Amazon is opening its partial-load shipping service to outside businesses, escalating competition with legacy freight carriers and sending shares of several of those companies lower.
The e-commerce giant said on June 10 that it is expanding its less-than-truckload, or LTL, service beyond its current inbound-only model to all destinations. LTL shipping is used for freight that is too large for small-parcel carriers but not large enough to fill a full-size trailer.
Previously, businesses could generally use Amazon’s LTL fleet to send bulk goods inbound to Amazon’s own facilities. Now, companies can use Amazon to ship partial truckloads anywhere in the United States, including to third-party warehouses or directly to retail stores….