Purpose – Developing strategic relationships with third-party logistics (3PL) providers has long been one of the key challenges in automotive supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach for evaluation and indexing 3PL providers using the Kano model. Design/methodology/approach – The statistical population used in this research comprises managers from the Iranian automotive industry. The Kano evaluation approach is used to analyze the data collected and to classify the criteria used in selection of the preferred 3PL providers. Findings – The results suggest that the proposed framework, based on the Kano classification, can be a powerful tool for the automotive industry in evaluating 3PL providers. Moreover, the analyses indicate that 3PL providers need to improve their service offering in aspects that are to be found in the Kano model’s requirements, namely, must-be, one-dimensional and attractive. Originality/value – This study contributes to the supply chain management literature by being the first to classify selection indices of 3PL providers in the automotive industry using the Kano model.