LaserShip announces opening of new branch in Durham, North Carolina

Regional e-commerce and last-mile delivery services provider LaserShip said this week it has opened up a new facility in Durham, North Carolina.

The 40,000 square-foot facility, which is located at 3500 Tricenter Boulevard, is the first one for LaserShip in North Carolina’s triangle area, with the company noting that it can process up to 14,000 packages per hour.  There are currently 15 full-time employees at the facility, and LaserShip said it intends to hire up to 22, in order to help meet local delivery demand.

“We’re very proud to open our new branch in Durham and further our investment and commitment in North Carolina,” said Josh Dinneen, Senior Vice President of Commercial Development at LaserShip, in a statement. “Our Durham branch will help us meet unprecedented levels of e-commerce demand and better serve our customers with faster, more affordable, and reliable delivery. We also look forward to welcoming more employees to the LaserShip team and growing our involvement with the local community.”  

Dinneen told LM that LaserShip opened up its Durham branch as part of its strategic growth to better serve its customers and help them reach more consumers, adding that this has been in the works for about a year.

And he also noted that with its 87,000 square-foot sort center and delivery hub in Charlotte, it was able to reach consumers in that greater region.

“This expansion allows us to reach nearly 2 million new consumers in North Carolina, including those in the Triangle area, Greensboro, and up to the Virginia border,” he said.

“The new facility is part of an overall expansion project for LaserShip to nearly 400 new zip codes across the eastern United States. Some other cities we’ve expanded our reach into include Buffalo and Wilkes-Barre.” 

The LaserShip executive also noted that the company’s shipper customers benefit from this expansion by meeting their customers’ expectations with faster delivery times while saving money on shipping costs.

“They know they can rely on us to handle the increased demand they have been experiencing, while leveraging our network to deliver their goods faster and with better on-time performance than national carriers,” he said. “We help them differentiate in an increasingly competitive environment. We’ve also made significant investments in technology with sortation automation and machine learning to upgrade our delivery experience, including expanding our Visual Proof of Delivery (vPOD) service to improve visibility and transparency with photo confirmations of deliveries. With the expansion, our customers have access to all of these benefits within our growing footprint.” 

From a competitive perspective, Dineen said that LaserShip is the largest regional e-commerce parcel carrier in the US and has been a leader in last-mile delivery since 1986.

“Expanding to additional locations give us a broader reach, and allows our e-commerce retailers to take advantage of our delivery network to reach their customers in less time at competitive rates,” he said. “It’s a win-win situation.”