I'm still new to it all and probably haven't found the best way. For PvE I try to follow this drill: I keep my logistics ship default keep at range at 30K. If I have time starting an encounter I'll manually start it moving 180 degrees from the nearest rats. After a little bit I'll set it to keep my main ship at range, so it will keep moving away until it's 30K out. If I don't have time, if I'm getting hit hard after warping in, I'll usually send the logistics ship out on it's own, keeping my main at 30K range. If the dps ships are the ones getting hit, the logistics ship can usually keep them up. If it's the logistics ship getting hit, I'll be prepared to warp the group out quickly. I'll try to improve the time I have by warping in 50K, 70K or 100K out when I can.

Another thing I do sometimes is, when action as started, set my main ship to keep the logistics ship at a range of 20K. So the main ship, and the rest of the group, goes towards the logistics ship, which is moving away from my main ship. With the rats following behind. Kiting them, in other words. I seem to take less damage doing that, sometimes at least.

That's how I've been playing it, but I'd be interested in hearing what the right way is myself.