They're pretty terrible at it. Whenever I get something shipped by amazon courier, I know it's down to about 50% chance of delivery. "Package was handed to a resident." Yeah, so where is it? "Ask a neighbor." Yeah, right, in a building with 100 residents I'm going to go door to door asking about my package. The "good" days are when they leave it on the sidewalk outside (in a city!) and I notice it's there before anybody else does.
My experience in a single family home is the polar opposite. I always get a txt or polite call (always originating from Seattle, WA) asking if I want them to put the package somewhere in specific or leave it at the door. I've went and spoken with a few of them.
They're far and above better than Fedex / UPS and never throw the packages over my gate into my flowerbeds.
I agree completely. I usually have the most problems with packages delivered through the US Postal Service and I haven't had any problems to speak of with Amazon delivery.
When I lived outside a major metro area for a couple years (Prescott Valley, AZ for reference), the USPS was horrible there, packages sitting on the mailbox in the rain, delivered literally blocks/streets off of both the address by number and street name... There were a dozen or so times a year we'd get someone else's packages. Actually getting packages from USPS was under 50%. I started having stuff delivered to work, as it was more reliable. And I panicked when I read about USPS doing last mile delivery for other carriers.
I haven't had that near as much in town, but USPS is my absolute last choice in the space.
Here in Hawaii, USPS has been at least as good as any of the other companies, while charging a fraction of the cost. We're talking 1/4 the cost or less, and delivery from most places on the mainland in usually 3 days, maybe 4.
It will vary greatly by area... I haven't had any issues in the Phoenix area... There are still a lot of neighborhoods in Phoenix that still have their mailboxes at the house, not the curb. Though I have friends farther out in newer neighborhoods that have less than great experiences.
This completely. If I order from Amazon and it shows them handing it to USPS, I email/call right away because odds are I will not get the package.
I complained to the postmaster multiple times. Although, as a typical gov. employee, he just laughed and said we do what we want, it is your neighborhoods problem. Eventually the whole neighborhood got together and made some changes happen. It is still not perfect, but better.
Heh, everyone's experience is different. Until recently Amazon used UPS for everything and I never had a problem. They deliver the packages to the business next door. Just like it says on the sign by the front door.
Why do you assume people are lying, just because other people have different experiences than them? It is possible for both to be true. You sound like a marketers dream.
It's still a pretty hard problem to solve, though. My experience is that it's taken Amazon about 3 years to figure out how to do their own deliveries in LA.
The first ones were terrible. They seemed to have no good fallback if the building's gate was locked and nobody was available to buzz them in, and stuff just got lost. They were customer focused, yes, but that just meant they shipped me free replacement stuff with free overnight non-Amazon shipping. Not the best experience overall, though, compared to getting it on the original date.
Fast forward to 2016 and they're pretty good here. Though USPS has been best for my building (and elsewhere people here are talking about USPS being the worst - again, it's a hard problem to solve for every area for everyone).
* Package marked as delivered on Saturday. Package actually delivered on Sunday.
* Package not delivered because there was no safe place to leave it (there's a sign next to the front door with instructions do leave it in the complex's leasing office across the street).
* Package delivered to my door, despite my door being behind multiple card-access doors.
* Package left at the door to the leasing office, even though the leasing office was open and the lights were on.
These have all happened in the past three months. I'm borderline ready to cancel Prime.
Much like a cable company giving you a month of HBO when you complain, I fail to see how giving me more of an unreliable service will fix the broken elements of that service.
Great, except what if I ordered something for a specific date because, you know, I needed it for that specific date? An extra month of Prime isn't going to help me there.
"The guarantee does not apply when late delivery results ... from events beyond our control ... or the exercise of any lien in accordance with our Terms and Conditions of Carriage."
If you can void your guarantee based on "forces outside your control" in something like shipping, where you're at the mercy of traffic, weather conditions, and human error, it's not really a guarantee.
