Episode Details

Last Mile Innovation with Emma Cosgrove

Emma Cosgrove and Joe Lynch discuss last mile innovation. Emma is a Senior Reporter on the transportation desk at Business Insider, a global news and lifestyle publication with hundreds of journalists in London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Singapore and beyond.

About Emma Cosgrove

Emma Cosgrove is a Senior Reporter on Business Insider's transportation team. She covers logistics with a focus on ecommerce. From warehouse technology to delivery labor, she tries to spread a deeper understanding of the people and systems that bring goods to our doorsteps with ever-increasing speed. Emma previously covered supply chains and food and agriculture technology for Supply Chain Dive and AgFunder News. She was a freelance food industry reporter for several years with bylines in The Atlantic, The Counter, and Edible Manhattan Magazine. She started her journalism career as a financial reporter in Beirut, Lebanon.

About The Business Insider

Business Insider is a global news and lifestyle publication with hundreds of journalists in London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Singapore and beyond. Their mission is to inform and inspire you with news and stories you want and need to know. They strive to leave you with something valuable every time you finish reading, watching, or listening to our work. They know that we are just one of many publications seeking your attention in an increasingly busy world.

Key Takeaways: Last Mile Innovation

• Emma Cosgrove is a Senior Reporter covering Logistics at Business Insider. Emma frequently writes about the innovation and innovators in the last mile space.
• In the podcast interview, Emma describes how the explosive growth of ecommerce has transformed the once sleepy last mile space into a booming market that has shippers searching for partners and capacity.
• Some highlights of Joe and Emma's discussion below:
• Traditionally, last mile shipping has been serviced by UPS, FedEx, and United States Postal Service (USPS).
• UPS and FedEx experienced significant growth because of ecommerce, but not all of the business has been good business. FedEx stopped working with Amazon in 2019. UPS is reexamining their ecommerce business and pursuing a strategy of "better, not bigger."
• Even though Amazon is not a small package company, their logistics services has rapidly grown to support their ecommerce business.
• Large shippers requiring last mile logistics and transportation service have struggled to find capacity. A variety of new businesses have emerged to fill the void.
• The FRONTdoor Collective (FDC) has created the first micro-last mile delivery network with the capacity to cover 90% of residences and businesses in the US and Canada.

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