Bezos does the expected for once.

[59 Dano]

Annuities anyone?

????

 

[59 Dano]

L

Ground may not be efficient overall but the transit times are often better than UPS Ground.

I don't necessarily mean in that aspect. From those I know who've managed for both Ground and Express, the consensus is that Ground's management is godawful. From the poor selection of candidates to the poor preparation they get to poorly execute poor plans. They are leaving money on the table.

 

[59 Dano]

Just a few small differences. Growing up in the worst depression in history. Joining up with the CCC which was nothing more than survivalist training while building the majority of the parks trails and roads your family enjoys today (assuming that they're not too lazy to do so) not to mention sending nearly all your pay home to your starving family. Afterward you go fight the bloodiest conflict in world history all before age 25. And if you were lucky enough to live through it you could go home and start the normal life you speak of but in the midst of the Cold War while still subjected to recall to go back and fight another nasty little war called Korea. .Modest differences in terms of life experiences between your generation and theirs but still worth mentioning.
Indeed, VT's description of your character could not have been more accurate.

You're holding it against me that I wasn't alive back then? Neither was he, neither were you. Don't know if you have a point or are just rambling again.

 

[dmac1]

Wishful thinking.

AT&T is one of, if not THE, largest shipper Express has. Its DC is in my station's service area. We were assigned 2 dock doors, and just enough space inside to set up 2 rows of cans and deck rollers to maneuver the cans. They wanted us off of their dock completely. The warehouse space was just too valuable to accommodate FedEx.

Amazon's warehouse space is just as, if not more, valuable, than AT&T's. Accommodating the delivery fleet for free doesn't add to the bottom line. Better budget for that 100x150 warehouse and, btw, expect to transport your freight from their dock to your new warehouse as well.

Amazon isn't in the business of making others wealthy. If it were profitable to do what they are offering the gullible, they would do it themselves. After all, they use robots in the warehouse. And claim that drones are imminent.

You are either ignoring or ignorant of the fact that all those packages are ALREADY taking up warehouse space and Amazon is ALREADY shipping product out of that warehouse space and they are ALREADY loading into trucks, and will have to load it into trucks somewhere at the warehouse. Whether it gets loaded into 10 big trailers or 300 smaller trucks doesn't make that much difference in the space needed if done efficiently. I've worked at locations with 10 dock doors loading cargo van size loads into around 100 trucks in about two hours with trucks scheduled in a particular order. There would almost definitely need to be a schedule . Paying you to move it an extra time sort it manually, then reload it is less efficient.

If for a few hours a day they use their warehouse space it to load more trucks, they can later use it to unload incoming product. They may need to schedule incoming deliveries from 10 am to 5 am, and then use it from 6 am to 10 am to load their contracted delivery vehicles. Either way, which efficient modern sorting equipment, they can do whatever they want pretty cheaply. Amazon is in the warehousing business. They are experts at getting packages into and out of a warehouse.

And if you really think that drones serving most of the country is near, you need to start thinking more clearly. Too many issues- weather- snow, wind, rain, security, copycats using drones to deliver bombs, etc. Maybe drones could be used sometimes, withing a few blocks of the warehouse, but most of the country isn't within 1-2 miles of a warehouse. And if warehouse space is soooooo valuable, they won't be spending any money building more warehouses. You can't have it both ways. And if they think that loading trucks at their one facility is more efficient than paying you to move it again and paying you to rent warehouse space they can rent or build themselves more cheaply than you can do it, they will do that.

You are the one who thinks that you can buy trucks cheaper than fedex, and think that fedex pays ISPs because ISPs are more efficient. when the truth is that fedex ground could hire employees themselves EXCEPT that it exposes express drivers to possible unionization. Amazon doesn't have to worry about an exemption calling themselves an airline.

And if paying contractors to move packages an extra time, and paying contractors to rent their own warehouse space is cheaper, how come fedex hasn't already done that???? There may be areas that it is more efficient and cheaper for contractors to only have one truck drive a long distance to retrieve packages from an Amazon location, but rural areas won't need 40 routes anyway. I worked at another location that did receive a 53 foot trailer to distribute to about 20 routes over two days(alternating day delivery areas) and it was a 20 x 40 foot storage location. But there is ZERO efficiency in having many multiple warehouses in a condensed urban area. Amazon ends up paying for that just like fedex ends up paying for all your costs.

There is no one way that is most efficient for every possible location. I see Amazon as only wanting a few contractors at each warehouse location, meaning at most a few hundred routes out of each Amazon warehouse. For Amazon, getting a few hundred trucks in and out of a warehouse quickly will be a piece of cake.

