Emery, Postal Service Join to Deliver Parcels

CNF Inc.’s Emery Worldwide air cargo unit and the U.S. Postal Service will offer a service to quickly deliver heavier items such as furniture and exercise equipment to homes as consumers buy more goods via the Internet.

The service, ParcelHome, will deliver multi-package shipments and packages up to 70 pounds, either overnight or in two to three days. Details will be announced today.

FDX Corp.’s FedEx, the largest overnight delivery company, earlier this year created FedEx Home Delivery to capture more packages being shipped from online retailers. United Parcel Service Inc. now moves about 60% of such shipments. Online purchases will rise to $184 billion by 2004 from $38 billion this year, Forrester Research Inc. and the National Retail Federation say.

“There’s definitely a market” for a service like ParcelHome, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst James Valentine said. “Even FedEx and UPS will acknowledge there is a demand for products that don’t fit through their traditional” sorting hubs.

Emery Worldwide traditionally has moved business-to-business shipments. Under the new program, it will pick up goods at a shipper’s dock and use its cargo aircraft or trucking fleet to deliver them to a Postal Service sorting center for delivery to homes, said Emery spokesman Rocco Sacci.

Palo Alto-based CNF shares rose 50 cents to close at $26.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.