# CarParts.com built a $50M last-mile delivery arm in six months by owning the gap FedEx won't cover *A-Premium scales from $45M to $50M run rate in one quarter, targeting 300,000 packages daily without third-party carriers.* By **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA, Principal** — The Stash Edge, Hako Shikin LLC. Published 2026-08-10. Canonical: https://www.pops4.com/stash/articles/carpartscom-2026-08-10t06-1 Subject: CarParts.com Tags: last-mile delivery, vertical integration, logistics, unit economics, auto parts, distribution --- CarParts.com grew its A-Premium last-mile subsidiary from a **$45 million** annualized run rate in Q1 2026 to nearly **$50 million** by Q2 2026, according to Seeking Alpha. The company disclosed a capacity target of **300,000 packages per day** and expects the unit to contribute meaningfully to free cash flow by year-end. A-Premium is not a freight forwarder. It is an owned logistics network handling final delivery for auto parts—bulky, heavy SKUs that incur surcharges and damage claims when routed through national carriers. CarParts.com built the asset to bypass FedEx and UPS on the last segment, controlling cost and delivery speed for products that weigh **15 to 80 pounds** and arrive broken more often than apparel or electronics. The mechanism works because auto parts occupy a logistics dead zone. Regional parcel carriers handle volume but lack national footprint. National carriers price by dimensional weight, penalizing anything over a shoebox. A-Premium threads the gap by running its own vehicles on high-density metro routes where it can batch deliveries within a **20-mile radius** of a hub. The customer gets next-day or same-day delivery without the **$12 to $18** surcharge a national carrier would levy on a **40-pound alternator**. CarParts.com did not disclose capital expenditure, but the playbook is visible. The company operates hub facilities in metro areas with high order density, uses leased cargo vans instead of building a fleet, and batches deliveries by ZIP code to maximize stops per route-hour. A-Premium also sells excess capacity to third parties—other auto parts retailers, tool distributors, anyone shipping heavy goods in dense urban markets. That dual revenue stream underwrites the fixed cost of the network and accelerates the path to profitability. A smaller physical-product brand can run the same play on a metro scale. Pick one city where you ship **200+ orders per month** to a **15-mile radius**. Lease a cargo van for **$600 to $900** per month. Hire a driver at **$20 per hour** for a four-hour afternoon shift, five days per week—total labor **$1,600** monthly. Batch orders by delivery zone and run a daily loop of **20 to 30 stops**. Your per-package cost drops to **$3 to $5** versus **$10 to $15** for a national carrier on a **25-pound item**. Offer same-day or next-day delivery as a premium tier at **$8**, covering the incremental cost and creating margin. Once the route is optimized, sell spare capacity to other local brands shipping similar SKUs—wholesale bakeries, pet food, home goods—and split the van cost across multiple clients. The constraint is density. You need consistent volume in a tight geography to make the unit economics work. Start with one ZIP cluster. Track cost per stop and delivery time per route. When you hit **30 stops per shift** at **sub-$4 cost per package**, you have a scalable model. Add a second van and a second metro area only after the first route is profitable for **60 consecutive days**. The broader pattern is owning the costliest mile. National carriers are optimized for cross-country linehaul, not final delivery of bulky goods in dense neighborhoods. If your product is heavy, fragile, or time-sensitive, you can build a last-mile asset faster and cheaper than you expect. CarParts.com proved the model scales to **$50 million** in six months. A one-van, one-metro operation proves it in six weeks. ## The takeaway Own last-mile delivery in one dense metro, batch heavy SKUs, undercut FedEx by $7 per package, then sell spare van capacity to adjacent brands. --- ## Publisher **Hako Shikin LLC** — Virginia Beach, Virginia. Founded 1997. ASI 217876 · DUNS 18-204-6339. Principal and author: **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA**. - Author: https://www.huanggoodman.com/about - LLM context: https://www.pops4.com/stash/llms.txt - MCP endpoint, for AI agents: https://mcp.pops4.com/mcp - Client dashboard: https://dashboard.pops4.com/ - Catalogue: 70,000+ products, 200+ brands