Expedited Freight Delivery The business world is changing fast. Recent trends in small business models and technological resource availability have led to significant changes in the ways that businesses handle freight, and consequently this has had a huge knock-on effect on the motor trucking industry and all third-party logistics suppliers. The speed and extent of communications and interface between companies occupying different positions in a supply chain has led to more complex logistic requirements and increased demand for flexible third-party logistics providers who are capable of finding trucks (or just a single truck), drivers needed, trailers, available warehouse space and consolidation resources at the drop of a hat. Increasingly often these logistic requirements are on a large scale and change quickly. Expedited delivery is one of the big growth areas in freight trucking. Increased efficiency in consolidation systems has put even long-distance freight trucking within the reach of smaller businesses, and made it possible for those companies to benefit from the economies of scale which are usually only available to large companies. But the demand for small-scale rapid delivery is also on the rise. There are currently over five thousand expedited delivery companies operating within the United States – a significant increase on the number a decade ago. These companies act as third-party logistics providers to companies on a variety of different scales – some only provide inner-city bicycle courier services, but an increasing number are acting as agents for small to medium freight distributors and motor trucking owner-operators. It used to be the case that expedited freight delivery could be carried out only on a very small scale across short distances and that it was typically the purview of motorbike couriers. However larger third-party logistics providers are rapidly moving in on the market and offering flexible expedited freight distribution solutions (for both inbound and outbound freight) to companies of all sizes. These services are being offered because of an increasing awareness that a variety of companies experience supply chain irregularities which require them to find freight providers that offer the expedited delivery of anything up to large shipments. Medium and large third-party logistics providers are able to arrange overnight freight distribution and provide other similar services with a much longer range and lower cost than smaller localized companies – their expertise and contacts in the fields of motor freight trucking allow them to bring to the one-time expedited delivery client the same resources that they bring to clients with whom they have a more regular and established relationship – and clients with urgent one-time requirements benefit from consolidation and distribution resources such as efficient trucking and on-the-spot access to available warehouse space just as much as businesses which are looking to fill a gap in their routine supply chain.