The national parcel carriers that once set retail delivery economics have spent a decade shedding their least profitable packages. What filled the gap is a deeper bench: regional carriers, 3PL cross-dock networks, gig courier platforms and private fleets. As it turns out, almost none of them talk to each other.
Burq, a last-mile delivery technology company, wagers that last-mile orchestration — the decision layer sitting above that bench — is the product enterprise retailers will actually pay for.
The shift is already underway. FreightWaves reported in July that carrier diversification is eroding the last-mile delivery duopoly: 55% of retailers now use carriers outside FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, and more than a third are actively moving volume away from the two national giants. The payoff is measurable. In one example, home goods brand Caraway cut total parcel costs 20% after its 3PL began shopping every order across a network of regional and national carriers. Capturing that value requires knowing which provider performs in which ZIP code on which day. Most retailers do not know, because the systems that pick a carrier stop watching the moment the order leaves.
Jake Stein joined Burq four months ago to run growth for its retail sector, after four and a half years at Uber launching ship-from-store, same-day and on-demand programs on Uber Direct. The limitations of using a single network are what pushed him out.
"It still came down to that Uber couldn't be the single source for everything," Stein told FreightWaves. "Mostly gig, reasonably shorter distances, some batching but not large scale, no big and bulky. And they can't be 100% of every possible location."
#retailers
Burq, a last-mile delivery technology company, wagers that last-mile orchestration — the decision layer sitting above that bench — is the product enterprise retailers will actually pay for.
The shift is already underway. FreightWaves reported in July that carrier diversification is eroding the last-mile delivery duopoly: 55% of retailers now use carriers outside FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, and more than a third are actively moving volume away from the two national giants. The payoff is measurable. In one example, home goods brand Caraway cut total parcel costs 20% after its 3PL began shopping every order across a network of regional and national carriers. Capturing that value requires knowing which provider performs in which ZIP code on which day. Most retailers do not know, because the systems that pick a carrier stop watching the moment the order leaves.
Jake Stein joined Burq four months ago to run growth for its retail sector, after four and a half years at Uber launching ship-from-store, same-day and on-demand programs on Uber Direct. The limitations of using a single network are what pushed him out.
"It still came down to that Uber couldn't be the single source for everything," Stein told FreightWaves. "Mostly gig, reasonably shorter distances, some batching but not large scale, no big and bulky. And they can't be 100% of every possible location."
#retailers
24 days ago
