For most people, the shared economy (also known as the gig economy) is best illustrated by the Uber and Airbnb concept of crowdsourcing and convenience services based on digital platforms.
The technologies and business models supporting these platforms are also being applied to logistics and supply chain management, especially across activities such as warehousing, transportation, and shipping — with astonishing success.
Why Businesses, Large and Small, Think it’s Fair to Share
Shared logistics, also known as collaborative logistics, is a modern approach where multiple companies combine their transportation and warehousing operations to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
In practice, this often involves businesses sharing warehouse space, transportation capacity, and delivery routes. For example, two companies might split a full truckload shipment instead of each running half-empty trucks on similar routes. A food distributor and a beverage company might share cold storage warehouse space, splitting the facility costs whilst maintaining separate inventory management.
Logistics providers, both 3PL and 4PL, are driving the shared economy within the supply chain, offering customers shared services with benefits such as higher filling rates of transport vehicles, better utilisation of warehouse space, reduced logistics costs, and/or a lower carbon footprint.
Year on year, the shared logistics industry is growing, especially when it comes to warehousing. To get a better understanding of how the shared economy works within the supply chain, let’s take a look at some examples:
1. Amazon Flex
With the growing trend towards online shopping, e-commerce giant Amazon in 2015 turned to independent contractors — basically anyone with a car — to deliver parcels to homes and businesses.
The service, known as Amazon Flex, takes care of a portion of the company’s last-mile deliveries which, with some five billion items delivered each year, are beyond the capabilities of standard delivery companies. It now handles roughly 20–25% of Amazon’s last-mile deliveries across its operating regions.
Since its launch in the United States, the Amazon Flex system has spread into many parts of the world, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.
As in most sectors of the gig economy, drivers are paid purely for the jobs they do (in this case deliveries) and have none of the benefits enjoyed by full-time workers, such as medical and pension assistance, or paid holiday and sick leave. The drivers use their own vehicles and receive no reimbursement for mileage, parking, or tolls.
2. Airtasker
Airtasker is an Australian company that provides an online and mobile platform, allowing users to outsource everyday tasks as diverse as furniture removal, photographic assignments, IT jobs, graphic design, furniture assembly, handyman jobs, and virtually anything else in between.
It works like this: a poster, for example, needs someone to assemble furniture bought from Ikea. He or she makes a post on Airtasker describing the task and indicating a budget for the job. Airtaskers bid for the job, describing their skills and efficiency, and naming their price. The poster then selects one of the bids and allocates the job.
Airtasker has expanded beyond Australia into the UK, US, and Singapore. Its service fee structure changed in 2023 — it now uses a sliding scale from 10–20% based on task value, addressing previous user complaints.
3. Uber Freight
Launched in 2017, Uber Freight pairs truck drivers with shippers in much the same way that the company’s ride-hailing app connects those looking for a ride with available drivers. It has become a major player in digital freight brokerage, handling over $17 billion in freight bookings annually. However, it is facing increased competition from traditional brokers who’ve developed their own digital platforms.
4. DHL Spaces
Using the DHL Spaces platform, customers can search for warehouse space on a location basis. The DHL Spaces mobile app shows users the location of the space and how many square metres are available, and provides contact information for booking the space.
5. Flexe
Much like DHL Spaces, Flexe is a warehousing concern that connects companies needing warehousing space to those with spare capacity. It has a 25-pallet, 30-day minimum requirement and suits retailers or seasonal businesses requiring short-term storage.
Flexe now operates in over 2,000 locations across North America, and it has introduced a new rapid deployment programme that can set up warehouse operations within 48 hours.
6. MakeSpace
MakeSpace has expanded into business storage solutions in recent years, particularly targeting e-commerce sellers who need flexible inventory space. Its operations now cover 31 major US markets, and it has built out its technology platform to include inventory management features. As of 2023, it reported handling over 250,000 storage items monthly.
7. Freightos and Shipa Freight
These digital freight brokerage platforms provide sharing of truck and ship capacity, helping to reduce inefficiencies relating to unused cargo space.
Freightos boasts a SaaS component that provides logistics companies with freight rate management and instant freight quoting, whilst Shipa Freight offers a digital platform that facilitates less-than-container-load (LCL) and full-container-load (FCL) shipping.
