Last-mile providers navigate “the mother of all peaks”
Last-mile logistics had been experiencing a growth spurt leading into 2020. Then the pandemic—and the e-commerce explosion—put it on steroids. How will that change the dynamics of—and the demand for—last-mile service?
Gary Frantz is a contributing editor for DC Velocity and its sister publication CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly, and a veteran communications executive with more than 30 years of experience in the transportation and logistics industries. He's served as communications director and strategic media relations counselor for companies including XPO Logistics, Con-way, Menlo Logistics, GT Nexus, Circle International Group, and Consolidated Freightways. Gary is currently principal of GNF Communications LLC, a consultancy providing freelance writing, editorial and media strategy services. He's a proud graduate of the Journalism program at California State University–Chico.
Last-mile deliveries, whether small packages; large, oversized “non-conveyable” goods; or big and bulky items like furniture and exercise equipment, have always been the most challenging and often most complex segment of the supply chain cycle. Already one of the strongest growth areas for freight, the last-mile market has exploded in the past eight months, the result of a pandemic-driven surge in residence-delivered goods of all types as consumers found themselves sequestered at home, with malls shuttered, offices dark, and shops closed down for the duration.
“As we’ve all seen, the pandemic has supercharged demand for more goods with the growth in e-commerce,” noted Erik Caldwell, president of last-mile logistics for Greenwich, Connecticut-based XPO Logistics, the largest provider of last-mile logistics service for heavy goods in North America, managing some 10 million deliveries and installations annually.
And with more people at home, the demand for final-mile delivery and installation has gone through the roof. “This year, we’ve seen the big and heavy delivery market grow to $13 billion, up from $8 billion in 2013,” with the market expected to reach some $16 billion to $18 billion by the end of 2023, Caldwell says. By then, online purchases are likely to make up some 40% of heavy-goods home delivery.
XPO’s last-mile network consists of 85 hubs in North America that are within 125 miles of 90% of the population, enabling daily delivery to 80% of ZIP codes, the company says. It dispatches more than 3,500 last-mile delivery trucks per day.
PARCEL “BLEED OVER” PUTS PRESSURE ON CAPACITY
The crush of e-commerce–ordered goods, and the resulting capacity constraints faced by major parcel carriers, is creating a “bleed over” of some shipments into traditional last-mile networks, notes John Hill, president and chief commercial officer of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania-based Pilot Freight Services, which among other offerings, provides last-mile delivery. With parcel carriers imposing surcharges and volume limits, particularly with larger, non-conveyable shipments, e-commerce shippers are looking for other options.
“This phenomenon is absolutely happening,” Hill says. “Large e-retailers [faced with volume limitations from parcel carriers] are going to other providers and saying ‘I know you are my heavyweight provider, but instead of 150 pounds and up, can you take my 100 or 75 [pound shipments],’” he notes. “That’s not easy to do because we have to protect our current customers and not inundate ourselves with [freight] that might come and go.”
Early in the pandemic, Hill and his team were preparing to retrench, scale down the business, and take care of employees. Yet he was surprised by the market’s quick turnaround. While traditional B2B (business-to-business) volumes slid in April, by May, an unexpected and sustained surge in e-commerce volume emerged—driving up demand for B2C (business-to-consumer) home deliveries. “We didn’t expect that … now we are moving more B2C traffic,” which took up the slack but came with some additional soft costs typical of residential deliveries.
Pilot has 65 locations in North America that offer the full range of what Hill calls “full mile” delivery services. Another 39 sites are a combination of some dedicated last-mile delivery operations and some multiclient warehouses that provide forward-stocking and staging. Pilot also runs several “back of store” operations for big-box retailers and e-tailers for fast delivery within a 100-mile radius.
A CONTINUOUS PEAK, THEN A FLOOD OF RETURNS
Virtually all last-mile providers agree that the market has been in a continuous “peak” since late March—thanks to the explosion in e-commerce as consumers began ordering all manner of staples online. The traditional holiday season has added even more pressure.