The UK is a substantially easier country to ship in logistically than the US. I don't doubt that Royal Mail's guaranteed delivery works.
I've only had positive experiences. I accidentally screwed up the numbers for the address for a package. UPS and USPS showed up at the address and just returned the package. The Amazon Courier called me to check to see what the real address was.
I didn't order a package from Amazon, but it was shipped from the company to me via amazon. (I refuse to buy from Aamzon) The amazon delievery person ended up putting on the slip "in the flower bed." I've had other horror stories about delivery people being clueless about leaving it, and/or where to leave it.
I've had a lot less issues with UPS than I've had with the Amazon delievery service.
>I didn't order a package from Amazon, but it was shipped from the company to me via amazon.
Are you sure about that?
It sounds like you bought from an arbitrager: someone who's just a middleman, posts something for sale which they don't even have, but at a higher price than some retailer that does. Then, when you buy it, they go buy the thing (on Amazon in this case), use your address as the delivery address, and then pocket the difference. It's extremely common on Ebay and Amazon both, and many other places.
So here's the thing. I don't want the carrier to call to ask how to deliver a package. I have never had a FedEX or UPS carrier do that, they just put it where all packages for my building are supposed to go.
I've had Amazon Logistics carriers: Be unable to find my door (it's a non-gated, outward facing door in a row-style townhome with street access). Leave things at an _entirely different_ residential complex, whose address matched neither my street name nor number. They've done this twice, and not even at the same wrong complex (the hint is it said "left at reception", and we don't have a reception area). Try to pressure me into letting them just leave something on the sidewalk outside a gated apartment ("would that be safe?").
I'm a Prime addict and I feel like my dealer just started cutting the supply. At least let Prime members opt-out of Amazon Logistics (hell, I'd pay extra in my annual fee to do so).
This isn't unique to Amazon's couriers. I've had UPS leave a package "at loading dock" in a similar row-style townhome with street access. I still have no idea where that one ended up.
Not sure that I've ever had a package delivered by Amazon, but if I did there weren't any problems. That UPS incident is my only personal shipping issue in years.
>>So here's the thing. I don't want the carrier to call to ask how to deliver a package. I have never had a FedEX or UPS carrier do that, they just put it where all packages for my building are supposed to go.
I wish I could say the same. I get calls from UPS delivery guys/gals about 30% of the time because I live in a duplex and my unit faces the alley. So they come in through the main street, can't find "Unit B" and end up calling me. I have to explain to them that they have to enter through the gate on the side.
This one time they left the package in front of the mailboxes, out in the open. When I got home, the entire box was soaking wet from the rain. Gross.
I'm also a Prime addict, and have noticed vast improvements in the past year or so with Amazon Logistics (Bay Area).
Just like you mentioned, it was really bad at first. Packages would routinely arrive late, wrong address, etc. I live in a gated apartment complex and they would always leave the package with the leasing office instead of using the code I provided (UPS, FedEx, would always leave at my door).
Now it is indistinguishable from other carriers, in that all my packages arrive on time, at my door, without any problems.
The only thing I don't like is PrimeNow, which uses 'part time' carriers like Postmates, and they ALWAYS get confused by my apartment complex - so I stopped using it.
I had this problem as well. I used to live in an apartment complex with a key entry that UPS, USPS, and FedEx had access to, but not Amazon. I never knew when they were going to arrive and they kept saying that they tried but couldn't deliver the package (we didn't have a code, only key entry).
Since I couldn't guarantee what carrier would be used, I eventually had to use Amazon Locker only. I live in a house now and no longer have this problem.
I've basically stopped using them because of this.
I would shop from Amazon again if I could choose to have something delivered by Royal Mail as then I know it would get to my door.
Amazon did the whole "left with neighbour" thing... but my neighbours are drug dealers and their clients come and go all the time... the packages never turned up and I'm hardly going to go confront the neighbours about it.
I shopped there for convenience, to reduce hassle, and their delivery service increased hassle.
