Ex-Uber Jump Manager Joins Amazon’s eBike Unit

Amazon has poached former Uber manager Alex Vickers and Justin Ginsburgh, known for starting New York’s Citi Bike bikeshare service, to helm its eBike delivery team, CNBC reported.

The move may show that the eCommerce giant is looking to bolster delivery times.

Vickers, who previously worked at eBike rental company Jump, which Uber acquired in 2018 and has since sold, announced in a LinkedIn post that he would be moving to Amazon. He worked alongside Ginsburgh to launch Motivate, a Lyft-owned bike share service, prior to both of them now working at Amazon.

“While the last six months have been challenging (for me and all of us!), I’m so excited to announce I’m back in NYC working with Justin Ginsburgh on eBikes for Amazon Last Mile,” Vickers wrote. “If you know me and my history, the work I’m most proud of in my career was working at Motivate under Justin. It feels like kismet to reunite, and I can’t wait to see what we accomplish!”

While Amazon has tested eCargo bike deliveries in several areas, New York is the prime destination, CNBC reported, and that’s where Ginsburgh and Vickers will be located.

The move shows Amazon potentially moving more into last-mile delivery innovations, with the bikes a possible source of deliveries. Last-mile delivery refers to the process of picking up an item from a delivery station and taking it to its final destination, CNBC reported. Other such delivery-related innovations from the eCommerce giant include Amazon-branded vans, a network of contracted Flex drivers and self-driving delivery robots and drones still in the testing phases.

Amazon has been booming during the pandemic, as evidenced by a recent report that the eCommerce company is looking to hire 100,000 new workers to fill its 100 new operations facilities. The company has opened over 75 new facilities in the U.S. and Canada this year alone, among them regional air hubs, sorting centers and delivery stations, to keep up with the rampant demand of the pandemic.