Amazon Shipping System, Supply Chain and Logistics
Amazon uses many different transportation services (as per this CNBC report) to deliver packages. Amazon-branded services include:
- Amazon Air, a cargo airline for bulk transport, with last-mile delivery handled either by Amazon Flex, Amazon Logistics, or the United States Postal Service.
- Amazon Flex, a smartphone app that enables individuals to act as independent contractors, delivering packages to customers from personal vehicles without uniforms. Deliveries include one or two hours Prime Now, same or next day Amazon Fresh groceries, and standard Amazon.com orders, in addition to orders from local stores that contract with Amazon.
- Amazon Logistics, in which Amazon contracts with small businesses (which it calls “Delivery Service Partners”) to perform deliveries to customers. Each business has a fleet of approximately 20–40 Amazon-branded vans, and employees of the contractors wear Amazon uniforms.
As of December 2020, it operates in the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Amazon Prime Air is an experimental drone delivery service. Amazon directly employs people to work at its warehouses, Bulk Distribution Centres, staffed “Amazon Hub Locker+” locations, and delivery stations where drivers pick up packages.
As of December 2020, it is not hiring delivery drivers as employees. Rakuten Intelligence estimated that in 2020 in the United States, the proportion of last-mile deliveries was 56% by Amazon’s directly contracted services (mostly in urban areas), 30% by the United States Postal Service (mostly in rural areas), and 14% by UPS. In April 2021, Amazon reported to investors it had increased its in-house delivery capacity by 50% in the last 12 months (which included the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States).
The Ultimate Truth Revealed by Amazon DSP Drivers on The Challenges of One-Day Shipping
Amazon has more than 115,000 drivers working under independent small businesses – Delivery Service Partners, or DSPs – who deliver Prime packages to doorsteps with one-day shipping. We talked to current and former Amazon DSP drivers about the pressures of the job.
From urinating in bottles to running stop signs, routes that lead drivers to run across traffic, dog bites and cameras recording inside vans at all times – some of the 115,000 DSP drivers have voiced big concerns.
How Amazon Beat Supply Chain Chaos with Ships, Containers and Planes
As supply chain chaos causes shipping delays this holiday season, experts say Amazon’s logistics empire and predictive analytics will allow it to avoid the worst of it. Amazon leased long-haul planes to get goods from China to the U.S. faster, and its been making its own containers and chartering private cargo vessels for years.
Now retailers like Walmart, Home Depot, Target, IKEA and Costco are trying out the tactic, chartering smaller vessels to bring goods to less congested ports.
CNBC
How Amazon is Competing with FEDEX and UPS by Shipping Non-Amazon Orders
Amazon is on a spending spree to grow its fleet of planes, vans, Semi-trucks and drivers in its latest move to compete with FedEx and UPS.
Now, it’s using the added capacity to move cargo for outside customers, betting big on the business of third-party shipping while also shipping 72% of its own packages.
CNBC
