Amazon continues to downplay its logistics intentions while it makes moves that show its growing infrastructure and clout.
First, the Business Insider website reported this week that Amazon is acquiring a fleet of day cab tractors and trailers. The story seems to be additional confirmation that Amazon is building its own global logistics division.
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The tractors are being acquired from truck makers Kenworth and Volvo. The report says the tractors are day cab tractors, not full sleeper models, meaning built for driving ranges of 400 miles are so.
A photo used in the story, taken by a man named Brad Phipps, shows a lot of Amazon-branded Kenworth tractors in a storage lot waiting to be transported to Amazon freight depots.
Kenworth declined to comment on the Business Insider story, while Volvo simply confirmed that Amazon is a customer."
Business Insider says it is not clear how many trucks were ordered or when they'll be released. But across the country, truckers are saying they've spotted these tractors at Volvo and Kenworth lots.
Amazon declined to comment directly on the Business Insider story, but did point to a recent video posted on-line by Dave Clark, the company's senior vice president of operations, which showcases Kenworth and Freightliner tractor-trailers pulling up to a cargo jet.
Despite its denials, The evidence at hand paints a picture of a retail giant actively working to place some, or even a high percentage of its global parcel shipments under its own control," the Heavy Duty Trucking's web site commented.
"They've already got branded airplanes. They've got a last-mile delivery network that's growing; they've got branded trailers — one of the only things left is tractors," Cathy Morrow Roberson, the founder of consulting firm Logistics Trends & Insights, told Business Insider. "This is just another piece of the puzzle."
Since 2015, Amazon has used many branded trailers to move freight. Those trailers, however, are pulled by tractors of another trucking company or an independent driver.
In that scenario, the carrier owning the tractor provides the driver. But the new branded tractors imply Amazon will be hiring its own driver pool.
Meanwhile, the perils of depending on Amazon for your delivery livelihood was also recently put in sharp relief.
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Business Insider also reported that a number of Amazon's so-called delivery-service partners (DSPs) have announced layoffs this month.
The DSP are independent companies that contact to deliver Amazon orders, now but not originally using branded vans.
The program was touted as a way for entrepreneurs to start their own businesses and build a fleet of up to 40 vans, leased through Amazon.
But it appears some delivery firms serving Amazon before the formal DSP program have grown even larger, given the scope of the layoffs.
 Letter Ride, an Amazon DSP, filed state paperwork showing it was laying off nearly 900 workers in California and Texas.
Urban Mobility Now and Inpax, both of which also provide last-mile delivery services for Amazon, told more than 900 workers combined in recent weeks that they too would be laid off.
Another DSP, Sheard-Loman Transport, said last month that it planned to fire 200 employees in three states because of the expiration of its Amazon contract.
What's going on?
"We work with a variety of carrier partners to get packages to Amazon customers and we regularly evaluate our partnerships," a company spokesperson told Business Insider. "We have ended our relationship with these companies, and drivers are being supported with opportunities to deliver Amazon packages with other local Delivery Service Partners."
Meaning: if you make the investments in time and money to build an Amazon DSP business, it can all be taken away if Amazon decides to stop doing contracting with you for whatever reason.
Urban Mobility Now, which did not answer its phones, has already shut down its website and pages on LinkedIn and Facebook, and could not be reached for a comment.
It appears Amazon may be moving away from older partners before there was a formal DSP program in favor of the smaller, newer DSPs.
What do you think of Amazon's latest logistics moves? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.
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Your Favorite Freight Broker
Freight Broker Live , Company |
Posted on: Oct, 19 2019 |
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| You have one thing wrong. Amazon replaced its DSP with franchise owners. Two separate programs. Good article though. |
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