Dive Brief:
- OnTrac has expanded its delivery network into major Texas markets, the e-commerce parcel carrier announced Thursday.
- The expansion into Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio allows OnTrac to provide next-day delivery to an additional 19 million consumers, the release said. The company has established a sortation hub in Dallas that will be the primary injection point for packages in the state while facilitating deliveries to area residents.
- “We expanded into Texas based on overwhelming feedback from our customers, both omnichannel retailers and direct-to-consumer brands, who committed volume ahead of the launch,” said Josh Dinneen, OnTrac chief commercial officer, in a statement.
Dive Insight:
OnTrac continues to grow its delivery reach following the 2021 merger of parcel carriers LaserShip and OnTrac — the company was known as LaserShip/OnTrac before it announced a rebrand in March.
OnTrac has worked to leverage the capabilities of the once separate companies, touting itself as an alternative to larger parcel carriers like FedEx and UPS. It launched a transcontinental delivery service in 2022 linking the eastern U.S.-focused network of LaserShip and the western U.S. coverage of the old OnTrac.
The launch in Texas furthers OnTrac's reach beyond those networks. Now, the company can reach 80% of the U.S. population across 31 states and Washington, D.C.
"Texas will serve as a critical connection point between the complementary operating networks, enabling retailers and shippers to leverage OnTrac to reach more of their customers across the country’s most populated areas," an OnTrac news release said.
There's plenty of delivery competition in Texas for OnTrac beyond FedEx and UPS — LSO and Better Trucks both offer coverage in the state. The popularity of these smaller parcel carriers has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic, as a surge in e-commerce demand challenged national carriers' networks and led to capacity constraints.
However, delivery providers overall are currently weathering a cooldown in demand, and shipper interest in adding new carriers appears to have eased, according to project44's "State of Last Mile" report released in May.
"This is a result of overall volume being down, meaning that retailers do not need as much capacity as they did in recent years," the report said. "However, retailers are not being quick to sever ties with new carriers and are continuing to diversify who they are shipping with."
