GoBolt, a white glove last-mile delivery service focused on carbon neutrality use electric vehicles and carbon offsets through a technology partnership, has launched parcel delivery in several U.S. and Canadian cities by leveraging an acquisition, with plans to expand as demand and adoption dictate.
The company is starting out with a fleet of 70 electric vans, with plans to grow that to more than 185 in the next 12 months; it also has 110 conventional box trucks. GoBolt has operations in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, New York, Miami, Houston and Los Angeles.
In June, GoBolt acquired Montreal-based startup BoxKnight, which uses crowdsourced drivers, its own warehouses and software that integrates with ecommerce platforms to handle last-mile deliveries for SMBs to enterprise customers in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. The company said the acquisition helped pull its go-to-market strategy forward by 1-2 quarters.
The company offers same-day and next-day services, with an option for contactless delivery. In house it has developed its own WMS, routing algorithm, a merchant-facing portal and real-time tracking via an app.
Mark Ang, co-founder and CEO of GoBolt, said the company started out life in 2017 as a consumer storage and delivery service, providing “virtual closet” space in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver. “Eventually that bled over to managing big and bulky items, going after delivery opportunities for that, and the warehouse and truck infrastructure to support it,” Ang said.
GoBolt works with a technology partner, EcoCart, that calculates the carbon footprint of each online order and provides shoppers with eco-friendly checkout options. In instances when it can’t make deliveries using EVs, it works with EcoCart to offer customers carbon offsets to get to neutrality.
“We draw a hardline distinction between carbon neutrality and true net zero delivery by using EVs, not diesel or gas trucks and then offsetting later,” Ang said. “Our focus is on net zero. The clientele that came from BoxKnight is very aligned with that approach, and we’ll do more exploration as far as what markets have the most requests (for carbon neutral deliveries).”
GoBolt now has 15 leased warehouses, ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 square feet. Ang said the company uses data visualization and queries to help customers optimize inventory placement in order to cut down on delivery times and avoid split shipments. “We help them make smart decisions around inventory distribution, so as to not deteriorate ROI, helping them advantage of forward placement,” he said.
