LaserShip is a regional last mile delivery company that services the Eastern United States. Founded in 1986, LaserShip is based in Vienna, Virginia and has sortation centers in New Jersey, Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida.
As of 2016, LaserShip has 63 distribution centers and four sorting centers servicing 22 states and Washington, D.C. Lasership handles deliveries for Amazon and other e-commerce retailers throughout the Eastern U.S.
Video LaserShip
History
LaserShip began as a document delivery service in 1986. In the 1990s, LaserShip landed in the small parcel business during the dot-com boom. In 1999, the company partnered with Barnes & Noble to provide same-day shipping services in New York City.
In March 2014, LaserShip added four states to its service area: New Hampshire, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Delaware. This expanded the LaserShip footprint by 44 percent, reaching an additional 8.5 million consumers. +
Also in March 2014, LaserShip acquired Cleveland based last mile delivery company Prestige Delivery Systems, further expanding services to Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Indiana.
Maps LaserShip
Disputes and settlements
Package tossing
Package tossing has been an on-going issue in e-commerce delivery with national carriers like UPS and FedEx dealing with the issue for many years. The USPS has also continued to struggle with package tossing and even Amazon.com. Numerous news reports backed up by surveillance camera footage depict LaserShip delivery drivers recklessly tossing packages onto customers' property. In one incident from 2016, a LaserShip delivery man was caught on tape tossing a $500 camera lens several yards onto a poured-concrete porch. In March 2017, a customer caught a delivery man tossing a package containing a router on tape, damaging the contents, and reported the incident to LaserShip.
Misclassification and nonpayment of drivers
Mis-classification of independent contractors has plagued the transportation, among many other industries, for decades. FedEx has had to continue dealing with this issue, settling a case in 2017 for 227 Million. In April 2018, the California Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in the matter of Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles ruling that the drivers were not independent contractors.
In April 2014, LaserShip reached a class-action settlement of $800,000, even though they won the court opinion on the matter, with drivers in Massachusetts who accused the company of misclassifying them as independent contractors to save money. In November 2015, a class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that workers were denied overtime payments, were unlawfully denied earned compensation, and for other violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The results of this litigation are pending.
Cigarette settlement
The delivery of cigarettes has been a continued issue with last mile delivery in the state of New York. In September 2014, LaserShip reached a $5 million settlement with the city of New York over deliveries of untaxed cigarettes. UPS and FedEx have both been dealing with this issue with fines totaling almost $500 million between the two companies.
References
Further reading
- "Macy's expands same day delivery to 17 cities as it challenges Amazon". Reuters.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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