Firms must measure performance against some external standard to effec
tively assess their performance. These ''benchmarked'' comparisons all
ow management to identify best practices and compare their firm's perf
ormance to leading edge performers. The purpose of this paper is to re
port the results of an exploratory study of benchmarking practices foc
used on one type of logistics service firm: warehousing firms. Externa
l logistical service providers have become extremely popular in recent
years in large part due to resource constraints and the desire for ef
ficiency improvements. Therefore, the researchers sought to determine
1) what is the extent of benchmarking involvement among warehousing fi
rms: 2) the specific areas in which benchmarking is commonly used by t
hese firms; and 3) whether differences exist between warehousing firms
that conduct benchmarking and those that do not.