It’s not uncommon to hear stories of consumers going gaga over Black Friday sales and returning back home with products they never intended to buy. But what happens when their supplier, Amazon, goes on a shopping spree? It ends up buying “thousands” of trailers.
In its latest move to improve upon its delivery service, the Seattle-based company bought thousands of trailers to support the rapid expansion of its North American business, Re/code reported.
While the company doesn’t plan on using any of the trailers for directly delivering products to its customers, it plans on utilizing them for transporting freight between its fast-expanding network of fulfillment centers and sorting facilities across the U.S.
An expansion of its self-owned transportation network signals the eCommerce giant’s plan to be more self-sufficient and less reliant on its delivery partners, like FedEx, UPS and USPS, and independent trucking and Amazon Flex partners, which it has been using over the years.
To power Prime Now, its one-hour delivery service, the company partners with independent contractors in 14 cities across the U.S. However, for its grocery delivery business, the company partners with local courier companies and USPS for faster delivery, even on Sundays. The company also owns a network of its own Amazon Fresh trucks for grocery delivery.
According to Re/code, several former employees say the shift in strategy toward building up its own network is part of a lesson that Amazon learned the hard way in 2013 when UPS’ shipping delays during the holiday season led to a major backlog of Amazon deliveries.
However, Amazon denied any such reasoning and told Re/code that the company plans to continue to rely on its existing partners who own and operate the tractor portion of the delivery vehicles.
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