Do Mega Carriers make money off of their warehouses

it really depends on the companies and what they using the space for.
For instance had one company he would over book on contract freight then have local drivers bring it to warehouse to store till road drivers could get, or some use just to have space to restack loads before delivery. Then some just bought the warehouse space to be there main terminal.

 

Usually, but not always. "Final mile" is the company that actually made the delivery. In the case of Old Dominion for example if they had a cartage company deliver (say in Chicago in an area of low bridges where their own trucks cant get for example) it instead of them then the cartage company would pick it up from ODs terminal and deliver. But lets say it was a truckload and they brokered it out to JB Hunt. Then JB would pick it up from the shipper and deliver it, running the OTR miles. Or obviously if they picked up and delivered then they would be the "final mile" company.

Other oddball situations can emerge also. Say for example someone ships something from Atlanta to International Falls, Mn. via Old Dominion. It could work like this: OD picks up the trailer from the shipper and takes it to their yard (full truckload - but LTL freight). They broker JB Hunt to pull the trailer to their Minneapolis terminal. Then they have Magnum do the LTL stuff in Intl Falls so they pick it up from ODs yard in Mpls and delivers it. Magnum would be the final mile.

 

Whatever company bumps the dock at the receiver is the "final mile". Thus the reason it is called the final mile.

The receiver may or may not be the customer. Lets say Menards has XYZ trucking company (the delivery company - ie "the final mile") deliver something for abc renovations (who would be the actual customer - but for the trucking company, Menards is the customer) to Bobs grocery mart (the receiver) because abc is doing some work for Bob.

Lets muddy it up further. Lets say Menards got CH Robinson to broker this load. So Menards is CH Robinsons customer, CH Robinson is XYZs customer, ABC is Menards customer, and Bob is ABCs customer.

Thus the reason drivers say "shipper" or "receiver". It cuts down on the confusion...

 

The margins in the trucking world are incredibly thin. 1-3%.

How JB makes money is something you would have to ask them.