“And just like we’re seeing the mother of all peaks today, we’re expecting the “mother of all returns” season come January,” comments XPO’s Caldwell. He believes there is a natural connection between the rise of e-commerce and the business of returns. According to Caldwell, XPO’s network has centers dedicated to returns, which typically manage the pickup of the item and the return to the original manufacturer. He notes that about 10% of XPO’s last-mile deliveries involve managing some type of return—“either the homeowner decides they don’t want the new product, or we remove an old item when we install the new one.”
Scott Leveridge, president, U.S., for North American final-mile provider TForce Logistics, categorizes the last-mile market into three segments: small package, heavier non-conveyable, and big and bulky. He echoes the experience of other providers that the pandemic has brought about a “huge explosion” in small-package volume as consumers ramped up their online ordering.
It’s also driving increasingly severe capacity constraints among large national parcel carriers, who, Leveridge says, “have gotten really picky about what they will and will not handle,” especially with non-conveyable goods. As non-conveyables are rejected, that’s created secondary opportunities for last-mile carriers to take on more of these heavier, larger, and sometimes odd-shaped shipments, which often exceed 150 pounds.
TForce Logistics operates in over 50 U.S. markets, maintains some 2.5 million square feet of warehouse space, and deploys 6,000 drivers. The company also has 23 operating sites in Canada with 300,000 square feet of warehousing and cross-dock space, and 2,000 drivers. “We call it an urban cross-dock,” Leveridge says of TForce’s facilities. “Ninety-eight percent of the inventory that goes through our building came in tonight and it’s gone in the morning. We are the final-mile launch point to get the product to that end-consumer quickly.”
A CHANGE IN MIX
Like other last-mile providers, TForce has seen its mix change. Mostly gone is retail replenishment. Replacing that and then some has been e-commerce–driven consumer home deliveries, across all three segments. “There is no question e-commerce has grown and continues to do so,” Leveridge says. “Quite frankly, we have cut off some customers for peak, and we are scheduling new starts for Q1.”
An unexpected source of new last-mile deliveries for TForce: meal kits. “People are not eating out as much, and that’s really accelerated the meal-kit industry,” Leveridge says. Companies like Hello Fresh, Plated, and Blue Apron are thriving. Some restaurants have pivoted from inside dining to fully prepared and delivered meal kits. Consumers watching celebrity chefs on YouTube are ordering online and having kits delivered with all the ingredients for that chef’s recipes of the week.
The last significant shift Leveridge has seen has been a rise in store-to-door deliveries, particularly in the home improvement space. “More and more e-commerce orders are being fulfilled at local stores, where we send a truck and do the last-mile delivery to the customer,” he notes. For one big-box home improvement brand, TForce supports final-mile expedited delivery for some 500 stores in 40 markets.
THE GYM COMES HOME
Like other segments of the last-mile logistics market, the “big and bulky” piece has been on a roller coaster ride this year.
“This business has always been tough,” Jeff Abeson, vice president of Miami, Florida-based Ryder Last Mile, says of home delivery of large-format goods. “Going across the threshold into some of the most private spaces of people’s homes, such as delivering [and assembling] a crib into a bedroom for a baby yet to be born …. there’s a lot of emotions that go into it,” he observes. “These are [often] fairly large financial purchases. The level of attention and care, being respectful of the homeowner, are really relevant and always will be.”
The pandemic initially slowed the volume of home delivery and installation work, as both consumers and delivery companies struggled to cope with the realities of Covid-19. “Safety [has been] the utmost concern for our employees and also for the end-consumer,” emphasized Abeson. He says Ryder is in compliance with CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines and has instituted multiple safety practices, including contactless delivery, social distancing, and extensive use of protective gear and disinfectants.
