Last Mile • First Class
Welcome to our blog! If you find yourself perusing these pages, chances are you’ve got a logistics problem or a business problem that could be solved with better logistics. Or, you’re just curious about the latest innovations in this space and want to learn how AxleHire is able to deliver a first-class solution to the last-mile problem. Either way, you’re in the right place.
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Perhaps you are a complete novice. Your Kickstarter campaign was a raging success but you hit some snags in production and your shipment of internet-connected toilet seats is arriving from China three months late. You are the idea guy and you don’t know the first thing about how to get stuff from the Port of Oakland to impatient supporters as quickly and cheaply as possible.
Perhaps you are a Fortune 500 logistics manager. Your company sells millions of dollars of products online, but not exclusively (or at all) on Amazon. Or, as a competing e-tailer, you want to create a better end-to-end brand experience. How do you meet customer expectations for free and same-day or next-day deliveries without deeply cutting into margins?
Perhaps you’re somewhere in between, or in another vertical where e-commerce meets on-demand and your business is to get food, booze, or pharmaceuticals to the doorsteps of consumers when they want it so Johnny gets his craft beer dropped off on a Sunday afternoon or a Monday night or whenever his 🏈 team is playing.
AxleHire can help because we’re a company that has invested heavily in the past few years to become the most reliable, flexible, and economical alternative to behemoths like UPS, FedEx and USPS, and other regional carriers that simply don’t have the technology or capacity to deploy drivers and fleets in an agile and cost-efficient manner. As a trusted logistics partner with service solutions in both freight shipping (FTL and LTL) as well as last-mile (same and next day) delivery, we are able to shepherd your product partially or entirely through its journey from the manufacturing facility or port of entry to your distribution center, which could be a warehouse or retail location, and ultimately to the end-user. Our proprietary routing algorithms apply to both inbound and outbound traffic to minimize transit distance and duration, and we offer temporary warehousing where sorting and labeling takes place before packages traverse their “last mile” to the consumer. AxleHire is a lean but robust solution for your distribution and transportation needs. At the same time we are a SaaS technology provider, offering a cloud-based dashboard for shippers to upload and track orders, and an API that seamlessly integrates with POS systems.
Last-mile shipping historically represents more than 50% of total shipping costs, and being the most expensive part of fulfillment, it is also where the greatest opportunity for cost-savings lies. The solutions are not difficult to understand: replace the high fixed cost of fleet ownership with leased vehicles, and drivers who are employees with crowdsourced operators that are part of the gig economy; deploy technology that achieves smart multi-node routing, and which gets smarter over time with machine learning. Indeed, many logistics providers are pursuing these strategies. The devil is in the details, and the difference is in the execution.
While we can’t divulge too many details, AxleHire has demonstrated that it can consistently execute and deliver a high level of service for happy customers all the way from shippers to retail consumers. In a little over two years, our package delivery volume has gone from a few thousand to 300,000 per month.
We have proven capacity to scale in existing markets (currently six metropolitan areas in the Western U.S.) and can deploy in a new market in as little as three weeks. With Black Friday / Cyber Monday and the holiday season just around the corner, it is prime time to wow your customers with free shipping and near-instant gratification — and it’s not too late to switch from your existing high-cost carrier. As a result of working with us and benefiting from our competitive pricing, many shippers are able to offer $0 shipping to their retail customers, the one feature — over same-day shipping or free returns — that entices people to spend more online.
Why Recipients Love Merchants Who Use AxleHire
📦 deliveries every day, including Sundays
📦 deliveries in any time window, as narrow as a one-hour time frame
📦 predictive ETA updates via SMS, so customers can plan to be home to receive the goods
Why Merchants Love AxleHire
📦 a whopping 98.7% first-attempt delivery success rate
📦 flexible same-day options and the widest range for next-day deliveries anywhere in the West Coast
📦 real-time tracking, 24/7 dispatcher (based locally) to address issues, photos as proof of delivery
📦 highest satisfaction ratings from customers
It goes without saying that all of the above is good for business and the bottom line.
“Using AxleHire has significantly reduced our delivery error rate to 0.4%, increasing customer satisfaction. Their service offerings are a great addition to our supply chain, as they have helped increase our customer retention.” ~ HelloFresh
Don’t get left behind in this race to deliver faster while charging less. Let AxleHire do all the heavy lifting for you, from routing to dispatching to hauling and sorting to tracking and delivering. You go the extra mile for your customers. We go the extra mile for you.
Cecilia Tom
Cecilia is passionate about building efficient and resilient systems for the greater good. She is the lead storyteller for AxleHire.
