The typical trike completes between three to five routes daily and can carry up to 600 pounds at a time. B-Line also does a notable volume of parcel deliveries from office supply stores. LEVERAGING PHYSICAL STORES As part of their efforts to tackle last-inch shipping challenges, some shippers are turning to physical stores. “We are seeing retailers more creatively leverage their existing
doors, are often associated with meal delivery services such as Doordash. They are now branching into other areas. One driver behind the interest in crowdsourced package delivery is the way it solves for a lot of the final-inch challenges retailers face, such as cost and the environmental impact of deliveries. It also offers flexibility. The downside? “Companies can lose control of their brand,” Abeson says. If a company is going to engage a third-party delivery company, a few steps can make the partnership more productive. “Do proper sourcing selection and due diligence, as it’s a critical touch point with your customer,” says Ben YoKell, managing director with Grant Thornton. A number of agencies have rushed into the market, and
brick-and-mortar presence to optimize the fulfillment of orders for deliveries, reduce the total distance the deliveries need to travel to the customer, and save on fuel costs,” says Vaughn-Patel. In effect, stores are “starting to act like mini distribution centers,” Shute says. This works particularly well when the fulfillment center is one or two days from the store, as the store can then hold products closer to customers. Some shippers even are tapping other retailers’ physical store infrastructure. Amazon, for instance, has partnered with retailers, including PacSun and GNC, to offer same-day delivery in some cities. DELIVERING A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE It’s likely that multiple solutions will continue to help shippers tackle the challenges of the final inch. The optimal solution for a specific delivery likely will depend on the size and type of product and the delivery location. No matter which solutions a shipper uses, the goal is “a completely seamless consumer experience between social, mobile, digital, and physical,” YoKell says. At the same time, retailers will get smarter about pricing these services accordingly. “The market is willing to pay to get what they want, if they get what they want,” YoKell adds. n
B-Line's trike and truck delivery system enables fast deliveries to local accounts, ranging from restaurants to regional retailers.
not all are fiscally prudent or financially stable, and it’s such a new market that it can be hard to find records. Proper vetting is critical. It's also important to consider technology integration with your third- party providers and couriers, so you can provide customers with tracking and other information. “It’s reasonable to expect that your external providers can integrate to provide visibility,” YoKell says. CARGO BIKES In congested urban areas, cargo bikes can help streamline deliveries. A study from the European Transport Research Review found cargo bikes to be more cost effective than delivery trucks in some cases, including delivery routes that were less than about two miles from a distribution center, with 50 parcels per stop, and with a high density of residential units and low delivery volumes per stop. Since 2009, B-Line has provided cycle
logistics services in Portland, Oregon, through its colorful cargo trikes. The company’s fleet of about one dozen trikes often transports food and beverages from growers and manufacturers to the city’s restaurants. “This way, a produce company doesn’t have to take 53-foot trailer into the urban core,” says Franklin Jones, founder and chief executive officer of B-Line. Instead, the company can bring its products to B-Line’s urban consolidation center, where employees break down the pallets and deliver them to restaurants, bodegas, and grocery stores, along with some front porch delivery for CSA (consumer supported agriculture) and similar programs. Since the trikes traverse within a four-mile radius, they’re often able to criss-cross deliveries. So, a bike might deliver produce to several restaurants, head to the bakery next door, pick up bread, and deliver that to several other restaurants.
36 Inbound Logistics • August 2023
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