Big bucks in small packages

A story as old as the iceman cometh (to your icebox) is playing out in the northeast;

You probably have never heard of LaserShip Inc., OnTrac or Eastern Connection Operating Inc. Yet these small regional shippers may well have dropped a package off on your doorstep this holiday season.

....They work like this: A company such as Eastern Connection, which operates in the Northeast, picks up a package in New York City. It hands it off in Harrisburg, Pa., to another shipper, partner Pitt Ohio LLC, which delivers it a total of two days later to a customer in Columbus, Ohio.

By cobbling together networks, the regional shippers are grabbing market share from UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service as e-retailers look for cheaper, faster delivery options for their online shoppers.

Regional shippers typically can get a package between two points in one region—from New York to Boston, for example—faster than their national counterparts, and they are able to price shipments 20% to 40% below the national shippers because of their lower costs.

Without being directed to do so by a Federal Delivery Panel. What will they think of next. With billions of dollars being spent each year on small package delivery, there's plenty of incentive to spare.