Assess carrier agreements (air, sealift, winter roads), WMS integration and EDI, cold and hazardous storage, cross-docking and consolidation capacity, local labor and surge staffing, emergency contingency plans, and proven delivery performance to comparable remote destinations.

Multimodal access directly impacts frequency, lead times, and price: air reduces transit time but raises unit cost, sealift lowers freight per pallet but is seasonal, and winter roads add short windows. Optimal 3PLs balance modes to minimize expedited spend while meeting SLA targets.

Focus on SLAs for on-time delivery and transit variance, inventory accuracy, order cycle time, chargeback and dispute processes, minimum throughput, rate transparency for seasonal services, and defined contingency commitments for weather or transport disruptions.

Yes. Use demand segmentation to prioritize SKUs near remote demand, leverage pooled inventory and drop‑ship partnerships to reduce carrying costs, implement hub-and-spoke or milk‑run consolidation, and choose 3PLs with strong routing and cost-to-serve analytics to control margins.