Both UPS and FedEx deliveries arrive at my front door in good condition, the delivery drivers bag the packages up if I'm not home and it looks like rain.
USPS consistently rings my doorbell and makes sure packages are handed to me rather than left outside.
Amazon delivered packages have been: thrown from the street; arrive crushed, punctured, or otherwise damaged; left in the driveway; left in the neighbors yard; never ring the doorbell, unless it's after dark, and then they ring and run.
Amazon's last mile service is a complete shit show, impressively worse than the random cut rate last mile delivery services they used when they were trying to force UPS and FedEx to lower prices.
I think service for any of these companies is highly variable and dependent upon locale. Perhaps it's a culture thing.
The USPS worker never rings my doorbell for left packages and just yesterday a package was delivered damaged in my mailbox.
I live in a nice part of town (I think) but the service culture here may be different than where you live (and different than other locales where I've resided).
> Amazon delivered packages have been: thrown from the street
i watched a USPS driver do that. i'm amazed he could heft the package that far.
> USPS consistently rings my doorbell
i don't know that they've ever rung my doorbell.
> Amazon's last mile service is a complete shit show
they all vary in quality by location. fedex was nearly unusable at my last residence, but is great where i'm at now. anecdotes simply aren't valuable here.
Any packages from Amazon that have been delivered by its independent contractor delivery people have always been photographed sitting by my front door.
Contrary but also anecdotal evidence. Many ebay sellers use FedEx and it sucks a lot. The deliveries are constantly delayed. No issues with Amazon timing/packages from Amazon, except that they occasionally not brought to the package room and left near mailboxes (I live in apartment complex)
disc: I'm Amazon employee, not in Retail (anymore)
Am I correct in thinking that the last mile delivery solution from Amazon strictly relies on independent contractors or do they have corporate trucks/drivers?
You're being downvoted, but you're not wrong. Amazon's deliver is terrible for me as well, never had a problem with UPS or FedEx (USPS is slightly less reliable, but still WAY better than Amazon).
I suppose that Amazon, at least the retail sales part of it, is essentially a shipping company. No surprise that it would build out over time, plus you'd be silly to trust them as a single huge customer.
One sentence in that article that I like was mentioning Amazon purchasing of dead malls. I had to thump myself in the head..'of course'. I've always wondered what would happen to those facilities and mini storage and fulfillment centers are good ideas.
Maybe we could ship Amazon direct to mini storage and cut out the middle man. Making 'too much stuff' more efficient seems like a genuine plan.
In any e-commerce business you have challenges like:
1. Getting traffic to online store.
2. Converting it to sales.
3. Able to deliver it to customers in time.
4. Service the complaints or product in time.
Out of this website traffic is directly linked to assortment and sales is directly linked to price (value for money vis a vis quality) and delivery besides traffic. Logistics i.e. storing, sorting and last mile delivery is one of the toughest challenges to solve in this business. Amazon used UPS, FedEx and USPS in the beginning to help them understand how its done, acquire expertise. They took that knowledge and than applied technology to solve some of the challenges and reduce costs.
It was just a matter of time they become full logistics company, because in reality every retailer and distributor is primarily a logistics company with stores, warehouses and distribution center.
So it's hardly surprising they are competing with them. But I feel UPS, FedEx still do many other B2B supply chain work like delivering components to manufacturing site, vendor managed inventory, defence supplies, government supply chain, Olympics, major events and sports supply chain etc. so there will still be room for them to grow.
interesting article, thanks for sharing it. I have been seeing more and more of these 3rd party contractor vans milling about and it makes since they're skimping on safety, etc. in order to get a piece of amazon's shipping needs, meanwhile amazon attempts to disclaim all liability while turning the screws and upping the pressure
I just find it amazing that Amazon found it more profitable to buy tens of thousands of delivery vehicles and build a service from the ground up than to find better deals through the available shippers.
Now I see their trucks nearly as often as Fed Ex and UPS.
For most of Amazon's existence they have been getting the best deal that they can with the available shippers, primarily UPS, FedEx, and USPS in the US. They negotiated lower rates than the shippers offer to consumers and businesses in exchange for guaranteed delivery volumes. Basically Amazon promised to ship X million packages per week with shipper Y in exchange for "below market" rates.
In response to shippers not doing what they want and to provide leverage, Amazon started to do their own shipping. This originally started as same-day delivery experiments in large cities as part of Amazon Fresh (grocery delivery service). It grew into non-grocery deliveries as a competitive advantage for Prime same-day deliveries and expanded from there.
I expect that "Transportation By Amazon" (TBA) where Amazon does package delivery as a competitor to UPS and FedEx will probably start in the next year or two, barring any anti-trust or legal problems.
I live in a South Florida county that has about 2 million people. I've never seen an Amazon truck before? The only shipped-by-Amazon deliveries I've received were from people in their own cars.
Well the main reasons for not going horizontal are scale and volatility - which ammount to fixed costs essentially. If they can make a profit off of it then that implies cutting out the middlemen can potentially reduce expenses.
