Amazon to test new delivery system

By Christine McCollum
April 23, 2018

Amazon is a company that takes pride in its constantly evolving customer service and technologies. The company’s newest endeavor is projecting them further into the world of shipping. In the next several months, Amazon will be testing a new delivery system, called Shipping with Amazon.

Many customers received their Amazon packages late during the 2013 holiday season because of Amazon’s shipping partners. That is when Amazon decided to start investing in the equipment necessary to start up their own delivery system to ensure their customers received their packages in a timely manner.

Amazon will begin testing a new delivery system to ship their products directly to customers. Photo by Getty Images.

Amazon said in a statement, “We’re always innovating and experimenting on behalf of customers and the businesses that sell and grow on Amazon to create faster, lower-cost delivery choices.”

“I do the majority of my shopping on Amazon because I always get my packages within days of ordering, even if I only pay for standard delivery,” Lindsay Dobbins, a senior graphic design major, said. “It’s such a good idea for Amazon to deliver their own packages so their customer service stays better than the rest.”

The delivery system would have couriers employed by Amazon pick up products from businesses that sell goods through the internet retailer and deliver them to the Amazon warehouses.

Although the new delivery system would be replacing how Amazon currently delivers packages to customers through couriers such as UPS and FedEx, Amazon will still rely on these couriers to get orders from its warehouses to customers during the testing trails.

The benefits of Amazon having their own delivery service will be apparent during the holidays when other couriers are flooded with packages and deliveries. Also, according to Amazon filings, shipping costs at Amazon rose 34 percent to $21.7 billion in the past year. By cutting out the cost of working with leading couriers, Amazon will have the option to lower shipping prices.

Amazon shipping warehouse. Photo by Getty Images.

After the testing process, Amazon will no longer rely on other couriers such as UPS, FedEx or the Postal Service to deliver their packages. With this loss of business for the leading couriers, some may worry about how it will affect their business in the future, but Cowen analyst Helane Becker reassured that their business will not be infringed upon in anyway for years to come.

Becker said Amazon contributes about three percent of FedEx’s total revenue and about 10 percent of UPS’s revenue.

According to Steve Gaut, a spokesman for UPS, the couriers are “confident in their business and are supportive of Amazon.”

It will take years before Amazon establishes a successful delivery system without the help of fellow couriers, but Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Company, said in an interview with New York Times, “Amazon is going to find different areas within the logistics and transportation space where it can be maybe more effective or efficient than what FedEx and UPS can do. That doesn’t mean they’re trying to establish a full competitor.”

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Christine McCollum

News Editor for the Loquitur. Cabrini University Class of 2019.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Perspectives

Special Project

Title IX Redefined Website

Produced by Cabrini Communication
Class of 2024

Listen Up

Season 2, Episode 3: Celebrating Cabrini and Digging into its Past

watch

Scroll to Top
Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap