Amazon Considering Options After UPS Delays

cheryl

I started this.
Staff member
Amazon Considering Options After UPS Delays - Motley Fool

Amazon has stated it is currently reviewing the performance of delivery companies. The company seems quite ready to take shipping matters into its own hands, as became clear from CEO Jeff Bezos' plans to use drones at some point in the future. According to Amazon, the company passed on all the deliveries to the shippers on time. Declining to give exact figures on how many customers were affected, Amazon stated that only a small percentage of shoppers faced delays.

The online retail titan has plenty of cash to throw at the venture of developing its own delivery service, and the backlash it faced as a result of the Christmas delays could serve to expedite the development of these options. If major online retailers such as Amazon decide to launch their own delivery services, shippers like UPS and FedEx could potentially find themselves in a lot of trouble.
 

oldngray

nowhere special
Amazon delivery, at least in metro areas is in the near future. In the meantime I think its a ploy by Amazon to get their rates discounted even more.
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
The margins on Amazon shipments are extremely low already so I don't see that happening.
I don't see Amazon creating it's own delivery service ... Amazon will most likely use an outside contractor service using personal vehicles. A stripped down FedEx Home business.

Regional carriers tend to cherry pick business to business shipments with higher stops per stop and higher stop density. Amazon will find these regional carriers will be a higher price solution for them for B2C.

Amazon has been trying to find an alternate solution to UPS/FedEx for years. I predict they will continue to look for many more years for a human based solution.

The drone solution is interesting but also a real solution is years out.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
Hoax if you believe that "drone" BS I will put you in touch with another poster who is trying to sell me a bridge he thinks I should buy because I posted that only 2% of illegal aliens actually pick farm crops.
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
Hoax if you believe that "drone" BS I will put you in touch with another poster who is trying to sell me a bridge he thinks I should buy because I posted that only 2% of illegal aliens actually pick farm crops.
Well, I said years out!
Is your objection I should have said many, many years out?

If so, I can go with that qualification.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
Well, I said years out!
Is your objection I should have said many, many years out?

If so, I can go with that qualification.

And if you believed the movie "Back to the Future" we are suppose to have hoverboards now.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
The margins on Amazon shipments are extremely low already so I don't see that happening.
I don't see Amazon creating it's own delivery service ... Amazon will most likely use an outside contractor service using personal vehicles. A stripped down FedEx Home business.

Regional carriers tend to cherry pick business to business shipments with higher stops per stop and higher stop density. Amazon will find these regional carriers will be a higher price solution for them for B2C.

Amazon has been trying to find an alternate solution to UPS/FedEx for years. I predict they will continue to look for many more years for a human based solution.

The drone solution is interesting but also a real solution is years out.
That's exactly why they would lose discount pricing. Amazon would be doing the cherry picking. Once they cherry pick the metro areas, density drops and any profit margin is erased.
 

Richard Harrow

Deplorable.
And if you believed the movie "Back to the Future" we are suppose to have hoverboards now.

That's next year. 2015 - the same year that the Cubs somehow manage to play Miami in the World Series.

I am also skeptical of drone delivery. Is it possible? Absolutely. Will it be cost effective? Absolutely not.

Amazon will have to purchase these things, find/train/pay qualified people to fly them, they would have to deal with the FAA for licensing and inspection, they'll have to insure every one of them, maintain them, and when they deliver to neighborhoods like the one I'm in now, replace them after they are shot down and destroyed for fun, and then most importantly, they have to find a consumer willing to spend what I imagine will be a pretty decent sum of money to get their item transported via this service.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
I don't see the drone thing ever happening. There are just TOO many things that could go wrong. I'm not saying that it couldn't be done----just that Amazon will never follow this idea through to the end. It was all hype to get more publicity out for Amazon just before Christmas. (And that part of the plan worked perfectly). I picture every year for the next 10 years or so Amazon playing this card over and over again. They may even have more made up spots where they do drop a package container at some phony movie set house. This is one snake oil stage show I'm not falling for.
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
Perhaps you are not aware of the prevalence and advancement in helicopter craft the Amazon drones are based on.
These type craft are used as photography platforms and I have one myself.

I could see a limited use of non-direct controlled hovercopters used in a 5 year period.
The cost would be prohibitive and people taking target practice will be problematic.
 
Perhaps you are not aware of the prevalence and advancement in helicopter craft the Amazon drones are based on.
These type craft are used as photography platforms and I have one myself.

I could see a limited use of non-direct controlled hovercopters used in a 5 year period.
The cost would be prohibited and target practice are problematic.

And you have to factor in payload ability and the weather limits. It won't take much of a shopping cart on amazon or too much wind and weather and those toys will be grounded.

Live human delivery people will still be going strong.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
Perhaps you are not aware of the prevalence and advancement in helicopter craft the Amazon drones are based on.
These type craft are used as photography platforms and I have one myself.

I could see a limited use of non-direct controlled hovercopters used in a 5 year period.
The cost would be prohibited and target practice are problematic.

Prohibitive.
 
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