BY MARK B. SOLOMON, SENIOR EDITOR
PARCEL EXPRESS
specialreport
Connecting
the dots
It’s doubtful
regional parcel
players can build
a national network like those
forged by FedEx
and UPS. But
there are other
ways to skin the
parcel cat.
ONE THING THAT
can be said about the
supply chain: It is a
Petri dish for new ideas,
even if many of them end up
being unworkable in practice.
Take the notion that a group of regional
carriers could cobble together a third national network to fill the void left by DHL
Express when it exited the U.S. market in
January 2009. Few question the need for
more parcel competition, especially as FedEx
Corp. and UPS Inc., who dominate the U.S.
parcel business, continue to raise rates, and
add or increase accessorial charges, seemingly in lockstep.
In addition, the creation in 2008 of the
“Reliance Network” by eight regional truckers in the U.S. and Canada that joined forces
to build a nationwide infrastructure has
shown that a national model built around
the amalgamation of regional carriers can
gain acceptance with shippers.
Yet in the parcel world, which is a different kind of transport animal, the reality is
that a third national network similar to
what DHL attempted is unlikely to materialize. Beyond the cost of replicating a model
that took FedEx and UPS many years and
billions of dollars to build, each of the
largest regional carriers has its own operating schemes, customer targets, and pricing
matrixes—which would be difficult to integrate on a national scale.
The technologies are also disparate,
though there has been progress to develop an
IT backbone to support a unified infrastruc-
ture. One Network Enterprises, a Dallas-
based IT provider, has created the “Real Time
Value Network,” which One Network says
gives 30,000 parcel users across the U.S. real-
time visibility of the shipment cycle from
order placement, to proof of delivery, to
reporting, online billing, and payment
options. Last September, Greyhound Package
Express, the parcel unit of the legendary
intercity bus operator Greyhound Lines Inc.,
joined the network to link its depots with
local parcel haulers.
