L.L. Bean is gearing up to run tests of Airborne@Home for its package deliveries as a result of this month's agreement between Airborne Express and the U.S. Postal Service.
While Federal Express, Memphis, is L.L. Bean's primary package-delivery carrier, the Portland, ME-based cataloger uses delivery services from the USPS for a small percentage of its package deliveries. L.L. Bean will test Airborne@Home, a business-to-residential deferred delivery service, for these packages starting this quarter.
L.L. Bean spokeswoman Mary Rose MacKinnon said the company frequently pilot tests package-delivery services in a variety of configurations, “just to make sure we are giving out customers the very best service. It's not unusual for L.L. Bean to do this,” she said.
Airborne@Home combines Airborne's transportation network and the residential delivery shipping abilities of the USPS, providing seamless delivery from virtually any business to any residential destination in the United States. Basically, Airborne is taking advantage of worksharing discounts the USPS has extended to bulk-rate mailers who presort by ZIP code and deliver parcels directly to sorting centers. It is competing with all delivery companies, but the leading competitive air-shipper to Airborne is FedEx.
Airborne transports Airborne@Home shipments using its truck hub to one of more than 24,000 local Destination Delivery Units operated by the USPS within two days. The USPS will deliver the shipments the next day.
According to Airborne, packages move through Airborne's transportation network 60 percent quicker over alternative services.
Customers of Airborne@Home will be able to use Airborne's tracking system. Tracking information will alert customers to the status/location of their Airborne@Home shipments from the moment of pickup to Airborne's delivery to the Postal DDU.