This has been getting progressively worse for me. I suspect it is a known problem at Amazon but I'm confident this is actually an "innovation" of the delivery men. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they are gaming the system by dumping a street or apartment's deliveries all with one resident. They're all so stretched for time that they have to cut corners to meet their targets...
For Amazon they need to find a means of setting humane targets and then finding a way to accurately measure performance of staff...
I live in a safe neighborhood, the door and the number are easy to see from the street, so the delivery person should waste no time locating the place. I never had issues with Amazon.
Seems like they're pushing the system a bit too far.
> They're all so stretched for time that they have to cut corners to meet their targets...
> For Amazon they need to find a means of setting humane targets and then finding a way to accurately measure performance of staff...
Yeah, my suspicion is that this is the root cause of my troubles with them. I live in an apartment building, but I have a street-accessible front door, so I have a sign clearly saying to leave packages with the apartment manager in the office. Half the time they just dump the packages at my door anyway, the other half of the time they just dump them at the office's street-accessible door, because they got there when it was closed.
I don't know what's so hard about noting a delivery exception and attempting again the next day. All the other carriers seem to be able to handle that. A few of the drivers have called me for instructions, but it's kind of pointless: the next day's driver is just going ignore all the instructions and dump the package anyway.
It wouldn't be so bad if I could have all Amazon Delivery packages redirected to one of their nearby drop boxes, like I do with UPS. The problem is if I set things up to use an Amazon drop box, ALL my stuff will go there, not just the Amazon delivery orders, and they don't support 2-day shipping. I still want the USPS orders to go to my mailbox, since that's the most convenient option.
They really need to allow users to enter shipping preferences, since not all carriers are the same for everyone. For me USPS and UPS are the best, Fedex and Amazon Logistics are the worst.
Exactly. There's some amazon boxes not too far away, but less convenient than next door. If I could know which service they'd use, I'd tell amazon to put it in the box and have UPS bring it to me. But they don't make that information available.
I've been having tons of shipping problems from amazon, but the carrier is UPS. I saw someone mention here that I can call amazon and have them deprioritize a carrier. Need to get off my butt and do that.
Here the existing courier services won't leave the package with the neighbour or in front of the door even if you ask. The law is such that if they did that (left a package without it being signed off by someone whose name is on that address) I could just make a complaint about it and they would be forced to reimburse me even if in reality I got the package. Because of this all the courier services will call you before they try to deliver anything (most have some kind of automated SMS system in addition which you can use to choose from a few delivery times or redirect the package to another address/work) so that they don't have to make extra trips.
Nordic socialist consumer protection laws are nice :)
> Here the existing courier services won't leave the package with the neighbour or in front of the door even if you ask.
> Nordic socialist consumer protection laws are nice :)
Errr... so a law that I couldn't have a package left on my protected porch I've never had an issue with or with my neighbors with whom I'm friendly, even if I want to, is "nice"? No thanks.
To quote the SMS I got from DHL on Monday, in Denmark:
"Your DHL Express shipment #### from #### is expected to be delivered to you today between 9-20. If you are not at home, you can give DHL power of attorney to deliver the shipment to your address without signature. Reply PROXY and specify location"
Though I actually used their other option, which was to have it delivered to the collection boxes in the nearby supermarket.
I've had other deliveries left with my neighbour, but most seem to end up at the post office.
The issue comes if someone steals it from your porch and then you claim that you never received it. Just having a marking in the delivery system that it was delivered isn't enough proof in court that it actually was delivered and thus the courier company would have to reimburse it. Unless you give them permission to basically sign it in your behalf through giving them the power of attorney.
If you tell Amazon that you did not get the package, they will resend it no extra question asked. If law in Nordic country means that you can get reimbursed for delivered package without lying that it was lost, it's a stupid law. All my Amazon stuff is delivered unattended (~2-4 times a week) and I never had a problem. Not sure why it should be illegal. I would use Amazon way less if I needed to be home for deliveries.