 

[vantexan]

You are either ignoring or ignorant of the fact that all those packages are ALREADY taking up warehouse space and Amazon is ALREADY shipping product out of that warehouse space. If for a few hours a day they they use it to load more trucks, they can later use it to unload incoming product. They may need to schedule incoming deliveries from 10 am to 5 am, and then use it from 6 am to 10 am to load their contracted delivery vehicles. Either way, which efficient modern sorting equipment, they can do whatever they want pretty cheaply. Amazon is in the warehousing business. They are experts at getting packages into and out of a warehouse.

And if you really think that drones serving most of the country is near, you need to start thinking more clearly. Too many issues- weather, rain, security, copycats using drones to deliver bombs, etc. Maybe drones could be used sometimes, withing a few blocks of the warehouse, but most of the country isn't withing 1-2 miles of a warehouse. And if warehouse space is soooooo valuable, they won't be spending any money building more warehouses. You can't have it both ways. And if they think that loading trucks at their one facility is more efficient than paying you to move it again and paying you to rent warehouse space they can rent'build themselves more cheaply than you can do it, they will do that.

You are the one who thinks that you can buy trucks cheaper than fedex, and think that fedex pays ISPs because ISPs are more efficient. when the truth is that fedex ground could hire employees themselves EXCEPT that it exposes express drivers to possible unionization. Amazon doesn't have to worry about an exemption calling themselves an airline.

And if paying contractors to move packages an extra time, and paying contractors to rent their own warehouse space is cheaper, how come fedex hasn't already done that???? There may be areas that it is more efficient and cheaper for contractors to only have one truck drive a long distance to retrieve packages from an Amazon location, but rural areas won't need 40 routes anyway. There is no one way that is most efficient for every possible location. I see Amazon as only wanting a few contractors at each warehouse location, meaning at most a few hundred routes out of each Amazon warehouse. For Amazon, getting a few hundred trucks in and out of a warehouse will be a piece of cake.

I may have missed it, but has someone clarified the fact that Amazon is looking to only deliver Amazon, and there will be no pickup service? That greatly simplifies and streamlines their operation. And if they're only going to deliver metro areas and give others their rural freight then the problems Ground contractors have servicing rural areas won't be an issue. They won't need a Dispatch. At least not in the Express sense. If it pays comparable to Ground which would you rather deliver, Amazon pkgs or Ground bulk? Not to mention driving a Sprinter vs a huge stepvan. I think FedEx is going to have to pay better to keep Ground drivers.

 

[dmac1]

They could add pickup service for small shippers and compete with Ebay for a large portion of the small home based business that Ebay has. If Amazon can offer cheaper shipping than the post office, it would add efficiency to their whole business. Using trucks to ship products out of a warehouse location and keeping the trailers full both ways makes sense. For Amazon to be sending empty trailers (or planes) back to central warehouses would mean even more profit. In the central valley of California, Amazon has built multiple warehouses and land is relatively cheap and available, with cities loving it when Amazon decides to build in their city.

 

[vantexan]

They could add pickup service for small shippers and compete with Ebay for a large portion of the small home based business that Ebay has. If Amazon can offer cheaper shipping than the post office, it would add efficiency to their whole business. Using trucks to ship products out of a warehouse location and keeping the trailers full both ways makes sense. For Amazon to be sending empty trailers (or planes) back to central warehouses would mean even more profit. In the central valley of California, Amazon has built multiple warehouses and land is relatively cheap and available, with cities loving it when Amazon decides to build in their city.

That may happen, but I don't see Amazon looking to become a major delivery/pickup service. Looks like they're interested in controlling costs by taking on delivery of their own pkgs and cutting out the middle man.

 

[Gone fishin]

What is this , their 3rd or 4th try at delivering their packages. They have their airplane pilots unhappy , half the employees are on food stamps ( news article) and now this latest attempt. Bezo s doesn’t believe in paying blue collar workers and it shows.
Express couldn’t hold drivers for 15 an hour with benefits, hence the 10 steps.
This will fail miserably like the rest as he’ll lowball this whole operation.

 

[It will be fine]

What is this , their 3rd or 4th try at delivering their packages. They have their airplane pilots unhappy , half the employees are on food stamps ( news article) and now this latest attempt. Bezo s doesn’t believe in paying blue collar workers and it shows.
Express couldn’t hold drivers for 15 an hour with benefits, hence the 10 steps.
This will fail miserably like the rest as he’ll lowball this whole operation.

