Ryder makes another deal to keep on trucking in ecommerce distribution

Ryder Systems Inc, which manages nearly 239,000 commercial vehicles and operates more than 330 warehouses, encompassing more than 80 million square feet, has acquired Dotcom Distribution.

Based in Edison, NJ, Dotcom Distribution was an early pioneer in U.S. B2B and B2C ecommerce. The company has been in business for 22 years and currently operates 12.8 million square feet of warehouse space, ships about 5.3 million ecommerce orders annually and manages more than 100,000 SKUs, the company says.

Terms of the deal were not announced. But Dotcom Distribution founder and CEO Maria Haggerty, and the company’s operations team, totaling approximately 100 full-time employees, will join Ryder. Dotcom Distribution’s ecommerce and retail customers include FAO Schwarz, Bliss, and others.

“Dotcom Distribution has been doing e-fulfillment since ecommerce was still in its infancy. Maria and her team bring 22 years of knowledge, expertise, and experience in helping customers weather market fluctuations,” says Ryder president of supply chain solutions Steve Sensing. “That’s a big benefit for Ryder.”

Ryder, an 89-year-old Miami company provides full-service truck and vehicle leasing, rental, and maintenance, used vehicle sales, transportation management, professional drivers, e-commerce fulfillment, and last-mile delivery services.

The company, which generated about of about $9.96 billion in sales last year, is making ecommerce logistics and last-mile delivery a key strategic initiative and growth opportunity. And it’s doing so primarily through acquisition and start-up financing.

In January to grow and diversify its range of logistics services to ecommerce companies, Ryder acquired Whiplash, a national provider of fulfillment and logistics services, for approximately $480 million in cash.

Based in City of Industry, California, Whiplash provides ecommerce and fulfillment services to more than 250 brands. Whiplash operates 19 warehouses totaling seven million square feet and provides access to “key port operations and gateway markets,” the company says.

In November of 2021, Ryder also acquired Midwest Warehouse and Distribution, a warehousing, distribution, and transportation company based in Woodbridge, IL for $284 million. “Our two recent supply chain acquisitions, Whiplash and Midwest Warehouse and Distribution System, continue to perform well and were accretive to earnings. These acquisitions support our strategy to accelerate growth in our asset-light supply chain business,” says Ryder CEO Robert Sanchez. “Whiplash significantly grows our fulfillment network with scalable e-commerce and omnichannel fulfillment solutions, and Midwest expands our multi-client warehousing offering.

The company’s investment arm corporate venture capital fund and, Ryder Ventures, is investing $50 million over five years in companies creating solutions in e-commerce fulfillment, asset sharing, next generation vehicles, supply chain automation, and data analytics.