The one doing the reimbursing would be the courier company not the sender as from legal perspective they still have the package as nobody signed it off. Similarly you shouldn't sign a package if it looks clearly damaged on the outside. If you do then getting reimbursement gets harder as the courier company can claim that you broke it after they delivered it.
The system is by no means perfect but I like that it dictates very clearly who is responsible for what/when.
And as pointed out by Symbiote most companies have a way to give them power of attorney to deliver the package without someone signing it.
This is a bit of a silly complaint, you're too scared to knock on your neighbour's door and somehow that's amazon's fault?
I'm having the opposite problem (UK also), my amazon deliveries are fine but roughly 50% of my royal mail post is going missing (bank statements, credit cards, gig tickets). Multiple complaints, nothing has improved.
Sample size of 1 says very little. My big complaint about amazon deliveries is the silly 8-8 time slot they allocate. Who on earth spends 12 hours in one place every day?
EDIT: Nice downvotes. Someone complains he has a drug dealer for a neighbour and that's amazon's fault and somehow that's my fault?
Before, my problems were generally when USPS was making a Sunday delivery. They'd often leave the package outside the entrance to my apartment building - otherwise known as "the public sidewalk".
The last few weeks, most of my packages were handled (well, mishandled, to be more accurate) by Amazon's delivery service. I finally cancelled the two remaining orders that were somewhere in transit, and cancelled the auto-renew for my Prime account.
Now, I order directly from shops, and might get a Costco membership for bulk items.
Late one night (like 9pm) I was just arriving home in my car and hit my garage gate when I saw someone with a flashlight at my front walking gate (like 15ft away). I drove in to my driveway while looking at the person, got out of my car and walked back around to see what they were doing. When I got back to the sidewalk they saw me, threw something over my fence, and then ran away.
It was my package, they were the Amazon courier and couldn't figure out how to open my front gate.
Yep. I used to associate Amazon with reliability, but now I'm lucky if a package is delivered at all, let alone to a neighbor or by the "guaranteed" delivery date. I'm seriously considering dropping my Prime membership because it doesn't seem to be paying for anything.
Last week I paid extra to have two packages delivered by Monday. On Monday the expected delivery date had changed to Tuesday; on Tuesday, it was Wednesday; on Wednesday, Thursday; and on Thursday, my packages finally arrived. As far as I can tell Amazon has kept the fees I paid despite failing to hold up their end of the bargain.
My first thoughts exactly. I think I am below a 50% success rate with them. There was about a week and a half where _none_ of our Amazon orders showed up.
My experience is different and was vastly better than Fedex (UPS/USPS I generally don't have issues with). They have consistently come after business hours so I'd be at home fto receive the package. They even called me once to schedule a time to deliver the package.
FedEx is the only courier I have trouble with. I've never been home when they tried to deliver and they ignore the signed "I accept liability for this getting lost, just leave it leaned against my door" slip.
Going to the distribution center to pick up the package typically entails a 30-45 minute wait. They require both an ID and proof of residence (e.g. electric bill) if the address on your ID doesn't match the delivery address - and of course nobody in line knows about this so you end up spending that 30-45 minutes with a crowd of angry people who can't even pick up their packages.
As I was about the write a reply to this I had one of them come up to the porch at my work. They looked at me through the open door. They looked at the mailbox. Then just put down the package and walked away. It was surreal.
That sounds exactly like my experience with UPS. We are in fact at the mercy of the carrier assigned drivers to ensure our packages' safe delivery.
Some neighborhood are fortunate to have great responsible delivery worker/driver who actually cares about delivering packages safe and sound; but to many of them though, it's just a job.
I use the deliver-to-shop method unless the item is huge. They deliver to a newsagent (grocery store) on the adjacent road and it's always before 7AM. Very nice, though I feel obliged to buy some milk to make up for using the shop as a dropship point.
