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This frustration UPS and FedEx are causing may make any shipping company Amazon wants to start up for other companies something that will gain traction.

downrightmike 6y ago
Odds are that most of the traffic Fedex and UPS are getting is from Amazon, and the little guys are getting shut out.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- lostapathy 6y ago
  I don't think that's the case. At least where I'm at, almost none of my Amazon orders come through fedex or UPS now - everything is delivered by an Amazon driver. And they have an incredible amount of Amazon vans running around. I went to lunch the other day and counted 3 within a mile of my house. That does make me wonder how they optimize routes. That and the fact that I had 4 different drivers leave a package at my house the other day.
  - csharptwdec19 6y ago
    > At least where I'm at, almost none of my Amazon orders come through fedex or UPS now - everything is delivered by an Amazon driver. That only means the 'last mile' (figurative here) is done by Amazon. I believe there may still be third parties in between depending on the item/location.
    - lostapathy 6y ago
      I think that's even less likely to be true - Amazon had been doing long-haul trucking for quite a few years and letting UPS/Fedex/USPS do last mile delivery for them. I can't imagine they went backwards on that just because they ramped up last mile delivery.
      - hef19898 6y ago
        In Germany Amazon is using third party carriers for the the first and middle mile of their own courier network, meaning the route from the FC to a sort center and between sort centers. That these trucks are Amazon branded doesn't mean they are owned and operated by them. This is not the core business of UPS and FedEx, so.
  - cgriswald 6y ago
    In contrast we’ve got four or five UPS trucks (which are quite a bit bigger) down at the ‘local watering hole’ at lunch time every day. My town has a population of about four thousand. Of course you can’t really tell because at least FedEx and Amazon have been making deliveries from rental trucks, and then there are the Lyft-like deliver people driving around with Toyota’s full of packages.
  - zyamada 6y ago
    YMM but, in my area Amazon is only doing the last mile delivery. Theres a large parking lot in the industrial part of town where you can watch UPS, FedEx, and OnTrac branded trucks and van load packages into Amazon branded vans. The same type of van to van transfer seems to be happening pretty regularly at the local UPS store as well.
    - Analemma_ 6y ago
      Amazon is doing their own last-mile delivery when that's profitable, doing long-haul delivery when that's profitable, and using UPS/USPS/FedEx for any other segment.
  - 0xffff2 6y ago
    Just to round out the annecdata a bit, in my area Amazon has absolutely no last-mile presence. Virtually all of my Amazon packages are delivered by UPS (very occasionally last-mile is handled by USPS).
- briffle 6y ago
  Fedex stopped being a carrier for Amazon (I think earlier this year).
- adrr 6y ago
  Most of it is from a record breaking BFCM. People shopped online instead of going to the mall. Network is over capacity. UPS is hit the hardest because they took new business in without having the capacity. Capacity goes like this. Carrier has X capacity. At 2X capacity stuff starts to fall apart which is your normal BFCM. We’re at 8X capacity. Stuff is just sitting in trailers and probably won’t get handled till next week that’s if you can get your stuff picked up.
  - myself248 6y ago
    The FedEx depot near me had stuff sitting in trailers for 3+ weeks, most of the summer. To the point that you have to call the seller and ask them to extend the return window in case your thing arrives damaged, because you haven't even seen it yet but the normal return period is about to close... I can't imagine what they're going through right now.
- dismalpedigree 6y ago
  Fedex explicitly dropped Amazon as a customer earlier this year.

downrightmike 6y ago

Odds are that most of the traffic Fedex and UPS are getting is from Amazon, and the little guys are getting shut out.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
lostapathy 6y ago
I don't think that's the case. At least where I'm at, almost none of my Amazon orders come through fedex or UPS now - everything is delivered by an Amazon driver. And they have an incredible amount of Amazon vans running around. I went to lunch the other day and counted 3 within a mile of my house. That does make me wonder how they optimize routes. That and the fact that I had 4 different drivers leave a package at my house the other day.
- csharptwdec19 6y ago
  > At least where I'm at, almost none of my Amazon orders come through fedex or UPS now - everything is delivered by an Amazon driver. That only means the 'last mile' (figurative here) is done by Amazon. I believe there may still be third parties in between depending on the item/location.
  - lostapathy 6y ago
    I think that's even less likely to be true - Amazon had been doing long-haul trucking for quite a few years and letting UPS/Fedex/USPS do last mile delivery for them. I can't imagine they went backwards on that just because they ramped up last mile delivery.
    - hef19898 6y ago
      In Germany Amazon is using third party carriers for the the first and middle mile of their own courier network, meaning the route from the FC to a sort center and between sort centers. That these trucks are Amazon branded doesn't mean they are owned and operated by them. This is not the core business of UPS and FedEx, so.
- cgriswald 6y ago
  In contrast we’ve got four or five UPS trucks (which are quite a bit bigger) down at the ‘local watering hole’ at lunch time every day. My town has a population of about four thousand. Of course you can’t really tell because at least FedEx and Amazon have been making deliveries from rental trucks, and then there are the Lyft-like deliver people driving around with Toyota’s full of packages.
- zyamada 6y ago
  YMM but, in my area Amazon is only doing the last mile delivery. Theres a large parking lot in the industrial part of town where you can watch UPS, FedEx, and OnTrac branded trucks and van load packages into Amazon branded vans. The same type of van to van transfer seems to be happening pretty regularly at the local UPS store as well.
  - Analemma_ 6y ago
    Amazon is doing their own last-mile delivery when that's profitable, doing long-haul delivery when that's profitable, and using UPS/USPS/FedEx for any other segment.
- 0xffff2 6y ago
  Just to round out the annecdata a bit, in my area Amazon has absolutely no last-mile presence. Virtually all of my Amazon packages are delivered by UPS (very occasionally last-mile is handled by USPS).
briffle 6y ago
Fedex stopped being a carrier for Amazon (I think earlier this year).
adrr 6y ago
Most of it is from a record breaking BFCM. People shopped online instead of going to the mall. Network is over capacity. UPS is hit the hardest because they took new business in without having the capacity. Capacity goes like this. Carrier has X capacity. At 2X capacity stuff starts to fall apart which is your normal BFCM. We’re at 8X capacity. Stuff is just sitting in trailers and probably won’t get handled till next week that’s if you can get your stuff picked up.
- myself248 6y ago
  The FedEx depot near me had stuff sitting in trailers for 3+ weeks, most of the summer. To the point that you have to call the seller and ask them to extend the return window in case your thing arrives damaged, because you haven't even seen it yet but the normal return period is about to close... I can't imagine what they're going through right now.
dismalpedigree 6y ago
Fedex explicitly dropped Amazon as a customer earlier this year.