11-21-2014 – Western regional parcel carrier OnTrac today launched a delivery service in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that offers large-volume retailers a fourth major business-to-consumer option in a region covering 70 million consumers.
The service, called “DirectPost,” allows OnTrac to collect parcels from retailers and inject them deep into the postal network, which consists of more than 2,000 facilities in OnTrac’s service area. USPS will then deliver the parcels the so-called last mile to their final destinations.
Newegg Inc., an Internet retailer of computer hardware and software, is the launch customer, Chandler, Ariz.-based OnTrac said today. Newegg, based in City of Industry, Calif., is expected to begin shipping through the service during the upcoming holiday season.
The USPS’ service, known as “Parcel Select,” has been used for years by FedEx Corp., UPS Inc., and, to a lesser degree, DHL Express. The service is appealing to parcel carriers because of its low costs and because USPS is required by law to serve every U.S. address, a feature that enables parcel companies to make deliveries to residential customers without incurring the cost of dispatching a driver and van to serve what are normally low-density areas.
For the past five years, OnTrac has partnered with USPS on a last-mile offering. However, OnTrac has only made the service available to parcel consolidators, firms that aggregate shipments from retailers and have used the carrier’s intraregional distribution network to bring packages to USPS. Parcel consolidators do not control physical distribution networks.
Did USPS get a good deal or did they give away the ranch again…….Too often USPS only looks at income and is derelict in matching expenses……If there is no profit, why do it?