I've had Amazon couriers lie on the tracking system on more than one occasion. Last week it was "Delivered to resident <name>" at a time I knew everyone was out of the house (I later found the item behind my bin).
I get a month extra Prime each time, but I likely won't be renewing when it runs out.
I really have to wonder here: why didn't they just put in their tracking system, "hid item behind bin"? I don't really care if they hide my delivery, as long as I can find it. It's better hidden than stuck out in the open where someone can easily steal it.
For the past 10 years, I've used a UPS Store Box (or similar) for as many of my deliveries as possible. They accept any kind of package, and email you when it arrives.
The security and peace of mind is well worth the cost. There are very few packages I need the minute they're delivered.
70% of my "one day" prime deliveries result in false delivery attempts -- due to either A1 International, Lasership, or "AMZN" couriers. Reporting these problems to customer service I've been told that they're aware of the problem, so it is definitely happening at some kind of scale.
The problem I see, when its not just a general "fuck you" attitude (common with USPS workers for example) is that a lot of people willing to take these delivery jobs are often from suburban and rural area businesses that take these contracts and hire local talent. These people are not given the appropriate level of training to handle dense urban environments. I live deep in the heart of Chicago and if you leave a package on my doorstep it will either get stolen or opened up to see if anything of value is inside and discarded in the bushes.
I had to put a sign on my mailbox asking delivery people to toss the package over the fence and into my yard if I'm not home. This is basic common sense in a big city. Sadly, its sometimes ignored. I now just deal with work delivery which means a good chance of a package getting lost in 30 floor skyscraper I work in. Its incredible how shitty package delivery is in general.
I started renting a PO box for deliveries that I can swing by after work. It sucks to have to carry heavy stuff the last mile, but the alternative is just not getting deliveries ever, and I buy most things through amazon these days.
I just order everything that is not too heavy to carry to our office. I never miss any deliveries this way and most of the time the items are small enough to carry in my bike bag.
I totally understand why you'd do that, having considered it myself, but this is a really backwards solution. The article is all about how the last mile delivery is difficult. So the solution is to suck at it until the customer gives up and solves it for you?
I don’t know what to think. I live in Miami, and packages ALWAYS have been delivered here, on time. I’ve been buying from them for five years, two and a half of those as a Prime customer, so it’s clear the are not real differences besides delivery times.
Maybe it’s the state you live in? They have never given anything to my neighbours when no one was at home during delivery, they always tried next day, call or leave a form to schedule next delivery time so someone DOES receive the package.
The problem with this anecdote, and many of the comments I see about "Amazon delivery" is it only manages to address Amazon as a last-mile carrier.
If you look at the "Ground Control" infographic in the article, a significant portion of logistics is in the linehaul network: tractors + 53' trailers full of thousands of packages. At the end of the day you don't really know if Amazon, Fedex, or USPS handled these shipments, all you see is the guy who shows up to your door. I imagine there is the potential for huge savings to have Amazon vertically integrate this.
Sure, personalized delivery to your doorstep is a tough problem to solve. But delivery of thousands of packages between point A and B? Not as tough.
In addition to the program to run their own parcel shipping network, referred to as "Consume the City", it also mentions an interesting experiment called "I Have Space", which allows Amazon to utilize excess capacity in warehouses owned by third parties. Note that Amazon has already launched "Seller Fulfilled Prime" for third party sellers which meet certain metrics.
So it looks as if 2017 will be the proving-year for Amazon to determine whether they want to take the plunge into self-managed logistics, and they have an escape clause if not.
Is anyone concerned with Amazon taking over too many things? It's already killing smaller shops... I understand why but it's now trying to take over content and all forms of shipping? I'm worried we'll have a single mega store one day from which we buy all our things.
If I'm going to a brick and mortar store it's generally out of desperation and quick need, knowing I'll be forced to buy low quality crap for bad prices.