The biggest lift he’s seen has been in home fitness equipment. “With peoples’ aversion to going to public gyms, they have brought the gyms home to themselves,” he says. “Nobody expected this demand in home fitness products,” which typically are large and bulky and require a two-person crew for delivery.
Nevertheless, Covid has presented some unique challenges. “[Sometimes] when we go into homes, our drivers actually don’t feel comfortable because consumers might not be as diligent” about wearing masks, social distancing, and other safety practices. “It [can be] a somewhat challenging environment.”
Ryder Last Mile’s network consists of more than 120 locations throughout the U.S. that the company says can reach 99% of the U.S. population in two days or less. The company utilizes a network of trusted carriers for deliveries of big and bulky goods, and offers four tiers of service, including white glove.
A NEED FOR NATIONWIDE SOLUTIONS
Craig Stoffel heads up Werner Final Mile as vice president, global logistics for Omaha, Nebraska-based Werner Enterprises, one of the nation’s largest transportation and logistics companies. With some 175 last-mile service locations in the U.S. and 40 in Canada, the company offers traditional curbside and over-the-threshold final-mile delivery as well as “room of choice” and white glove service with assembly. “Once product arrives at the local station, we get it out [to the customer] the same day or next day,” Stoffel says.
Werner’s final-mile model is an integrated solution that leverages Werner technology with third-party professionals and assets in the household-goods moving and storage business. “These are crews experienced in dealing with the intricacies of in-home deliveries and all the nuances that go with that,” Stoffel notes. He adds that Werner Final Mile offers such advantages as a national network footprint that covers major metro populations and secondary communities; fast response and shorter travel times with experienced crews already in and familiar with local neighborhoods; and leading-edge delivery and visibility technology.
Stoffel has seen growth come from large-format brand-name retailers, e-tailers, and consumer goods brands—who are already familiar with Werner as a transportation enterprise—as well as many companies new to nationwide consumer-direct selling who have quickly upped their e-commerce game to survive the pandemic.
“They may have previously done local BOPIS [buy online/pick up in store], but with the pandemic, store traffic has disappeared,” he notes. “Now they are seeking an integrated, nationwide delivery solution that will get goods to consumers at home wherever that may be, from wherever the nearest fulfillment site is, which could be a former brick-and-mortar location. As long as they have a shopping cart on their website and a button for delivery, we can spin up an efficient and reliable final-mile solution for them,” Stoffel says.
Penske said today that its facility in Channahon, Illinois, is now fully operational, and is predominantly powered by an onsite photovoltaic (PV) solar system, expected to generate roughly 80% of the building's energy needs at 200 KW capacity. Next, a Grand Rapids, Michigan, location will be also active in the coming months, and Penske's Linden, New Jersey, location is expected to go online in 2025.
And over the coming year, the Pennsylvania-based company will add seven more sites under its power purchase agreement with Sunrock Distributed Generation, retrofitting them with new PV solar systems which are expected to yield a total of roughly 600 KW of renewable energy. Those additional sites are all in California: Fresno, Hayward, La Mirada, National City, Riverside, San Diego, and San Leandro.
On average, four solar panel-powered Penske Truck Leasing facilities will generate an estimated 1-million-kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy annually and will result in an emissions avoidance of 442 metric tons (MT) CO2e, which is equal to powering nearly 90 homes for one year.
"The initiative to install solar systems at our locations is a part of our company's LEED-certified facilities process," Ivet Taneva, Penske’s vice president of environmental affairs, said in a release. "Investing in solar has considerable economic impacts for our operations as well as the environmental benefits of further reducing emissions related to electricity use."
Overall, Penske Truck Leasing operates and maintains more than 437,000 vehicles and serves its customers from nearly 1,000 maintenance facilities and more than 2,500 truck rental locations across North America.
