Dive Brief:
- Parcel carrier Veho is now a last-mile delivery option for shippers using Flexport's fulfillment services, the companies announced last week.
- Flexport partners with several carriers to offer a variety of shipping speeds for its customers, including the next-day and two-day delivery options Veho offers. Veho currently provides delivery to 44 metropolitan areas, including recent launches in Detroit and Columbus, Ohio.
- "One of the places that Veho stands out is in highly urban, very dense environments, where some of the more traditional carriers might have higher cost levels," Alex Berry, VP of omnichannel and fulfillment at Flexport.
Dive Insight:
Flexport is integrated with various e-commerce platforms and retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, Shopify and Shein's marketplace. This large-scale customer base could help Veho further grow its delivery activity for the retail and apparel sectors even in a turbulent parcel market.
"We're just in the middle of completing a large expansion in the Midwest area that Flexport clients can enjoy Veho in that market as well," Deborah Surrette, Veho's chief commercial officer, told Supply Chain Dive. "So as we continue to expand, their clients can continue to take advantage of these solutions."
How Veho matches up to other carriers Flexport leverages will be key. The logistics platform uses an algorithm to determine the best carrier for a package in terms of destination, shipping speed and cost, Berry said.
"If folks are ordering packages in places where it might make the most sense for Veho to deliver to them in terms of geography, in terms of speed, in terms of price, then we would select Veho as that option to deliver that package to that consumer," Berry said.
The Veho partnership adds to Flexport's efforts to strengthen its fulfillment and shipping services since acquiring Shopify's logistics arm in 2023. It has also rolled out its "Flexpedited" service, which dynamically determines delivery speeds based on a seller's inventory position within the Flexport network, according to last week's announcement.
