Expanding Reach: How 3PLs Can Deliver Further Without New Depots

A delivery request to Tulsa just hit your desk. But there’s a problem: your nearest depot is in Dallas — 250 miles away. 

You have two choices: You could lease space, hire drivers, and maybe be operational by next Christmas; or you could do what a smart, outside-the-box-thinking midsized 3PL would do — partner with a regional carrier and start delivering there in 10 days.

Once upon a time, the depot-first mentality made sense when expanding reach meant planting flags in new territories. But today’s 3PLs are discovering they can deliver to Tulsa, Topeka, or Timbuktu without owning a single square foot of warehouse space there. They’re using capacity networks, cross-docking arrangements, and zone-skipping strategies that would’ve seemed impossible five years ago.

In this day and age, 3PLs can say yes to more business than ever without the 18-month lead times and million-dollar buildouts. Here’s how they’re doing it — and why expanding reach no longer means expanding your real estate portfolio.

1. Build Strategic Partner Networks Instead of New Facilities

The fastest way to start? Find someone who’s already there. While you’re calculating depot costs for that Tulsa expansion, there’s likely a regional carrier that’s been running routes there for 20 years. Partner with them, and suddenly you’re offering same day delivery without owning a single vehicle or warehouse in the state.

This tactic isn’t some complex 4PL arrangement or pie-in-the-sky scenario. It’s simply borrowing capacity where you need it. Smart 3PLs are using these partnerships to cover entire regions through deals with local operators and can route orders through partner warehouses like they’re extensions of their network. The best part? Customers never know the difference, primarily when modern technology coordinates everything behind the scenes.

The beauty of expanding reach this way? You’re operational in weeks instead of months, competing for business while others are still looking at real estate.

2. Leverage On-Demand Delivery Fleets  

Sometimes all you need is a driver with a van. The same gig economy that delivers your lunch can now handle your client’s urgent shipment to that random address three states away, in any vehicle type you need.

When a customer needs something delivered outside your zone today — not next week when you’ve lined up a partner — on-demand fleets fill the gap. You’re essentially summoning drivers like calling a car service, except they’re hauling pallets instead of passengers. Need to bring a critical part to a job site? Done. Holiday surge in a city you’ve never serviced? Covered.

The economics are simple: pay per delivery, no idle trucks, no permanent overhead. It’s expanding reach at its most flexible — turning “we don’t go there” into “it’s on the way” with a few clicks or taps.

3. Embrace Technology and Multi-Carrier Integration for Flexibility

Now here’s where it gets interesting. Instead of calling partners one by one or hunting for gig drivers, smart 3PLs are letting software do the matchmaking. Multi-carrier platforms now work like a dating app for shipments — your Denver delivery gets matched with the perfect local carrier in seconds.

Connect your TMS to these networks, and suddenly you’re quoting deliveries to places you’ve never heard of. The platform finds the carrier, negotiates rates, and tracks everything. Meanwhile, route optimization takes your existing trucks, helps fit in more stops, and slashes fuel costs by 20%. Think of a peripheral zone you couldn’t justify serving now becoming a profitable weekly run with 10 consolidated drops.

Essentially, you’re expanding reach without expending resources. 

Where Services Like FRAYT Fit In: On-Demand Network as an Extension of Your 3PL

So you’ve got partners handling new markets and gig drivers covering those random Tuesday rushes. Now imagine having 42,000 drivers on speed dial across 150+ markets, ready to haul anything from designer handbags for a retail store to a pallet of drywall for a construction site. That’s where we come in — FRAYT is your logistics department’s secret weapon for expanding reach efficiently and affordably.

• Instant “Yes” Power: Your sales team can finally stop saying, “Let me check if we deliver there.” With our nationwide driver network at your fingertips, every ZIP code becomes your territory. That customer in a rural town who needs a rush delivery tomorrow? We’ve got a driver 20 minutes away.  
• Pay-Per-Delivery Economics: Remember leasing that fleet of trucks that sat idle every February? We charge you per trip — no monthly payments on vehicles gathering dust. Scale up for Black Friday, scale down for the slow season, pay only for wheels that are actually turning.
• Rightsized Everything: Stop sending box trucks for shoe boxes. We match your shipment to the perfect vehicle — sedan for documents, pickup for that awkward machinery part, 26-footer for the pallet load. Your customer gets efficient delivery, and you get efficient pricing.
• Plug-and-Play Tech Stack: Our API integration means these deliveries flow through your existing systems like they’re your own trucks. Real-time tracking, instant POD, automated dispatch — all without teaching your team new software or explaining to customers why this delivery works differently.
• Test Markets without the Commitment: Want to see if that new region is worth pursuing? Run deliveries there for a month without signing a lease or hiring anyone. If it works, keep going. If it doesn’t, you’ve lost nothing but a few delivery fees. Try doing that with a traditional depot model.

Forget Everything You Know about Growing Your 3PL

You just learned how to deliver to Tulsa without building in Tulsa. How to handle that random Phoenix rush order without a Phoenix warehouse. How to quote last mile delivery to places you’ve never heard of. The game has changed — the 3PLs booking the most business aren’t the ones with the most depots. They’re the ones who figured out that partners, gig drivers, and good software can take you further than any lease agreement ever could.  

And that’s what we do here at FRAYT: Instead of losing deals because the delivery address is 50 miles outside your comfort zone, we just tap into our network of 40,000 drivers for everything from middle mile delivery between warehouses to last mile delivery to customer doorsteps — all without owning a single truck. Connect our platform to your current setup, and you’re quoting nationwide delivery by lunch. It’s really that simple. 

Want to start taking every opportunity that comes your way? Sign up with FRAYT and turn those “sorry, we don’t go there” calls into closed deals.