Categories: Blog

Home Delivery: The next Market Niche For Trucking Fleets

Online retail is nothing new. Customers have been making purchases from eBay and Amazon for decades now, and those items are delivered via UPS, FedEx, or the regular postal service. However, with online retail sites offering almost anything under the sun, trucking fleets are looking to branch out to home delivery services.

Home Delivery For Larger Items

With the advent of new services like Wayfair, online sales spiked last year, including the area of retail and appliances. These larger items do not fit easily on the usual carrier trucks, and often require special handling and installation. Additionally, large parcels cannot be handled easily by the sorting facilities at UPS and FedEx facilities. Recently, Ryder started tapping into the market for home delivery for larger items. This move has caused other fleets to start offering their services for home delivery.

The Challenges Of “Last Mile” Trucking

Tapping into the home delivery market is not without its challenges. After all, fleets have steered clear of the last mile for a number of reasons. First, taking large packages directly to private consumers is a costly venture. The amount of fuel used and wear and tear on vehicles to navigate residential areas are both high costs. Second, the number of employees pulled off of long hauls to make home deliveries may be working against the logistic struggles the trucking industry is just starting to overcome. As of the start of 2018, the trucking industry was still operating with fewer drivers than necessary. In this new economic upswing, the trucking industry is seeing a new influx of drivers to help meet the growing demand. Trying to branch out into “last mile” trucking may undo that progress. Third, truckers may also be required to unload bulkier items, bring them into people’s homes, and install them.

Rethinking The Trucking Model

Those fleets entering last mile delivery are investing in smaller vehicles and hiring drivers specifically for deliveries to people’s homes. But with the restrictions of the ELD mandate, there could be conflicts in a market where the customers expect items to arrive in days, not weeks. Currently, there are not many fleets venturing into last mile deliveries. This leaves the market open for carriers such as Ryder to claim the lion’s share.

Express Freight Finance

Share
Published by
Express Freight Finance

Recent Posts

Express Freight Finance

We are pleased to announce the opening of EXPRESS FREIGHT FINANCE, an independent factoring company…

9 years ago

Rolling Billboards Give Our Factoring Service National Exposure

[et_pb_section admin_label="Section" fullwidth="off" specialty="off"][et_pb_row admin_label="Blog Post Row" make_fullwidth="off" use_custom_width="off" width_unit="on" use_custom_gutter="off" padding_mobile="off" allow_player_pause="off" parallax="off" parallax_method="off"…

9 years ago

Self-Driving Cars From Uber: The Future Impact On Delivery Fleets

Popular driving service company Uber recently announced its bid to launch a fleet of self-driving…

8 years ago

Freight Factoring: The Debt-Free Solution For Working Capital

Running a trucking company takes an incredible amount of financial, equipment, human, and logistic resources.…

8 years ago

Finding a Niche: Freight that fits

Darrell and Erica Beverly are the owners of Beverly Transport, a growing Mobile, AL-based steel…

8 years ago

Truck Drivers: How to Stay Healthy on the Road

Statistically, drivers have more health issues than almost any other group of professionals, and even…

8 years ago