SJ fall Summit: when the alternatives become the first choice for logistics. October 6, 2026 9:00am While FedEx and UPS remain dominant players in the shipping space, the market is seeing emerging enterprises that are just as eager to go the distance for their customers. These are younger companies like Veho, a last-mile delivery player based in New York City. While only a decade old - UPS, by contrast, was founded in 1907 - it has already nabbed big brands such as Macy's, Sephora and Lululemon as clients. When asked why brands are turning to alternative logistics providers, Catherine Dummitt, vice president for marketing at last-mile delivery company Veho, said at Sourcing Journal's annual Sourcing Summit in New York City last Tuesday that it all boils down to one essential factor. "Ultimately, I think what people are looking for when they're switching to alternative providers is more control," she told moderator and Sourcing Journal logistics editor Glenn Taylor. For a long time, deliveries were limited to standard or expedited shipping. It was a limitation that forced companies to model their entire e-commerce customer experience on the carrier's network and capabilities. "That model is just silly, but it's also fundamentally broken," Dummitt said. "I think what we're seeing is that there's a bigger opportunity to lean into more optionality." For example, now brands can pick different shipping speeds because not every package requires swift delivery. That flexibility is giving brands control over the tradeoffs they make, she believes. This is why smaller logistics companies are becoming an attractive alternative to legacy providers. The freedom afforded by modern shipping alternatives was the theme of the session, which was titled, "Logistics as a Competitive Advantage: How Technology Is Transforming the Supply Chain." Dummitt was joined by other Davids who have battled metaphorical Goliaths and lived to tell the tale: Richard Hurley, founder and CEO of 3PL Highline Commerce, and Rathna Sharad, founder and CEO of cross-border commerce platform FlavorCloud. Together, they represented three supply chain stages a product has to traverse before it reaches the end consumer: storage, fulfillment, and in the case of international commerce, the border. They represented a new generation of leaders equipped with technology that can better predict and react to the nuance of each customer as opposed to bracketing them in generalized groups that risk misrepresenting the market. It's this specialized understanding that sets FlavorCloud apart from other players that simply see foreign countries as new sources of revenue. International expansions are complicated, said Sharad, not just because they come with new trade laws and standards that need to be followed, but because they contain consumers that hail from different economic conditions. "E-commerce infrastructure allows you to customize for every single market as if you are in the domestic experience," said Sharad. "So oftentimes, you're thinking about domestic experience and optimizing the e-commerce model, but not understanding the consumer in India is very different. The propensity to buy is very different. What they can afford is different." It's these kinds of misunderstandings that can doom companies considering international expansion. The biggest mistake is to assume international shipping is simply an extension of the same service being brought by a domestic carrier, with the only difference being that an international rate has to be paid. This typically leads to a practice that is known in industry parlance as Delivered Duty Unpaid, wherein the business only covers the cost of transporting the product while the customer shoulders everything else, from import duties to other clearance fees. "It really is death by a thousand cuts," Sharad said. "Stuff gets stuck in customs compliance issues, and then the consumer experience suffers the most because they're getting all these bills that they did not expect and the parcel is delayed by days, weeks, months." Highline Commerce began more than half a decade ago, serving businesses that were otherwise deemed too small for other 3PLs, Hurley said. An integral part of its business model is supporting the proverbial new kid on the block, which sometimes requires being there for those newer, smaller clients when they make common mistakes. "When you're starting a business, you tend to be pretty optimistic, and we're mostly dealing with founders and - God bless optimistic founders. We need them; they tend to be optimistic about the timelines for manufacturing," he said. "They're not building in [a] buffer." "I think the purpose of my company is to lower the barrier for someone to pass with their fulfillment, and the biggest costs are your rent and your labor," he said, noting that his company has been using robotics to help other startups lower their labor costs. "It is already cheaper than humans," he said. Highline is already using a bimanual manipulator - essentially a two-armed robot - nicknamed "Fleetwood Pack" developed by Ultra Robotics, which fills up to 30 percent of its orders in Brooklyn, according to a report from Automated Warehouse Online. Its innovations like this that make a strong argument for alternative logistics providers. As Veho's Dummit said during her parting admonition at the Summit: "Stop accepting the status quo." SJ Newsletters

Veho names Ronak Patel Senior Vice President of Supply Chain. September 29, 2026 Veho announced the appointment of Ronak Patel as Senior Vice President of Supply Chain. Patel will lead Veho's supply chain organization, including network design and optimization, sortation operations, transportation and linehaul. Patel will report to Yifeng Wang, Veho's Chief Financial Officer and Interim Chief Operations Officer, and work closely with Veho's Product and Engineering teams to build the systems, technology, and operating discipline required to support the company's next stage of growth. "Ronak is an experienced operator, but what stood out to us is his experience driving cost and quality consistency, at scale, through periods of rapid growth," said Fred Cook, co-founder and President of Veho. "Veho is entering a new stage where the sophistication of our physical network has to advance just as quickly as the technology behind it. Ronak is exactly the kind of operator we want helping lead that evolution." Patel brings more than 15 years of experience building, launching, and optimizing complex supply chains. During nearly nine years at Amazon, he held leadership roles spanning fulfillment, international launches, regional operations, and last-mile logistics. As Regional Director of Operations, he led six major fulfillment centers with more than 20,000 employees. He later led Amazon Logistics' North American Fleet Management organization, responsible for approximately 99,000 delivery vehicles and $2.7 billion in physical assets. Patel later served as Chief Supply Chain Officer and Chief Supply Chain and Revenue Officer at Odeko, where his responsibilities expanded across operations, transportation, customer experience, and commercial functions as the company scaled. Most recently, as Vice President of Fulfillment Solutions and Data Analytics at VEYER, he led initiatives including network redesign, warehouse launches, and new warehouse and order management systems. "Great supply chains don't just move more volume. They get smarter, more predictable, and more resilient as they scale," said Patel. "That is what makes Veho such an interesting opportunity. The physical network, technology, and customer experience are being built together rather than treated as separate systems. There is a tremendous opportunity to use that foundation to build a fundamentally better way to operate at scale." Veho has built its delivery network around a technology-first operating model that combines proprietary software, flexible capacity, real-time visibility, and direct control over the delivery experience. As the company expands its role with some of the world's largest e-commerce brands, Patel will focus on strengthening the network architecture and operating systems required to deliver greater reliability, efficiency, and flexibility at scale.

Veho has appointed Ronak Patel as Senior Vice President of Supply Chain. Patel will oversee network design, sortation operations, transportation, and linehaul, reporting to CFO and Interim COO Yifeng Wang. Patel brings over 15 years of supply chain experience. He spent nearly nine years at Amazon in roles including Regional Director of Operations, where he managed six fulfillment centres with more than 20,000 employees. He later led Amazon Logistics' North American Fleet Management, responsible for approximately 99,000 delivery vehicles and $2.7 billion in assets. Most recently, Patel served as Vice President of Fulfillment Solutions and Data Analytics at VEYER, following his role as Chief Supply Chain Officer at Odeko. At Veho, he will focus on strengthening network architecture as the delivery company expands its services with major e-commerce brands.