Amazon to add use of smaller delivery competitors to UPS, FedEx, Post Office

[cheryl]

Amazon to add use of smaller delivery competitors to UPS, FedEx, Post Office - Marketwatch

Company wants entrepreneurs to form small delivery companies employing up to 100 drivers and leasing 20-40 Amazon-emblazoned vans

Amazon.com Inc. is pushing further onto the turf of its shipping partners United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. , enabling small businesses to carry its overflowing supply of packages in the all- important last-delivery leg to the consumer’s door.

The online retail giant on Thursday said it is inviting entrepreneurs to form small delivery companies employing up to 100 drivers and leasing between about 20 and 40 Amazon-emblazoned vans, an initiative that should help it rapidly build out its own delivery network across the country.

 

[RPSman]

How is Amazon going to have enough packages for 40 vans/contractor? Even if they pull all deliveries away from the post office, I don't think that number is reasonable. When I started with the Rolla, MO RPS terminal in 1994, we had 5 original routes. They added a large town in the Mineral Belt, we went up to 6. After a year, we went up to 7. Then around UPS strike time, we added 2 more. a 10th route was added, then an 11th route was transferred down from the St. Charles terminal? Don't think they can have this many, think they are going to find out like Avon Cosmetics did when they toyed with the idea of having their own delivery routes, pre RPS start of 1985.

 

[MAKAVELI]

How is Amazon going to have enough packages for 40 vans/contractor? Even if they pull all deliveries away from the post office, I don't think that number is reasonable. When I started with the Rolla, MO RPS terminal in 1994, we had 5 original routes. They added a large town in the Mineral Belt, we went up to 6. After a year, we went up to 7. Then around UPS strike time, we added 2 more. a 10th route was added, then an 11th route was transferred down from the St. Charles terminal? Don't think they can have this many, think they are going to find out like Avon Cosmetics did when they toyed with the idea of having their own delivery routes, pre RPS start of 1985.

Bro you are so out of the loop. Things have changed quite a bit in the last 20 years.

 

[RPSman]

Bro you are so out of the loop. Things have changed quite a bit in the last 20 years.

They may have, but I'm glad that UPS hasn't struck yet. And yes, the boys in Louisville are threatening to. I would like to see these reject FEG contractor drivers do like we did in 1997, and take on the challenge of keeping our good customers happy. Their carpetbagger "CSP bosses" will cry, piss their pants and run out the terminal doors if they get slammed like we did. We had one contractor when we started in 1994 who had tried to get all of the original 5 terminal routes ala "carpetbagger style", he ended up with a route that he couldn't do, and lost it for bad service. If a closeby metropolitan area is only running 4 USPS Grumman Olson regular route vans to take care of 160 Amazon deliveries on a Sunday, then tell me where the packages to fill up 40 Sprinter vans is going to come from. When they start having to replace a set of 4 tires every 10,000 miles, like a lot of Fed Ex Home Delivery vans had to do when they started in 2000, and bear the cost of maintaining those Sprinters (I used one while working for a bakery in 2006) when the dash lights up like a Christmas tree all the time, the profits are going to go down in a hurry. And where are they going to get the drivers? Even now, I see FEG contractor drivers that we wouldn't have hired for temp drivers at RPS. Instead of trying to build from the ground up, Amazon should contract with the regional parcel carriers that cover a good percentage of the USA, and continue subcontracting rural deliveries to the USPS. If not their delivery company will go the way of Emery, Pony Express Couriers and a few others.