LSO, originally known as Lone Star Overnight, is an
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
-based regional shipping carrier that focuses on Express next day delivery, utilizing both air and ground transportation in Texas, southeastern New Mexico, certain metro markets in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee, as well as northern Mexico.
History
In November 1990, Jack Long and Gary Gunter began forming Lone Star Overnight in
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
. With 28 employees and seven packages, Lone Star Overnight began operations on March 4, 1991. The team experienced success and the company broke even within two years.
In 2002, Lone Star Overnight expanded outside of Texas for the first time opening offices in Oklahoma City, Lawton, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Acquisitions
The company made major brand changes on May 15, 2013 changing the company name to LSO (an acronym they'd long used informally) and introducing a new logo. In the same year, LSO announced a partnership with Postmaster, an Austin-based shipping and tracking software startup.
In May 2014, LSO was acquired by affiliates of the private equity firm Eagle Merchant Partners. The reported investment in LSO was $20 million in equity plus in-kind and debt financing services.
LSO expanded further in 2015 when it acquired Express Courier International which was renamed LSO Final Mile. The acquisition extended LSO's reach to 7 states across the southeast and southwest. The company continued expansion by opening operations Louisiana in May 2015 and a year later announced their official expansion into major markets in Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas.
LSO Global, an international shipping service, was launched in 2019. The service is a partnership with
DHL Express
DHL (originally named after founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a multinational Import-Export Expert Company, founded in the United States and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It provides courier, package delivery, and express mail service, ...
reseller DHL OptimalShip and allows LSO shippers to book DHL Express shipments via LSO instead of having to book them separately.
In November 2020, LSO was acquired by WeDo Logistics, a holding company based in Austin, Texas which also owns final-mile parcel delivery provider Scoobeez. WeDo is owned by Ocelot Capital Management which had invested in both LSO and Scoobeez earlier in the year. Following LSO's acquisition, LSO Final Mile returned to the Express Courier International name.
Further expansion followed when LSO announced in June 2021 they would be expanding service in Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas and expected overall ecommerce business growth of 180% - 190%. LSO leadership said the expansion was in response to ecommerce retailers requesting expansion of LSO services after having been dissatisfied with the performance of competitors
UPS UPS most commonly refers to:
* Uninterruptible power supply, a device which provides continuous power to electronics
* United Parcel Service, an American courier company
UPS or ups may also refer to:
Companies and organizations
United Parcel S ...
and
FedEx
FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company specializing in Package delivery, transportation, e-commerce, and ...
in the 2020 peak shipping season.
See also
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Courier
A courier is a person or organization that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are ...
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Volumetric weight
Dimensional weight, also known as volumetric weight, is a pricing technique for commercial freight transport (including courier and postal services), which uses an estimated weight that is calculated from the length, width and height of a package. ...
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Logistics
Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...
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Express delivery
Express mail is an expedited mail delivery service for which the customer pays a premium for faster delivery. Express mail is a service for domestic and international mail, and is in most nations governed by the country's own postal administratio ...
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Freight company
Freight companies are companies that specialize in the moving (or " forwarding") of freight, or cargo, from one place to another. These companies are divided into several variant sections. For example, international freight forwarders ship goods ...
References
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Companies based in Austin, Texas
Logistics companies of the United States
Transportation companies based in Texas