USING TRANSPORTATION INTERMEDIARIES FOR INDUSTRIAL PURCHASING DECISIONS Available to Purchase

One of the less observed results of transportation deregulation has been the explosive growth of transportation intermediaries or third‐party specialists such as brokers, shippers' agents and integrated leasing companies for use by industrial purchasers and marketing management. Such transportation intermediaries have the performance potential and apparent reasons for existence to suggest that they can both reduce delivered product costs and enhance service quality attributes to promote a company's competitive advantage. In a broader sense, intermediaries may be ideally positioned to assist in coordinating and processing information for the entire value‐added chain.