The e-commerce giant has blanketed the U.S. with warehouses and package-sorting centers, flooded the streets with vans and taken to the sky. From a report: Amazon's recent breakup with longtime shipping partner FedEx shows how far the e-commerce giant has come in creating its own delivery network. Over the years, Amazon has played down its ambitions. But as consumers flock to its site for everything from toilet paper to TVs, Amazon has quietly blanketed the nation with hundreds of sprawling suburban warehouses and neighborhood package-sorting centers, flooded the streets with tens of thousands of vans and even taken to the airways. The costly effort is enabling Amazon to control how goods reach its customers -- and increasingly turning it from a customer of delivery companies into a rival.
The 2013 holiday season was a turning point for Amazon, after orders overwhelmed carriers in the U.S. and led to late packages and upset customers. Since then, Amazon has multiplied the number of fulfillment, sorting and other delivery facilities from about 65 to roughly 400, according to an analysis of data from logistics consultant MWPVL; before 2005, it just had three fulfillment centers for the entire country, MWPVL said. Amazon has planted facilities near city centers across the country to be as close to each customer as possible. That has enabled Amazon to deliver more packages to doorsteps within a day and cater to demanding online shoppers. This year it started to shift the standard free two-day shipping option for its Prime members to one day.
Source : https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/09/05/1434205/h...
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Source : https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/09/05/1434205/h...