That said that they are /still/ smaller than Wallmart yet have scale sufficient to be competitive to mass shippers is amazing even considering the internet related physical letter shrinkage.
Much like AWS spun out of their in-house experience running flexible computing infrastructure, this would be a natural fit for them to flex their logistics strengths.
Via their multi-channel fulfillment offerings, you can already use Amazon's logistics network to ship your products sold on or off of Amazon. This would just be supporting more type of shipments than just fulfillment.
On the other hand, Fedex, DHL, UPS etc have built a big part of their strengths of shipping worldwide overnight. That's very different than what Amazon does, where they try to warehouse products close to customers to minimize shipping distance and time. Great when you want to buy an iPhone, but not suitable for shipping a document from New York City to Tokyo.
"Transportation By Amazon" (TBA) has been a concept at Amazon since around 2010 or so. Originally the concept was that Amazon would accept shipments from business customers and inject those shipments into Amazon's sorting and shipping network using the rates negiotated with various carriers.
Since most of Amazon's negiotated rates with carriers are lower than what carriers offer to consumers directly, customers get lower prices and would benefit from Amazon's scale and customer service.
Now with Amazon's own transportation network finally taking off, Transportation By Amazon has gone from a concept that would have relied exclusively on third-party carriers (e.g. UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc.) to a likely reality with primary reliance on Amazon's infrastructure and supported by third-party carriers where Amazon does not have a robust prescence.
Ronald Coase would have loved Amazon and in particular this case. Amazon is quite unconventional in regards to what they choose to outsource and what they keep — or bring — in house.
Huh, missing from this article is the thousand or so DSP that service Amazon for shipping, basically contracting companies. A lot of Amazon shipping is actually Amazon corporate, but a huge chunk is a thousand smaller shops.
Turns out you can also contract with those shops as a private citizen to just ship random heavy stuff anywhere for super cheap. Because Amazon gives them enough volume, it's become cheaper for individuals to make their own shipping purchases too. Strange side effect.
I don't work for Amazon or anything, but my dad has used one of their DSP to ship some truly heavy stuff (250kg+).
Is all that in the "other"? Or did it get lumped in with Amazon's chunk? I want to know but the article doesn't help.
It's good for Amazon, but is it good for consumers? Isn't a postal service something of a natural monopoly — the more competing services there are, the less efficient each is, because instead of one vehicle with one load of deliveries, you have two or more vehicles with fractions of that amount?
It's certainly not good for the environment at least.
I think there is enough packages to be delivered that you would more likely have two trucks with full loads anyways. These companies aren't making any shipments with anything less than a full truck, I'm sure of it
I feel delivery companies should bid for providing service for the last couple of kilometers, then the winner should get an exclusive contract for some time frame. That's how it's done for other services like regional rail public transport.
The people that deliver in those amazon vans to my place are clowns. Next-day and two-day delivery is no longer reliable. It's making me not want to shop with amazon.
What is interesting is that an American company is copying Chinese companies after pulling out of China because they could not compete with the local companies.
Both JD & Taobao/Tmall have their own large shipping empires in China. I suspect that was part of the reason they pulled out. They could not compete using 3rd part shipping companies.
Now they are doing the same thing in their home market.
JD has its deliver and warehouse and still use network of delivery companies and warehouse too. Tmall and Taobao use a network of delivery companies their own logistics arm Cainiao is not that big in warehousing and last mile delivery like SF Express or YTO.
In reality logistics is capital and labor intensive industry, Amazon will have trouble once the retail growth flatten but the cost structures are high. Amazon once unionized will have similar challenges and costs like UPS.
This is the reason FedEx never want to be unionized.
[+] [-] miker64|6 years ago|reply
USPS consistently rings my doorbell and makes sure packages are handed to me rather than left outside.
Amazon delivered packages have been: thrown from the street; arrive crushed, punctured, or otherwise damaged; left in the driveway; left in the neighbors yard; never ring the doorbell, unless it's after dark, and then they ring and run.
Amazon's last mile service is a complete shit show, impressively worse than the random cut rate last mile delivery services they used when they were trying to force UPS and FedEx to lower prices.
[+] [-] blevo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sigstoat|6 years ago|reply
i watched a USPS driver do that. i'm amazed he could heft the package that far.
> USPS consistently rings my doorbell
i don't know that they've ever rung my doorbell.
> Amazon's last mile service is a complete shit show
they all vary in quality by location. fedex was nearly unusable at my last residence, but is great where i'm at now. anecdotes simply aren't valuable here.
[+] [-] bloopernova|6 years ago|reply
Do yours not take photos?
[+] [-] galkk|6 years ago|reply
disc: I'm Amazon employee, not in Retail (anymore)
[+] [-] ChicagoBoy11|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] linuxftw|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PorterDuff|6 years ago|reply
One sentence in that article that I like was mentioning Amazon purchasing of dead malls. I had to thump myself in the head..'of course'. I've always wondered what would happen to those facilities and mini storage and fulfillment centers are good ideas.
Maybe we could ship Amazon direct to mini storage and cut out the middle man. Making 'too much stuff' more efficient seems like a genuine plan.