That challenge is one of the reasons that fewer shoppers overall are satisfied with their shopping experiences lately, Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Zebra said in its “17th Annual Global Shopper Study.”th Annual Global Shopper Study.” While 85% of shoppers last year were satisfied with both the in-store and online experiences, only 81% in 2024 are satisfied with the in-store experience and just 79% with online shopping.
In response, most retailers (78%) say they are investing in technology tools that can help both frontline workers and those watching operations from behind the scenes to minimize theft and loss, Zebra said.
Just 38% of retailers currently use AI-based prescriptive analytics for loss prevention, but a much larger 50% say they plan to use it in the next 1-3 years. That was followed by self-checkout cameras and sensors (45%), computer vision (46%), and RFID tags and readers (42%) that are planned for use within the next three years, specifically for loss prevention.
Those strategies could help improve the brick and mortar shopping experience, since 78% of shoppers say it’s annoying when products are locked up or secured within cases. Adding to that frustration is that it’s hard to find an associate while shopping in stores these days, according to 70% of consumers. In response, some just walk out; one in five shoppers has left a store without getting what they needed because a retail associate wasn’t available to help, an increase over the past two years.
The survey also identified additional frustrations faced by retailers and associates:
challenges with offering easy options for click-and-collect or returns, despite high shopper demand for them
the struggle to confirm current inventory and pricing
lingering labor shortages and increasing loss incidents, even as shoppers return to stores
“Many retailers are laying the groundwork to build a modern store experience,” Matt Guiste, Global Retail Technology Strategist, Zebra Technologies, said in a release. “They are investing in mobile and intelligent automation technologies to help inform operational decisions and enable associates to do the things that keep shoppers happy.”
The survey was administered online by Azure Knowledge Corporation and included 4,200 adult shoppers (age 18+), decision-makers, and associates, who replied to questions about the topics of shopper experience, device and technology usage, and delivery and fulfillment in store and online.
Supply chains are poised for accelerated adoption of mobile robots and drones as those technologies mature and companies focus on implementing artificial intelligence (AI) and automation across their logistics operations.
That’s according to data from Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Mobile Robots and Drones, released this week. The report shows that several mobile robotics technologies will mature over the next two to five years, and also identifies breakthrough and rising technologies set to have an impact further out.
Gartner’s Hype Cycle is a graphical depiction of a common pattern that arises with each new technology or innovation through five phases of maturity and adoption. Chief supply chain officers can use the research to find robotic solutions that meet their needs, according to Gartner.
Gartner, Inc.
The mobile robotic technologies set to mature over the next two to five years are: collaborative in-aisle picking robots, light-cargo delivery robots, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for transport, mobile robotic goods-to-person systems, and robotic cube storage systems.
“As organizations look to further improve logistic operations, support automation and augment humans in various jobs, supply chain leaders have turned to mobile robots to support their strategy,” Dwight Klappich, VP analyst and Gartner fellow with the Gartner Supply Chain practice, said in a statement announcing the findings. “Mobile robots are continuing to evolve, becoming more powerful and practical, thus paving the way for continued technology innovation.”
Technologies that are on the rise include autonomous data collection and inspection technologies, which are expected to deliver benefits over the next five to 10 years. These include solutions like indoor-flying drones, which utilize AI-enabled vision or RFID to help with time-consuming inventory management, inspection, and surveillance tasks. The technology can also alleviate safety concerns that arise in warehouses, such as workers counting inventory in hard-to-reach places.
“Automating labor-intensive tasks can provide notable benefits,” Klappich said. “With AI capabilities increasingly embedded in mobile robots and drones, the potential to function unaided and adapt to environments will make it possible to support a growing number of use cases.”
Humanoid robots—which resemble the human body in shape—are among the technologies in the breakthrough stage, meaning that they are expected to have a transformational effect on supply chains, but their mainstream adoption could take 10 years or more.
“For supply chains with high-volume and predictable processes, humanoid robots have the potential to enhance or supplement the supply chain workforce,” Klappich also said. “However, while the pace of innovation is encouraging, the industry is years away from general-purpose humanoid robots being used in more complex retail and industrial environments.”
