Last-Mile Delivery

With a focus on expanding access to its last mile delivery network, the United States Postal Service (USPS) said this week that shippers of all sizes will now be able to access more than 18,000 USPS delivery destination units (DDU) across the country.

Chicago-based Uber Freight has entered into what it called an “expanded commercial partnership” with Hillside, Ill.-based Better Trucks, a last-mile delivery platform focused on digital commerce, for tens of millions of packages annually for retail and e-commerce shippers, in addition to making a strategic investment into Better Trucks.

Los Angeles-based alternative parcel delivery platform services provider Veho said this month that it has taken steps to expand its Southern California presence.

Seattle-based global e-commerce bellwether Amazon recently announced it has it will be expanding its Same-Day and Next-Day Delivery services, with a rural focus, for tens of millions of United States-based customers located in more than 4,000 smaller cities, towns, and rural communities by the end of 2025.

A new report issued by Brookfield, Wis.-based supply chain consultancy and global third-party logistics (3PL) research provider Armstrong & Associates, in collaboration with the National Home Delivery Association, examines the current state of a key aspect of the last-mile delivery market, big and bulky last-mile delivery.

In this podcast, Jeff Berman, Group News Editor for Logistics Management and the Peerless Media Supply Chain Group, interviews Paul Yaussy, Senior Director of Parcel Consulting, for San Diego-based Shipware, and Adi Karamcheti, Consultant, Professional Services at Shipware.

The report, entitled “The E-Commerce Boom Isn’t Over: Implications for Logistics Real Estate,” examines how more than five years after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent re-opening of the economy, recent consumer behavior is showing a return to value, convenience, and choice, while examining retailers, supply chains, and logistics real estate, as it relates to e-commerce going forward.

Various reports published last week highlighted a letter sent to Congress by United States Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General Louis DeJoy indicating that the USPS is eyeing cutting 10,000 employees through a voluntary retirement program, which the USPS announced in January, in the coming weeks, coupled with the USPS saying it will work with the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

In its data on millions of parcels shipped during this period in 2024, ShipMatrix found that the on-time performance (OTP) for the three national carriers—FedEx, UPS, and the United States Postal Service (USPS), came in at 91.8% for FedEx, 96.5% for UPS, and 90.4 for USPS.

Quarterly consolidated revenue, at $25.3 billion, rose 1.5% year-over-year, while adjusted earnings per share, at $2.75, increased 11.3% annually. Consolidated quarterly operating profit, at $2.9 billion, grew 18.1% year-over-year. For the full year of 2024, UPS reported total revenue of $91 billion, marking a modest 0.1% annual gain, though total operating profit of $8.468 billion decreased by 7.4% compared to 2023.

In this podcast, Moon discussed the impact of the short Peak Season on deliveries and order fulfillment; big and bulky deliveries; and same-day delivery trends, among other topics.

Companies like Amazon and FedEx are investing in autonomous drones and robots to streamline last-mile deliveries.

This partnership focuses on improving last-mile delivery, providing speed and reliability for customers.

The company said this expansion, which will reach “beyond Chicagoland” and Illinois into the greater Midwest, through Madison and Milwaukee, Wisc., Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. and St. Louis, Missouri.

A new study issued today by Waterloo, Ontario-based Descartes, a provider of logistics based on-demand, software-as-a-service offerings, showed some disparities in the intersection of online buying and home delivery processes. The study, entitled “Online Buying Grows But Too Many Customers Still Experiencing Delivery Woes,” was based on feedback from 8,000 consumers surveyed by Descartes and SAPIO Research, across Europe and North America over the first quarter. This is the third annual edition of Descartes’ e-commerce home delivery report.