It’s an expansion of what they’ve been doing for a few years already, so I’m not sure how you read that as failing miserably.

 

[zeev]

Yeah Amazon has really failed? Book seller to retail power the real loser will be fedex ground.

 

[Fred's Myth]

You are either ignoring or ignorant of the fact that all those packages are...
And if you really think that drones serving most of the country is near, you need to start thinking more clearly. And if warehouse space is soooooo valuable, they won't be spending any money building more warehouses.

You are the one who thinks that you can buy trucks cheaper than fedex, and think that fedex pays ISPs because ISPs are more efficient. when the truth is that fedex ground could hire employees themselves EXCEPT that it exposes express drivers to possible unionization. Amazon doesn't have to worry about an exemption calling themselves an airline.

And if paying contractors to move packages an extra time, and paying contractors to rent their own warehouse space is cheaper, how come fedex hasn't already done that???? There may be areas that it is more efficient and cheaper for contractors to only have one truck drive a long distance to retrieve packages from an Amazon location, but rural areas won't need 40 routes anyway. There is no one way that is most efficient for every possible location. I see Amazon as only wanting a few contractors at each warehouse location, meaning at most a few hundred routes out of each Amazon warehouse. For Amazon, getting a few hundred trucks in and out of a warehouse will be a piece of cake.

1. I was unaware that you could drive a truck up a pallet rack. (They warehouse pallets up to 4 high)
2. I didn't predict drones, Bezos did. You know, the Amazon dude with this amazing offer.
3. Who said AMAZON would build more warehouses? NOT THEIR PROBLEM.
4. Amazon won't be worried about YOUR inefficiencies. Just your ability to deliver within their parameters. Or replace you.
5. WTF you talking about, I never said anything about buying trucks, efficient ISPs, or unionizing Amazon.
6. Paying contractors to sort packages at their own expense isn't Amazon's problem, it's the contractor's!
7. The pie-in-the-sky ($300K) that Amazon is suggesting is based on that 40 route contractor. And...
8. According to the Amazon website, you will be required to use Amazon branded trucks, and will be prohibited from delivering anything but
Amazon packages from it. Same restriction from FedEx, There goes that dual-mode money-making efficiency.

 

[Gone fishin]

Yeah Amazon has really failed? Book seller to retail power the real loser will be fedex ground.

Kind of speaking from a delivery business point of view. I had no clue I needed to clarify that.

 

[Gone fishin]

It’s an expansion of what they’ve been doing for a few years already, so I’m not sure how you read that as failing miserably.

And how’s that been working. UPS ,Express and the post office delivers most of Amazon. So I don’t know what you’re saying

 

[It will be fine]

And how’s that been working. UPS ,Express and the post office delivers most of Amazon. So I don’t know what you’re saying

It’s been working well, hence the expansion of the program.

 

[Gone fishin]

It’s been working well, hence the expansion of the program.

This is a whole new operation, it’s not an expansion

 

[It will be fine]

This is a whole new operation, it’s not an expansion

They’ve been using contractors with large fleets of trucks to deliver their packages for years. It was very difficult to get a contract. They are now soliciting for more contractors. It’s an expansion of the model they’ve been successful with.

 

[Gone fishin]

They’ve been using contractors with large fleets of trucks to deliver their packages for years. It was very difficult to get a contract. They are now soliciting for more contractors. It’s an expansion of the model they’ve been successful with.

Your idea and my idea of success is much different.

 

[It will be fine]

Your idea and my idea of success is much different.

If you say so. How about we agree the final mile contractor model is more profitable than using any of the big 3 logistics companies.

 

[Oldfart]

What is this , their 3rd or 4th try at delivering their packages. They have their airplane pilots unhappy , half the employees are on food stamps ( news article) and now this latest attempt. Bezo s doesn’t believe in paying blue collar workers and it shows.
Express couldn’t hold drivers for 15 an hour with benefits, hence the 10 steps.
This will fail miserably like the rest as he’ll lowball this whole operation.

Everyone knows Bezo will not succeed. I give his entire Amazon business plan a few years and it will fail. He needs to get the advice of a brilliant mind like bacha if he wants to succeed.

 

[59 Dano]

If you say so. How about we agree the final mile contractor model is more profitable than using any of the big 3 logistics companies.

Something I don't think anyone has brought up yet... How long until Amazon starts getting hit with the same employee/contractor lawsuits that Ground has endured? Whatever issues there were with Ground wielding too much direct control over drivers, I'm sure they exist with Amazon and the drivers that are contracted to work for them.