Is Modern day outsourcing of logistics a challenge?

Yes, the outsourcing of the logistics operations is a challenging job. It needs more involvement and interaction with various parties involved and it requries very intricate planning to have the job done at the end of the day.

All that counts for the company is the profitability and success rather than the embrassement of the nondeliverance and loss of the customer and money as well. 

I agree with the fact that modern day outsourcing of logistics is a challenge. The decision to outsource or not should rest on the primary capabilities of the company making this decision. A full fledged 3PL or 4PL provider might be able to attain some econmies of scale which might not be possible for individual companies maintaining their own fleet.

However, the challenge here would be to be able to assess the capabilityes of the service provider on the metrics of reliability and accuracy of delivery. With the implementation of JIT and Lean in more and more companies the window for error has become smaller The reliability of the carrier delivery has become very critical in this JIT envioronment where transit times and relaibility play a critical role in defining a companys overall performance.

very true, gone are the days when your own Logistics Dept use to book the transport and call for the vehicles. The things have become more comprtitive and time based. Transit time has become more crucial when cost cutting by way of use of Multi model transport is concerned. late arrival of truck can lead to late rail out, further leading to late vessel out. Same way late deliveries are contrary to Just in time theory so crucial to automobile sector.

Also gone are the days when fleet carrying and maintainance is possiblle for all the manufacturers.It has to be outsouced for the industry. Also as a fleet owner it is very difficult for them to maintain the fleet as it needs seperate set of professionals.It is only profitable in case of Cargo/parcel movements. Out sourcing thus comes cheap for bigger players. no maintainance of fleet, but the challenge comes here when the contracts are done with the client on monthly/quaterly/yearly basis where as rates vary seasonally. In this players haveing deep knowledge of the same are required. Mind it it is not a rockert science but just indepth knowledgw of transport industry, specially full truck sector to built on outsourced model. But for this you need organisations with whole lot of experience in full truck sector, as this sector is back bone of 80% non organised logistics sector of India.