E-Commerce: Home Run

Yellow Freight System, a bastion of the traditional LTL market, has plunged into the business of delivering goods bought and sold over the Internet-much of it involving pickups and deliveries to homes. Yellow has signed a deal to handle freight over 150 pounds for iShip, the shipping service that co-ordinates delivery of goods bought through Internet outlets like eBay.

Roger Dick, Yellow’s communications manager, says Yellow is the first major LTL carrier to make such a commitment. Projections for future business vary widely. “It could be little, it could be huge,” he says.

However, much of the business from iShip will involve home pickups and deliveries, a problem area for LTL carriers geared toward business-to-business freight. LTL drivers ride without helpers, for instance, which many specialty carriers provide for shippers of furniture, appliances and other large items.

In fact, Yellow has “dabbled in” home delivery before, but plans no immediate changes as a result of the agreement with iShip, Dick says. In certain areas, some pickups at private homes will be performed by an outside carrier and delivered to the nearest Yellow terminal for further transportation.

Changes to Yellow’s traditional LTL operations will depend on future volume. Dick adds that Yellow believes individual-to-individual and business-to-individual shipments-at the heart of Internet commerce right now-will grow to include business-to-business shipments in the future. He says Yellow wants to be in a position to handle that kind of traffic very efficiently.