DC Velocity - February 2018

26 DC VELOCITY FEBRUARY 2018 www.dcvelocity.com newsworthy

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. has assembled a large fleet and driver contractor network to provide dedicated final-mile services for U.S. retailers on a nationwide scale, a move designed to challenge XPO Logistics Inc. and other players in the national last-mile service market.

For 10 years, Lowell, Ark.-based Hunt, using its own trucks and drivers, has offered last-mile deliveries by commingling manufacturer shipments staged in warehouses operated by Whirlpool Corp., the Benton Harbor, Mich.-based appliance giant that was the service’s launch customer and remains its largest user. Last March, Hunt began a final-mile delivery program dedicated to four large retailers—whom Hunt wouldn’t identify—covering 15 high-density markets. The program’s success convinced Hunt executives to expand it nationally during the first half of 2018, according to a company source.

The new service will utilize thousands of box trucks that
will not be painted with logos. The drivers, who will all
be independent contractors, will provide a broad range
of final-mile delivery and installation services, the source
said. Orders will be picked up either at a local retail outlet
or at a centralized warehouse, depending on the market,
The service is designed for retailers with shipment den-
sities large enough to justify dedicated carrier support. The
original last-mile operation, which continues to operate,
focuses on smaller customers with less scale and density.

HEAVY ACTIVITY

Greenwich, Conn.-based XPO vaulted to prominence in the last-mile market more than four years ago when it acquired Marietta, Ga.-based 3PD Inc., at the time the largest nonas-set-based provider of last-mile delivery services. Over time, XPO has refined and expanded its last-mile operations, and plans to double its last-mile network to 85 service hubs by the end of this year.

Some experts predict significant demand for delivery of nonparcel shipments of heavier goods ordered online as manufacturers and retailers make more inventory available on the Web. For-hire last-mile deliveries of heavy goods ordered online have grown at a nearly 9-percent compound annual rate since 2012 and are now a $7.6 billion-a-year business, said consultancy SJ Consulting in mid-2017.