Walgreens or Walmart, yes. But there are plenty of tiny shops around town that have handmade stuff or quality merchandise that you can't get on Amazon. I know I wouldn't buy a solid-wood antique furniture set from Amazon, for example.
He's not talking about small brick-and-mortar shops, he's talking about small web shops. There's tons of specialty web shops that have stuff you won't find on Amazon (or worse, as I found recently with the Litter-Robot litter box I was looking at, it's available on Amazon for 3x as much as it costs from the manufacturer, because the Amazon seller is a scammer that just buys the item and ships to your address and pockets the difference).
Amazon is growing quickly, and entering more markets..
but there's no reason to be alarmed. Amazon really isn't as big as they look. Revenue last year: $107B
Compare that to other things: About 1/5th of Walmart. 2/3rds of CVS. 10% less than Costco. 1/3rd more than Target. 15% more than Home Depot. Sure they're #1 in ecommerce, but ecommerce is only 16% of retail sales in the US.
There are actually quite a few companies the size of Amazon. And many of those companies are actually more profitable than Amazon too.
Units from third party (3P) sellers made up 49% of total units in Q2 2016, and Amazon only reports their commission as revenue for 3P sales rather than the total gross merchandise volume (GMV). A better comparison point is thus GMV, which was estimated at $225B for 2015[1], compared to $482B for Walmart.
Millenials and those younger than them prefer eCommerce. Combine that with increasingly better service, and the trend of it increasing will continue. There's a reason Walmart bought jet.com. eCommerce is important, and they sucked at it.
Most of the places where Amazon is painting over still requires people to make cool stuff and let people buy cool stuff for their web storefront, EC2 and other enterprises. They have a vested interest in the economy itself working well, and most of the things they are participating in are in race-to-the-bottom sort of scenarios.
I find that smaller unique shops still have a huge edge, it's just the medium to large shops that are losing. I still would rather a world with lots of small people making good money selling unique goods via post/internet then a huge segment of the population just punching the clock at minimum wage.
Nothing new. Blockbuster killed small video rentals, Barnes and Noble killed small bookstores, Walgreens/CVS killed small drug stores, and WalMart killed a number of store types.
And then Netflix killed Blockbuster and Amazon killed Barnes and Noble (well almost)... So the cycle continues! Just when you think nothing can uproot a company, something more innovative/convenient comes along.
More competition is a win for all of us (consumers).
Plus anything is better than the rag tag set of local shippers they use for same/next day orders (or 2-day orders that were late getting out). I'm not going to name and shame, but I've had bad experiences with all of the non-majors (i.e. not UPS, FedEX, USPS) they use from coast to coast.
Amazon will go from using many competing companies to using their own shipping service… maybe you have a different way of looking at it, but that's less competition in my book.
The locals will still exist (but many of them aren't good, as parent said. As both a shipper and a recipient, I've had bad experiences with OnTrac for example), but this will create another national/international carrier, which I think is a plus for competition.
Amazon can provide a competing shipping service. If they give me a choice, I'll pick the one that best fits my needs. It might be theirs; it might not be. If they don't offer that choice, and force me to use theirs, and theirs fails to deliver according to my criteria too often, I'll shop elsewhere. How did that limit competition?
I was thinking they'd be competing with Uber, Lyft as well in the not too distant future. They're building out a sizable network through Amazon local and fresh (maybe I have a distorted view of this because I live in Seattle though)
"Amazon’s goal, these people say, is to one day haul and deliver packages for itself as well as other retailers and consumers"
They could choose to offer parcel shipping services to any retailer as part of the Amazon Marketplace Web Services API, just as they currently offer the Multi-Channel Fulfillment API[1], which allows a retailer to fulfill orders from any sales channel using the Fulfillment by Amazon network.
I don't see how Amazon can do it cheaper (cost-wise)/better than UPS or Fedex, who have been optimizing for 50 years.
