The Big and Small of the Last Mile Delivery
Final-mile delivery, like this one by XPO Last Mile, requires not only getting the product there in a specific time window, but often can involve getting it into the customers’ home and even setting it up. Photo: XPO Logistics
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Final-mile delivery, like this one by XPO Last Mile, requires not only getting the product there in a specific time window, but often can involve getting it into the customers’ home and even setting it up. Photo: XPO Logistics
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When A. Duie Pyle analyzed several months’ worth of delivery data by shipment size, it discovered a large portion of deliveries were actually quite small shipments for a less-than-truckload carrier. And there, the Northeast regional LTL saw an opportunity in last-mile delivery.
Enter the Express Solutions business, which aims to offer same-day service in all the metropolitan markets in the Northeast by the end of the year.
Last-mile delivery, sometimes called final mile, is an item’s final destination in the supply chain, whether that be the local Walmart or shoe store or office building — or increasingly, thanks to the rise of e-commerce and omni-channel marketing, the customer’s home.
Because e-commerce is booming, the need for final-mile delivery means both headaches and opportunities for companies in a wide swath of the transportation and logistics business, from small couriers to UPS and FedEx, and from regional delivery fleets to big LTL and truckload carriers like XPO Logistics and Schneider.
“The rise of e-commerce has created a tidal wave of demand for last-mile logistics — it requires ongoing investments in scale and technology to keep ahead of consumer expectations,” says Charlie Hitt, president of XPO Last Mile.
At one end of the scale, for small packages, technology such as drones and robots are being explored. At the other end, an increasing appetite for delivery of larger items means less-than-truckload and truckload carriers are increasingly getting involved. “White-glove” services, which involve not just delivery, but also assembly, setup and installation, are booming. And behind the scenes, making the complex requirements of last-mile delivery possible — and more importantly, profitable — is …Read the rest of this story
