Amazon Moves Into Freight Shipping, Challenging FedEx and Old Dominion

Amazon is expanding into a corner of the shipping industry that has long belonged to carriers like FedEx Freight, Old Dominion, and Saia, opening its less-than-truckload freight service to businesses of all sizes shipping to any destination in the country.

Less-than-truckload shipping, commonly called LTL, covers goods that are too large to mail as a standard parcel but not large enough to fill an entire truck. It is a service Amazon has offered its partner businesses before, though only when those shipments were headed to one of its own fulfillment centers. Now, Amazon's trucks will take those goods wherever the shipper needs them to go.

The move puts Amazon in direct competition with established freight carriers that have handled this kind of shipping for decades. For businesses looking to move mid-sized loads, it adds a major new option to a market that has largely been controlled by a handful of traditional players.