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I doubt this will offset the huge boost in emissions which will come with Amazon's 'Flex' service, which will see products delivered fast via horribly inefficie

I doubt this will offset the huge boost in emissions which will come with Amazon's 'Flex' service, which will see products delivered fast via horribly inefficient passenger cars, as opposed to relatively efficient vans and trucks.

stcredzero 10y ago
One person delivering to many people will be more efficient than many people making the trip to the store in their own cars.
- 0verD0ses 10y ago
  Yes that is true, but why go backwards?
  - kevan 10y ago
    Because the current van and truck experience for me is a tracking update at 6am saying "Your package is out for delivery" and then it actually gets delivered sometime in the next 12 hours. As a customer that's a crappy experience. Hopefully flex will push everyone to up their game with regards to delivery experience. If vans and trucks are more efficient then they should win out in the long run because they can operate at lower margins. Disclaimer: I work with Amazon, not on the Flex team. My words don't represent the company.
    - WalterBright 10y ago
      > sometime in the next 12 hours [...] a crappy experience How perspective changes. I remember when ordering anything meant "4-6 weeks for delivery".
      - gtremper 10y ago
        The 12 hours here refers to the delivery window on the delivery day, not the time to ship the package. Though the total delivery time is certainly much less than 4-6 weeks.
        WalterBright 10y ago
        The 4-6 weeks is a 2 week delivery window! (No tracking numbers then, either.)
      - givehimagun 10y ago
        I don't understand your comment. Do you mean that we should back to the 4-6 weeks delivery or if you're just annotating the notion that things have improved in the the last few decades?
        WalterBright 10y ago
        It's that a 12 hour window being "crappy" is like saying your transatlantic flight being delayed 30 minutes is "crappy" (my first Atlantic crossing took 10 days I think). It's all about perspective :-)
        kevan 10y ago
        Once we have a taste of what's possible it's really hard to accept that the status quo is good enough. With Prime Now I can get a lot of things ordered, shipped, and delivered within 2 hours, with live updates when the delivery person is on their way and arrives outside my house. I remember the days of multi-week ground shipping, I'm really glad we kept pushing the limits.
      - voltagex_ 10y ago
        It still does - I'm in Australia.

stcredzero 10y ago

One person delivering to many people will be more efficient than many people making the trip to the store in their own cars.

0verD0ses 10y ago
Yes that is true, but why go backwards?
- kevan 10y ago
  Because the current van and truck experience for me is a tracking update at 6am saying "Your package is out for delivery" and then it actually gets delivered sometime in the next 12 hours. As a customer that's a crappy experience. Hopefully flex will push everyone to up their game with regards to delivery experience. If vans and trucks are more efficient then they should win out in the long run because they can operate at lower margins. Disclaimer: I work with Amazon, not on the Flex team. My words don't represent the company.
  - WalterBright 10y ago
    > sometime in the next 12 hours [...] a crappy experience How perspective changes. I remember when ordering anything meant "4-6 weeks for delivery".
    - gtremper 10y ago
      The 12 hours here refers to the delivery window on the delivery day, not the time to ship the package. Though the total delivery time is certainly much less than 4-6 weeks.
      - WalterBright 10y ago
        The 4-6 weeks is a 2 week delivery window! (No tracking numbers then, either.)
    - givehimagun 10y ago
      I don't understand your comment. Do you mean that we should back to the 4-6 weeks delivery or if you're just annotating the notion that things have improved in the the last few decades?
      - WalterBright 10y ago
        It's that a 12 hour window being "crappy" is like saying your transatlantic flight being delayed 30 minutes is "crappy" (my first Atlantic crossing took 10 days I think). It's all about perspective :-)
        kevan 10y ago
        Once we have a taste of what's possible it's really hard to accept that the status quo is good enough. With Prime Now I can get a lot of things ordered, shipped, and delivered within 2 hours, with live updates when the delivery person is on their way and arrives outside my house. I remember the days of multi-week ground shipping, I'm really glad we kept pushing the limits.
    - voltagex_ 10y ago
      It still does - I'm in Australia.