The Shipper of Choice award, presented by FreightWaves in partnership with TriumphPay, recognizes the manufacturers, distributors and retailers that do the best job of keeping the American economy moving by fighting driver detention, providing accessible facilities and understanding what it takes to remove inefficiencies from the supply chain.
Among the top 25 Shippers of Choice for 2023 is … Lowe’s.
Lowe’s is the second-largest home-improvement retailer in America, with over 1,700 stores and about 300,000 employees. It handles around 17,000 transactions every week. Lowe’s is one of the oldest home-improvement chains in the country, founded in 1921 by Lucius Smith Lowe in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
| New York Stock Exchange ticker | LOW |
| Headquarters | Mooresville, North Carolina |
| FY 2022 net sales | $97.1 billion |
| FY 2022 net income | $6.4 billion |
| Shipper of Choice history | 2021, 2022, 2023 |
Why Lowe’s is a Shipper of Choice
Those who nominated Lowe’s as a 2023 Shipper of Choice said that truckers find it friendly to work with and that it responds quickly to truckers’ needs. They said that Lowe’s garners high respect from its carrier base and proactively communicates with truckers.
The company has a very large trucking footprint in the U.S. — a footprint that is in the midst of a major transformation.
In December 2021, CEO Marvin Ellison outlined the new “market delivery” model that was replacing the legacy “store delivery” model. The legacy model was “tremendously inefficient,” said Ellison. Bulk items like appliances were held in store stockrooms and containers behind the stores. Store-based trucks delivered to customers’ homes. Customers could only purchase inventory that was at the store in their area.
Under the market delivery model, larger items “flow directly from the supply chain to the customers’ homes without ever flowing through the store,” said Ellison.
During the company’s latest quarterly call, on May 23, Ellison gave a progress report. “In supply chain, we continue to roll out our market delivery model, bringing us to 12 geographic regions across the country supporting more than 1,100 stores.
“This more efficient model of delivering big and bulky products is already enabling us to accelerate our market share gains in appliances and will enable future growth in other categories. We remain on schedule to have market delivery rolled out by the end of 2023.”
About Shipper of Choice partner TriumphPay
TriumphPay is the transportation industry’s premier payment network, trusted by leading shippers, brokers, factors and carriers. Its innovative and highly automated fintech payment solution brings cost savings and efficiencies to antiquated transportation payment processes for network participants. Integrated financing options leverage the strength of TriumphPay’s parent bank and can provide liquidity and cash flow visibility.
TriumphPay is a division of Triumph Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: TFIN).