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Last-mile delivery service AxleHire announces East Coast expansion

Company adds Baltimore, Washington to coverage area and is now in 16 of the nation’s top 25 cities

Last-mile delivery service AxleHire has expanded into Baltimore and Washington, D.C., giving it a presence in 3 of the top 5 cities on the East Coast. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

After first expanding into the East Coast in 2021, AxleHire is now going farther, offering its last-mile delivery services to customers in Washington and Baltimore. The company made the announcement on Thursday.

The new cities join Newark, New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York City, giving AxleHire a presence in three of the five most populous East Coast cities. AxleHire has last-mile operations in 16 of the top 25 metro areas in the U.S.

“The transportation corridor between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore is one of the most important logistics markets in the country and we’re happy to provide our roster of customers the ability to ship into these two populous cities,” said AxleHire CEO Adam Bryant. “By placing ourselves in more major locations throughout the country, we’re able to give our customers new options for high-quality, same/next-day deliveries.”

AxleHire, based in Emeryville, California, offers same-day and next-day delivery service through an asset-light transportation network that utilizes the gig economy, couriers and traditional carriers. It leverages proprietary technology to create denser delivery routes that move more packages in fewer vehicles. Routes are dynamically changed on demand based on needs. All its sortation centers are located close to dense populations to facilitate faster delivery times with 98.5% on-time delivery with package tracking.



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Read: Last-mile provider AxleHire announces East Coast expansion

Read: AxleHire brings its last-mile delivery service to Chicago area


In April 2021, AxleHire announced it had closed a $20 million series B funding round led by Ajax Strategies. The company at the time said the new funding, which included participation from Eclipse Ventures, Quiet Logistics, Bee Partners and Acorn Pacific Ventures, would be used to enhance its sortation technology, expand its network of locations and add staff. Since then, the company has rapidly expanded, first adding a Chicago sortation facility in June and then looking east to add an Atlantic coast presence.

AxleHire counts several big clients among its portfolio, including delivery firm Deliverr and retailer American Eagle.

In January of this year, the company announced a deal with electric cargo bike company Urb-E to help facilitate last-mile deliveries with e-bikes in New York City and Long Beach, California. In New York, AxleHire and Urb-E launched a micro-container delivery system to deliver goods from Brooklyn to Manhattan. The Urb-E vehicles can haul more than 800 pounds and still travel in bike lanes. This model case study proved that the delivery network saved on drive time and avoided parking tickets, resulting in a 6x reduction in traffic and a model that is 3x cheaper than electric vehicle delivery vans, the companies said.

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Brian Straight

Brian Straight leads FreightWaves' Modern Shipper brand as Managing Editor. A journalism graduate of the University of Rhode Island, he has covered everything from a presidential election, to professional sports and Little League baseball, and for more than 10 years has covered trucking and logistics. Before joining FreightWaves, he was previously responsible for the editorial quality and production of Fleet Owner magazine and fleetowner.com. Brian lives in Connecticut with his wife and two kids and spends his time coaching his son’s baseball team, golfing with his daughter, and pursuing his never-ending quest to become a professional bowler. You can reach him at [email protected].