One day, Amazon will 'drop' your packages from the air via a drone but until then, the company will deliver your holiday packages via trucks. Amazon announced the addition of thousands of branded, trailer trucks in its delivery fleet that will be driven by third-party carriers.
Amazon's Mike Roth, vice president of the company's operations in North America, stressed their long-standing relationship with various third-party carriers. However, they understand the need for additional capacity. To address this need, Amazon is equipping their carriers with their own trailer equipment just in time to make those holiday deliveries.
"We pride ourselves on what we've built in the transportation and supply chain and fulfillment center network, and this is just another example of where we see that there is innovation to be had in an existing industry," said Roth who stressed that innovation is a tradition that the company makes for their customers.
The e-commerce giant will be using the Amazon-branded trailers to make its U.S.-wide deliveries for the first time. The third-party truck companies will still provide the drivers and the actual trucks while Amazon will provide the actual, branded trailers.
The new Amazon trailers are expected to give the company more control over its vast network of shipments. Consumers are also expecting that it would lead to a reduction in the waiting time. Amazon's recent investment in the branded trailers stem from its dedication to keep up with the surging order volumes.
While the trucks won't really be delivering the actual items to consumers' doorsteps, the branded Amazon trucks will be utilized to transport items to and from Amazon warehouses, sorting facilities and delivery stations. Amazon will keep using the United Parcel Service, U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and other regional carriers to deliver the goods, said a spokeswoman for Amazon.
In the near future, as Amazon continue to build its internal shipping network, it could compete with that of FedEx and UPS but in the meantime, the e-commerce giant relies on third-party carriers. Its recent and massive purchase of fleets will help in speeding up the shipment of goods.
