Amazon has certainly reinvented itself over the years, from simply selling its wares online to making the jump to include deliveries by drone -- which was certainly a game changer in its very own way. Basically, many people have already experienced at least one delivery from Amazon before, and for those who are Amazon Prime members, it looks like things are going to get better for them in the year ahead -- as long as you continue shopping with Amazon, of course.
Earlier this spring, Amazon did lease an entire fleet of Boeing jets so that they can help out with the delivery fulfillment aspect of their business. From there, things moved to include an Amazon Prime airplane, where shortly afterwards, there was the maiden drone delivery performed across the pond in the U.K. 2017 looks set to have Amazon soar to new heights, at least this is what Reuters has reported.
At time of publishing, Amazon has leased at least 40 aircraft in order to ensure that their new cargo service would be able to go above and beyond the needs of their customers when it comes to deliveries. To further save the amount of transportation cost, Amazon ensures that these planes will be as light as possible despite carrying a full load. This could be one of the moves that might see Amazon eat into traditional delivery icons FedEx and United Parcel Service’s respective market share.
Right now, deliveries work this way. Each time you purchase a bulky household item such as paper towels from a grocery store or supermarket, some of the delivery cost has also been passed down to you from the vendor, and the likes of FedEx and UPS do get a cut during delivery. As such traditional truck transporters charge their customers based on volume as opposed to weight, Amazon would like to reduce their cost of operation and increase efficiency through the shipping of large boxes via air using their own planes.
Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman shared, “Our own delivery efforts are needed to supplement that capacity rather than replace it.” So far, there has been no indication as to whether the increase in Amazon’s air fleet would be the stepping stone to further cost reduction down the road, but we are able to make an educated guess not to rule that possibility out.
Right now, Amazon has anywhere between 35 to 50 million U.S. Prime subscribers, and this number looks set to expand in due time. This is because Amazon has the DNA to continuously improve, targeting ever shorter delivery times regardless of where you are -- even down to just 30 minutes, now how about that? So far, it seems that Amazon has planes that fly to a minimum of 10 airports around the US, carrying approximately 37% to 52% of their maximum loads by weight. Flying later would also translate to a reduction of shipping times since there would no longer be any need for stopovers of any kind.
