> Perhaps the conditions for recognizing when an industry "needs" consolidation aren't that esoteric? Aren't they all issues of scaling? I don't think they are

> Perhaps the conditions for recognizing when an industry "needs" consolidation aren't that esoteric? Aren't they all issues of scaling? I don't think they are esoteric either, but rather, pretty straightforward. Modern communications and information technology have made it possible for a single corporate entity to easily manage an enterprise spread over many disparate geographic locations. As a result, there are costs (basically, people) that can now be reduced because they are redundant, and the remaining people can create some level of standardization in process and branding. This is an old story at this point - at least a few decades old. The only surprising thing is that it took this long for the last-mile white-glove delivery industry to get there. > Is last-mile delivery like auto-body, in that the flow of information among consumers isn't so great, and it takes considerable effort for delivery teams to maintain quality of service even though the margins aren't always so great? Sure, I'm not arguing that they don't have a strong incentive to merge. Quite the opposite, in fact.