Middle-mile FreightTech firm Warp enhances retail logistics with same- and next-day store delivery

Warp co-founders Daniel Sokolovsky (standing) and Troy Lester are both veterans of last-mile delivery platform AxleHire (Photo: Warp)

The last mile is being disrupted by Bringg, Onfleet, FarEye, Veho, AxleHire, and other delivery management platforms. Warp, a FreightTech company founded by two AxleHire veterans, aims to prevent supply chains from bypassing the middleman.

The Los Angeles-based middle-mile company Warp has introduced DirectFresh, a new platform for perishable shippers. The service, which is now available in major cities in the United States, Canada, and certain regions of Mexico, will make it easier to ship fresh freight, such as ice cream and frozen meat, directly to stores within hours.

DirectFresh is ideal for businesses in the food industry, such as restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, and ice cream shops, in addition to specialty retailers such as florists and pharmacies. Warp leverages a network of carrier partners and temperature-controlled crossdocks to facilitate perishable shipments. Its fleet consists of cargo vans, box trucks, and 53-footers, many of which are designed to transport fragile items.

In October, Warp introduced its Fresh Freight division, expanding its fleet of temperature-controlled vehicles. Misfits Market veteran Jake McPaul was named lead. McPaul stated that the majority of freight providers lack the necessary technology to provide quality service to the sensitive temperature-controlled freight market. "The sensitivity associated with perishable shipping leaves perishable shippers with few or no consolidation options, making cost management difficult."

With DirectFresh, Warp is now utilizing its assets to transport fresh freight between manufacturers and cold storage facilities, enabling next-day and even same-day delivery directly to store shelves. The company also collaborates with the freight visibility platform ShipRec. The partnership will provide shippers with real-time temperature data on all of their perishable freight, as well as alerts if a product ever deviates from its designated temperature range.

Warp is carving out a niche among delivery management platforms by implementing solutions such as route optimization and flexible capacity for the middle-mile LTL industry, as AxleHire did for the last mile. Its software achieves the same goals as AxleHire's software, including order management and verification, data sharing between disparate systems, and dispatching. However, AxleHire and the majority of other last-mile platforms have not addressed perishable shipping due to a lack of capacity or motivation to fulfill orders from cold storage.

When the company emerged from stealth, Warp CEO Daniel Sokolovsky, who previously founded AxleHire and served as its CEO, told FreightWaves: "In five to ten years, we should be in a position to compete favorably with companies such as Old Dominion, Saia, and FedEx Freight. And we believe we can pose a genuine threat."

MintN