Averitt takes steps to boost final mile network and white glove services

In a move geared toward rising demand for final mile logistics services, freight transportation and logistics services provider Averitt Express announced this week that it has expanded its residential delivery network through enhanced final mile network and white glove services. The company noted that this move is a driver in its ability to provide retail and e-commerce shippers with a complete supply chain offering.

Averitt said its final mile network accommodates the transportation needs of bulky and heavy products, with types of residential deliveries varying from pallets of floor tiling to outdoor grills and patio furniture. And it added that this effort will provide shippers with various direct-to-customer delivery options. What’s more, aside from standard doorstep delivery, Averitt’s specialized white glove services include: room of choice delivery; unpacking and debris removal; and real-time shipment visibility, which Averitt said has been a pain point for many retail shippers.

“Driven by growth in the e-commerce sector, the retail industry is transforming, and so is the retail supply chain,” says Wayne Spain, Averitt’s president and chief operating officer, in a statement. “Averitt’s final mile delivery and white glove services offer the capacity and technology that many retailers are struggling to secure in the market today.”

Phil Pierce, Averitt executive vice president of sales and marketing, told LM that this final mile network expansion is being driven by the growth the company is seeing in the retail industry, particularly with regards to e-commerce sales serving as the driving factor to expand its residential delivery services.

“We can provide our shippers a complete range of residential shipping options,” he explained. “Many shippers that move large and bulky freight are struggling when it comes to final mile delivery. We’ve developed a solution to that challenge, and we will continue to find solutions to other challenges when they arise.”

Averitt’s residential delivery network offerings are managed by its Specialized Services team, which, it explained, provides shippers and their customers with access to around the clock support and shipment oversight year-round. It noted that this service went through a two-year testing and development period prior to going live on a public basis, including piloting the service in select markets like Atlanta.

“Final mile has been a hot topic within the industry for a few years now,” said Pierce. “We knew that this was not something that we could just jump right into and expect it to be business as usual. Our team has put in the time and resources to diligently qualify our partners that make up our residential delivery network. They must be able to represent our shippers to the level that we’ve operated for nearly 50 years. Additionally, the technology was an incredibly important aspect of the testing and qualifying. Our partners have to be able to integrate with our systems to provide our customers real-time visibility. The biggest takeaway is that you can build a seamless network with the right partners and the right technology.”

From an Averitt perspective, Pierce said that the addition of final mile and white glove services accomplishes our goal of being able to offer shippers a complete supply chain solution.

“From global forwarding to distribution and online order fulfillment, we can manage every aspect of a shipper’s supply chain.,” he noted. “More importantly, we’ve simplified the entire process so that a shipper deals with just one invoice and one contact. We’ve used the slogan ‘the power of one’ for several years now, and it has evolved into a much larger concept that permeates our culture.”