Business Logistics Costs Clear $1 Trillion Mark First Time for a Year

June 13, 2001 10:17 AM, EDT

WASHINGTON — Although logistics costs for business exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in 2000 and were up two-tenths of a point as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, the real culprit in that change was not poor inventory management but declining sales, according to a privately funded report on the economic condition of the logistics industry authored by Robert Delaney and Rosalyn Wilson.

The report was sponsored by ProLogis, an owner-operator of almost 1,700 distribution facilities in North America and Europe, and St. Louis-based Cass Information Systems, a freight payment services provider for which Delaney is vice president. Delaney, who also is a ProLogis consultant, has been compiling his annual “State of Logistics” reports since 1988.

Wilson is an independent consultant who analyzes statistical data and other research in the transportation field.At $1.006 trillion, logistics accounted for 10.1% of GDP last year, up from $921 billion (9.9% of GDP) in 1999, according to figures Delaney and Wilson compiled and that were released at a National Press Club news conference here June 4.

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