson website, beyond the one about the company’s origins in 1905 South Dakota, and the ones about its 11,500 employees recasting the logistical nightmares of 46,000 customers in offices throughout the world, is Global Trade Resources. It offers seminars on trade policy and compliance and provides a guide for deciphering those three-letter Incoterms of world trade. There’s also a currency converter, time-zone converter, dimensional freight calculator, sailing schedule, airport locator and global trade library. But you click on a box titled “Put Us To Work,” which links to a C.H. Robinson agent, because you just realized you could never do this stuff yourself. chrobinson.com

D. B. SCHENKER
Founded 1947 | Global | Non-Asset Based
What’s the “D.B.” stand for? Deutsche Bahn, the German railway—and that’s why the company with the Long Island address stands among the world’s leading providers of integrated logistics services, its 95,700 employees offering freight movement by land, air and ocean and global supply chain management to the tune of nearly $22 billion in revenues. Confident? Here’s D.B. Schenker on company methodology: “We provide solutions without complicated strategies.” On sustainability: “A supply chain with global reach does not have to be bad for the environment.” Meanwhile, Schenker just joined a clean air compact with Hyundai, opened the “terminal of the future” in Finland, and bought a robot to work in one of its warehouses. dbschenkerusa.com

DHL SUPPLY CHAIN AND GLOBAL FORWARDING
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The Earth’s largest freight forwarding supply chain provider paused during last month’s celebration of its 2014 revenues—at $32 billion, more than a billion above 2013—to point out that better health, relief from pain and cure of disease for millions of people depend upon the creation of a new and improved generation of cold chains. The capacity of current cold chains would be swamped by the forecasted demand for pharmaceuticals whose effectiveness requires refrigerated transport, especially in emerging markets such as Asia. Analysts predict continued success for DHL due to its prominence in Asia and concentration on controlled-atmosphere shipping. dhl.com

DSV GLOBAL TRANSPORT
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It’s got worldwide reach, end-to-end expertise and hankers to expand—yet this full-service 3PL somehow feels a little fuller than most. The difference is its emphasis on a service the Danish company calls tailored project transport, which essentially matches the need to move some heavy, oversized or complex cargo—whatever—with the means to transport it from here or there to anywhere. Tailored project transports have moved military hardware in a war zone, the massive apparatus of mining and oil operations, chartered ships, chartered airships and an entire wind farm, including the logistics to ensure the availability of spare parts. us.dsv.com

FEDEX TRADE NETWORKS
Founded 2000 | Global | Non-Asset Based
A century of experience and 7 million annual transactions position customs brokers of FedEx Trade Networks to facilitate efficient customs clearance for clients and their shipments. Close work with border agencies and certification with the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) keep clients in compliance with changing regulations and their shipments in transit. Additional services include calculation of customs duties, taxes and fees; instant access to customs documents, protest preparation and filing and expedited refund claims. ftn.fedex.com

KUEHNE + NAGEL
Founded 1890 | Global | Non-Asset Based
The Swiss company founded by August Kuehne and Friedrich Nagel turns 125 this year, and its successors celebrated by bringing a couple of shipping containers to the city where it all began in 1890—which turns out to be the German city of Bremen—and sending them on a little tour … one east, the other west. Cool, right? Except the party’s over. Yep. Been done since before summer. We missed it. Everybody’s back at work … which is probably how a company gets to be 125 years old. kuehne-nagel.com

PANALPINA
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The name means “across the Alps,” and the Swiss company’s haulage service through those mountains was a point of pride when it was founded in 1895. Panalpina remains a freight forwarder—2014 net forwarding revenue: 6,707 million francs—but has meanwhile assembled the requisite skills of a global supply chain solutions provider. Business activities are categorized geographically, and then sorted into business segments: air freight, ocean freight, logistics and energy solutions. panalpina.com

SDV INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS
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Although this subsidiary of the industrial transport and logistics group, Bolloré, has recently broadened its traditional emphasis on international air and ocean freight to take on supply-chain management, it was no reach. When you have a presence in 102 countries on five continents, nothing is. SDV’s horizon-to-horizon network equals market proximity that facilitates end-to-end control in concerns that extend from the automotive industry to perfumes and cosmetics, from high-tech to aid and relief missions, from food and beverages to telecommunications. sdv.com

UTi WORLDWIDE
Founded 1926 | Global | Non-Asset Based
Its business processes are overhauled, a high-tech global freight forwarding system is installed, and UTi Worldwide still has a global footprint. But as the Long Beach, California-based company promotes its efficient, integrated and individually customized expertise in contract logistics and international supply chain solutions, there is widespread speculation that Danish 3PL and road haulage company DSV will again attempt an acquisition. DSV broached the subject in mid-2014, and UTi acknowledged there were talks, which it said “never progressed beyond a preliminary stage,” but the admission drove up the stock price and killed any potential deal. go2uti.com