An eight-year veteran of the Georgia company, Hakala will begin his new role on January 1, when the current CEO, Tero Peltomäki, will retire after a long and noteworthy career, continuing as a member of the board of directors, Cimcorp said.
According to Hakala, automation is an inevitable course in Cimcorp’s core sectors, and the company’s end-to-end capabilities will be crucial for clients’ success. In the past, both the tire and grocery retail industries have automated individual machines and parts of their operations. In recent years, automation has spread throughout the facilities, as companies want to be able to see their entire operation with one look, utilize analytics, optimize processes, and lead with data.
“Cimcorp has always grown by starting small in the new business segments. We’ve created one solution first, and as we’ve gained more knowledge of our clients’ challenges, we have been able to expand,” Hakala said in a release. “In every phase, we aim to bring our experience to the table and even challenge the client’s initial perspective. We are interested in what our client does and how it could be done better and more efficiently.”
Although many shoppers will
return to physical stores this holiday season, online shopping remains a driving force behind peak-season shipping challenges, especially when it comes to the last mile. Consumers still want fast, free shipping if they can get it—without any delays or disruptions to their holiday deliveries.
One disruptor that gets a lot of headlines this time of year is package theft—committed by so-called “porch pirates.” These are thieves who snatch parcels from front stairs, side porches, and driveways in neighborhoods across the country. The problem adds up to billions of dollars in stolen merchandise each year—not to mention headaches for shippers, parcel delivery companies, and, of course, consumers.
Given the scope of the problem, it’s no wonder online shoppers are worried about it—especially during holiday season. In its annual report on package theft trends, released in October, the
security-focused research and product review firm Security.org found that:
17% of Americans had a package stolen in the past three months, with the typical stolen parcel worth about $50. Some 44% said they’d had a package taken at some point in their life.
Package thieves poached more than $8 billion in merchandise over the past year.
18% of adults said they’d had a package stolen that contained a gift for someone else.
Ahead of the holiday season, 88% of adults said they were worried about theft of online purchases, with more than a quarter saying they were “extremely” or “very” concerned.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are some low-tech steps consumers can take to help guard against porch piracy along with some high-tech logistics-focused innovations in the pipeline that can protect deliveries in the last mile. First, some common-sense advice on avoiding package theft from the Security.org research:
Install a doorbell camera, which is a relatively low-cost deterrent.
Bring packages inside promptly or arrange to have them delivered to a secure location if no one will be at home.
Consider using click-and-collect options when possible.
If the retailer allows you to specify delivery-time windows, consider doing so to avoid having packages sit outside for extended periods.
These steps may sound basic, but they are by no means a given: Fewer than half of Americans consider the timing of deliveries, less than a third have a doorbell camera, and nearly one-fifth take no precautions to prevent package theft, according to the research.
Tech vendors are stepping up to help. One example is
Arrive AI, which develops smart mailboxes for last-mile delivery and pickup. The company says its Mailbox-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform will revolutionize the last mile by building a network of parcel-storage boxes that can be accessed by people, drones, or robots. In a nutshell: Packages are placed into a weatherproof box via drone, robot, driverless carrier, or traditional delivery method—and no one other than the rightful owner can access it.
Although the platform is still in development, the company already offers solutions for business clients looking to secure high-value deliveries and sensitive shipments. The health-care industry is one example: Arrive AI offers secure drone delivery of medical supplies, prescriptions, lab samples, and the like to hospitals and other health-care facilities. The platform provides real-time tracking, chain-of-custody controls, and theft-prevention features. Arrive is conducting short-term deployments between logistics companies and health-care partners now, according to a company spokesperson.
The MaaS solution has a pretty high cool factor. And the common-sense best practices just seem like solid advice. Maybe combining both is the key to a more secure last mile—during peak shipping season and throughout the year as well.