[+] [-] dragonsh|6 years ago|reply
1. Getting traffic to online store.
2. Converting it to sales.
3. Able to deliver it to customers in time.
4. Service the complaints or product in time.
Out of this website traffic is directly linked to assortment and sales is directly linked to price (value for money vis a vis quality) and delivery besides traffic. Logistics i.e. storing, sorting and last mile delivery is one of the toughest challenges to solve in this business. Amazon used UPS, FedEx and USPS in the beginning to help them understand how its done, acquire expertise. They took that knowledge and than applied technology to solve some of the challenges and reduce costs.
It was just a matter of time they become full logistics company, because in reality every retailer and distributor is primarily a logistics company with stores, warehouses and distribution center.
So it's hardly surprising they are competing with them. But I feel UPS, FedEx still do many other B2B supply chain work like delivering components to manufacturing site, vendor managed inventory, defence supplies, government supply chain, Olympics, major events and sports supply chain etc. so there will still be room for them to grow.
[+] [-] macintux|6 years ago|reply
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/amazon...
[+] [-] riffic|6 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20865006
[+] [-] balaksakrionon|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Shivetya|6 years ago|reply
Now I see their trucks nearly as often as Fed Ex and UPS.
[+] [-] thesuperbigfrog|6 years ago|reply
The issues that Amazon has seen, particularly during holiday peaks is that shippers do not always want to continue to lower their rates and that shippers do not always scale up their operations to meet Amazon's needs during the holidays. For example: https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-christmas-shipping-de... and https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/amazon-ups-o...
In response to shippers not doing what they want and to provide leverage, Amazon started to do their own shipping. This originally started as same-day delivery experiments in large cities as part of Amazon Fresh (grocery delivery service). It grew into non-grocery deliveries as a competitive advantage for Prime same-day deliveries and expanded from there.
I expect that "Transportation By Amazon" (TBA) where Amazon does package delivery as a competitor to UPS and FedEx will probably start in the next year or two, barring any anti-trust or legal problems.
[+] [-] drevil-v2|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pwython|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jpalomaki|6 years ago|reply
Your trusted Amazon delivery guy could fill your fridge while you supervise him through Amazon branded devices.
[+] [-] Nasrudith|6 years ago|reply
That said that they are /still/ smaller than Wallmart yet have scale sufficient to be competitive to mass shippers is amazing even considering the internet related physical letter shrinkage.
[+] [-] moogleii|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] devoply|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mcpherrinm|6 years ago|reply
Via their multi-channel fulfillment offerings, you can already use Amazon's logistics network to ship your products sold on or off of Amazon. This would just be supporting more type of shipments than just fulfillment.
On the other hand, Fedex, DHL, UPS etc have built a big part of their strengths of shipping worldwide overnight. That's very different than what Amazon does, where they try to warehouse products close to customers to minimize shipping distance and time. Great when you want to buy an iPhone, but not suitable for shipping a document from New York City to Tokyo.
[+] [-] thesuperbigfrog|6 years ago|reply
Since most of Amazon's negiotated rates with carriers are lower than what carriers offer to consumers directly, customers get lower prices and would benefit from Amazon's scale and customer service.
Now with Amazon's own transportation network finally taking off, Transportation By Amazon has gone from a concept that would have relied exclusively on third-party carriers (e.g. UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc.) to a likely reality with primary reliance on Amazon's infrastructure and supported by third-party carriers where Amazon does not have a robust prescence.
[+] [-] Inconel|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gumby|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dmoy|6 years ago|reply
Turns out you can also contract with those shops as a private citizen to just ship random heavy stuff anywhere for super cheap. Because Amazon gives them enough volume, it's become cheaper for individuals to make their own shipping purchases too. Strange side effect.
I don't work for Amazon or anything, but my dad has used one of their DSP to ship some truly heavy stuff (250kg+).
Is all that in the "other"? Or did it get lumped in with Amazon's chunk? I want to know but the article doesn't help.
[+] [-] blevo|6 years ago|reply
reminds me of McDonald's single-handedly bringing down the price of beef
[+] [-] Stratoscope|6 years ago|reply
Just so I don't misunderstand, does that stand for Delivery Service Provider?
[+] [-] TazeTSchnitzel|6 years ago|reply
It's certainly not good for the environment at least.
[+] [-] mytailorisrich|6 years ago|reply
For consumers the more suppliers the better.
[+] [-] TheSoftwareGuy|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davio|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rerx|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] devilsenigma|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tehlike|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] linuxftw|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dasanman|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adinobro|6 years ago|reply
Both JD & Taobao/Tmall have their own large shipping empires in China. I suspect that was part of the reason they pulled out. They could not compete using 3rd part shipping companies.
Now they are doing the same thing in their home market.
[+] [-] Someone1234|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dragonsh|6 years ago|reply
In reality logistics is capital and labor intensive industry, Amazon will have trouble once the retail growth flatten but the cost structures are high. Amazon once unionized will have similar challenges and costs like UPS.
This is the reason FedEx never want to be unionized.
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]