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Ecom Logistics

Zone skipping for concentrated delivery markets

Zone skipping consolidates parcels for the long-distance leg, then injects them into local delivery near the customer. It is worth assessing when enough orders are headed to the same market to support a bulk move.

Price a lane All delivery
Two linehaul trucks travelling the same way along a divided road, a guardrail on one side and two conifers on the other.

Four steps, and the middle one is the whole idea

Every parcel on a long lane pays for that distance. Zone skipping makes the distance a single freight movement, and leaves only the short local leg to be delivered parcel by parcel.

  1. Consolidate at origin

    Orders for one distant market are picked, packed and held as a single outbound block rather than handed to a carrier one parcel at a time.

  2. One long leg, in bulk

    The block moves as freight, by air or by road, priced as one shipment over the distance instead of as hundreds of individual parcels each paying for the same journey.

  3. Inject near the destination

    At the far end the block is broken down and entered into the local delivery network, at a point close enough that what remains is a short final leg.

  4. Local delivery, as normal

    From there the parcel is delivered like any other local order, with the same scan record, the same live status and the same proof of delivery.

What it is, and what it is not

It is not an express service
Express pays for speed on every parcel. Zone skipping pays for distance once and then delivers locally. Those are different products and they suit different lanes.
The record does not change
A parcel on a skipped lane carries the same scans, the same live status and the same proof of delivery as one that never left the city. Nothing about the customer's view of it is different.
It works with fulfillment or without it
If we hold your stock the consolidation is already happening on our floor. If you hold your own, the block starts at your dock instead.
An option within your delivery plan
Air Skip sits alongside same-day, next-day and standard ground services. We assess which option fits each lane rather than assigning one service to all your orders.

When it beats ground, and when it does not

Zone skipping is arithmetic, not a service tier. It wins when the saving from moving one heavy block over the long leg is larger than the cost of consolidating and injecting it. That depends on your volume into a market, how concentrated it is, and how far the lane runs. It is why the honest answer to "is it cheaper" is a quote rather than a number on a web page.

  • It needs volume into one market. A handful of parcels a week cannot fill the long leg and the arithmetic does not work.
  • It needs concentration. Volume spread thinly across many destinations is the case ground already handles well.
  • It rewards distance. The longer the lane, the more of the journey the bulk leg is absorbing.
  • It is a lane decision, not an account decision. The same brand can be right for it on one route and wrong on another.

What brands ask about zone skipping

Is zone skipping the same thing as Air Skip?
Air Skip is Ecom’s air-based zone-skipping service. Parcels are consolidated for the long-distance move and then enter local delivery at the destination. Zone skipping is the wider industry term for this approach.
How much does it save?
It depends entirely on the lane and the volume, which is why there is no figure on this page. Send us your destination mix and weekly volume into the markets you care about and we will work it out against your current rates.
How many days does it take?
Timing depends on the origin, destination and dispatch schedule. We confirm the specific lane before you set a customer delivery expectation.
Do my customers see anything different?
No. The tracking, the delivery window communication and the proof of delivery are the same as any other parcel on the network.
What do you need from us to price it?
Weekly volume, the destinations it goes to, average parcel weight and dimensions, and what you pay today. That is enough to tell you whether the arithmetic works before either of us spends more time on it.

Send us a lane.

Weekly volume into one market, average parcel weight and what you pay today. That is enough for us to say whether the arithmetic works before either of us spends longer on it.

Get a quote Contact us