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.

According to Bloomberg News, the new service will be called ParcelHome, and will deliver multi-package shipments and packages up to 70 pounds, either overnight or in two to three days.
Earlier this year, FDX Corp.'s FedEx, created FedEx Home Delivery to capture more packages being shipped from online retailers. United Parcel Service now moves about 60% of such shipments. Forrester Research and the National Retail Federation predict that online purchases will rise to $184 billion by 2004, up from $38 billion this year.
"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.