Big & Bulky delivery is one of the hardest problems in last mile logistics — and one of the least sustainable. Heavy items, complex routing, and wide delivery windows have defined the category for years. This case study explores how GoBolt partnered with one of the world’s most recognized home furnishings retailers to prove that operational excellence and sustainability aren’t a trade-off. They’re the same goal.
The Client
Our partner is one of the world’s most recognized home furnishings retailers — a brand synonymous with accessible design, global scale, and a deeply held commitment to sustainability. Their product catalogue spans everything from furniture, cabinetry, and large appliances — a range that places virtually every order they ship in the Big & Bulky category. Operating at significant scale across North America, they’ve made formal, public commitments to reducing their environmental footprint across their entire value chain — including last-mile delivery.
They came to GoBolt with high expectations. What they got exceeded them.
The TL;DR
The Challenge
Big & Bulky delivery is one of logistics’ most stubborn problems. The items are heavy, unwieldy, and often require two-person delivery teams. Routes are harder to optimize. Customer scheduling is complex. And the industry’s answer to all of this has historically been wide delivery windows — 8am to 12pm, 1pm to 6pm — that leave shoppers trapped at home, uncertain, and frustrated.
Sustainability has been even harder to crack. Electric vehicles capable of carrying large, heavy items at a commercial scale are only recently becoming viable, and adoption across the Big & Bulky sector remains extremely low. Most carriers in this space still operate exclusively on diesel.
Our partner needed a last-mile solution that could match their sustainability ambitions, deliver at meaningful volume, and give their customers an experience worthy of their brand — without sacrificing the reliability that a retailer of their scale demands.
The GoBolt Approach
GoBolt brought three interconnected capabilities to this partnership: a growing electric vehicle fleet, the veritree carbon sequestration partnership, and proprietary last mile tracking technology built to give shoppers the transparency and flexibility they’ve come to expect from modern commerce.
Sustainable Delivery by Design
GoBolt’s sustainability model is built on a clear principle: prioritize delivery by electric vehicle, and sequester equivalent carbon emissions when that is not possible. This isn’t an offset-first approach — it’s an EV-first approach, with sequestration as a responsible backstop.
In practice, this meant deploying EVs across this partner’s delivery network wherever viable, while simultaneously working with veritree to commit to tree planting that sequesters emissions for deliveries where EVs weren’t yet an option.
Live Tracking That Respects Shoppers' Time
GoBolt replaced the industry-standard wide delivery window with a real-time delivery tracking experience. Every 30 seconds, our technology reviews and — if needed — updates the estimated time of arrival and the current location of the delivery vehicle. When a shopper is the next stop on the route, our system automatically triggers a notification so they can be ready to receive their delivery.
The result: shoppers can go about their day, confident they won’t miss their delivery. No more waiting around. No more guessing.
This real-time communication flows in both directions. As packages are scanned and confirmed onto the delivery vehicle, shoppers are automatically alerted about their expected delivery window for the day — setting clear expectations from the moment the truck rolls.
Drivers, meanwhile, are guided through their routes with prompted workflows that trigger automatic email and SMS notifications at key moments. Communication isn’t an afterthought; it’s embedded into every step of the delivery process.
The Results
Sustainability at Scale
Across the full year — inclusive of the ramp-up period — GoBolt achieved an EV delivery percentage of nearly 55%, meaning more than half of all Big & Bulky deliveries were completed by electric vehicle. In an industry where EV adoption in this category is rare, that full-year figure is a meaningful benchmark.
At full operating capacity, the results were even stronger: a 79% EV delivery rate — a figure that redefines what sustainable Big & Bulky delivery can look like at commercial scale.;
The environmental impact was equally significant:
- 788.56 metric tonnes of CO₂e avoided — the equivalent of over 77,000 gallons of diesel fuel, or more than 1,800 barrels of oil
- Nearly 5,000 trees committed to planting through GoBolt’s partnership with veritree, sequestering emissions on deliveries where EVs were not available
Perhaps most compelling is how quickly that impact scaled. In Q1 2025, GoBolt avoided an average of 39.37 t CO₂e per month for this partner. By Q4, that figure had increased to over 100 t CO₂e per month — nearly a 3× increase within a single year. This growth reflects both rapid electric fleet expansion and continued improvements in route optimization. While monthly impact peaked at 126.25 t CO₂e, the sustained gains across each quarter highlight the scalability of EV-driven delivery as infrastructure matures.
Operational Excellence
Sustainability is only meaningful if deliveries actually arrive — reliably, on time, and without friction.
- 95% on-time rate and 4% failed delivery rate — well beyond the big & bulky industry average (80–89% on-time), where missed attempts are common due to customers not being home. GoBolt’s proactive communication reduces that risk at every step.
GoBolt’s guided driver flows and real-time notifications have been shown to reduce delivery failures by over 50% — fewer failed attempts mean fewer redeliveries, which means fewer emissions and lower costs
The Bigger Picture
For a retailer with a public, global sustainability commitment, last-mile delivery is a meaningful contributor to its Scope 3 emissions profile. GoBolt’s ability to document, track, and report on emissions avoided and trees sequestered gives this partner’s sustainability team something they rarely have in last-mile logistics: actual data they can use.
And for their customers, the experience of receiving a large, complex delivery — historically one of the more stressful moments in a retail journey — has been transformed. Real-time tracking. Proactive notifications. Drivers who show up when they say they will.
Big & Bulky delivery doesn’t have to mean big uncertainty. GoBolt is proving that at scale, one electric vehicle at a time.
Where We Go From Here
The momentum isn’t slowing down. In Q1 2026, GoBolt is already trending at a 64% EV delivery rate across nearly 60,000 orders for this partner — surpassing last year’s full-year average in just the first months of the year.
Each percentage point represents real progress: fewer diesel trucks on the road, fewer emissions, and a partner’s sustainability commitments being met delivery by delivery. As GoBolt’s EV fleet continues to grow and route optimization improves, the ceiling for what’s possible in sustainable Big & Bulky delivery keeps rising.
