Hyperdrive
Startup Couriers Snatch Toehold in Biggest Shake-Up of FedEx Era
- New entrants sprout up as e-commerce swamps delivery giants
- Technology leapfrogs systems the big couriers built over years
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Surging e-commerce is generating more package deliveries than giant couriers can handle, clogging retailers’ logistical pipelines and frustrating consumers. But the logjam is spawning startups with new ways of speeding deliveries.
Smaller haulers are innovating with crowdsourced networks using little more than smartphones and sport utility vehicles. Gig drivers for a startup called Veho Tech Inc. scan packages with their cell phones, load them in their own cars -- a motley assortment of crossovers and sedans with spacious trunks -- and hit the road within minutes to meet their cargo’s next-day delivery deadlines.