If they can't do it better/cheaper then the reason to do it is because UPS or Fedex are rent-seeking, and doing it themselves would bring Amazon's cost close to the actual cost of delivering
Amazon only has to move things between their warehouses and consumers. 99% of pickups are at their warehouses. Hell if they use UPS/FedEx for returns then it's 100%.
Exactly. And Amazon doesn't even have to reach all of its customers. They can target high density areas, and use traditional shippers to deliver the rest.
Because it's not just shipping. Shipping is the avenue for entry, but the last-mile delivery market is suitable for lots of things, like:
Amazon Fresh (groceries, which UPS/Fedex cannot do)
1 hour delivery (which UPS/Fedex cannot do without keeping their fleet at Amazon's warehouses)
Restaurant delivery
etc
The point is to capture the means of delivery so they can become the carrier for parcels/food/whatever. Uber is trying to do this too. As is Postmates. UPS/Fedex have the issue that they are very good for bulk travel, but weak at last mile (it works for them now because of the volume they do, but the best they can reasonably do is next-day).
Seems like a merger between Amazon and either UPS or Fedex would be a wise decision, imagine that. And they don't necessarily have to pull antitrust measures afterwards, they can put their energy into effiencies instead of exploitation. And I don't think the merger would even blocked by government for antitrust concerns because they still have a lot of competition.
> I don't see how Amazon can do it cheaper (cost-wise)/better than UPS or Fedex, who have been optimizing for 50 years.
Amazon is looking at hitting the low hanging fruit first. Where they can ship large amounts of times from point A to point B then have USPS or their own carriers deliver. They're not trying to compete with UPS or FedEx today. Maybe some day in the future but that's years off at best.
If they can do their own shipping for certain items to certain locations (especially if they need to move an item to another state before having UPS / FedEx / USPS ship it) they can likely save some money.
UPS and Fedex are not known for innovation. And you have to consider what level of optimization they are doing. Maybe Amazon can optimize faster/better. Even today, UPS website is dated and hard to use.
Fedex never really got Fedex Ground right.
And don't get me started on why they have to use 16 digit package tracking numbers that start with '1Z'. WTF?
I don't see how Amazon can do it cheaper (cost-wise)/better than UPS
One word: Teamsters.
UPS drivers are Teamsters. Which means they have good paying jobs with pensions and fringe benefits.
All Amazon has to do to be cheaper is to hire no-benefit minimum wage part-timers. Or even better, just use independent contractors. It's the Uberization of package delivery!
I wonder if UPS and FedEx will ever want to run their business on top of Amazon's platform even though it's a direct competitor now, like Netflix does.
Amazon has been doing this for years now, and they'll never completely abandon using the USPS, UPS or FedEx for the foreseeable future. Their line haul network has always been solid, and they've been using other carriers to do the most expensive portion of the package life cycle, the last mile delivery. The article touched on the fact that they've been doing trials of deliveries in large cities that have the package density to make it profitable. Amazon certainly has volume to fill delivery trucks, and I expect them to continue this trend by identifying profitable delivery routes. However I don't see them competing with a nationwide network on the scale of UPS or FedEx anywhere in the near future. Amazon will continue to be a customer alongside a competitor of them.
K. It supported Usps side to (current situation) make temp positions at $16.85 no OT termed after 360 days because Zon contract pays "x" and if full union labor would pay up to $43
K. It supported Usps side to (current situation) make temp positions at $16.85 no OT termed after 360 days because Zon contract pays "x" and if full union labor would pay up to $43
While taking on this challenge will be something like building their own private Appalachian Trail, ambitious in its own right, I'll be interested in something more subtle that this article touched on, "upending the traditional relationship between seller and sender."--will we begin to see widespread shipping arbitrage[1]?
Am I the only one bothered by the use of the term "sortation?"
I had a roommate in college from London who pointed out that Americans tend to add "-ation" onto words where it isn't necessary or doesn't further elaborate the meaning (e.g. transportation where transport is sufficient). I haven't been able to un-notice our rather pointless addition of letters to nouns. What is wrong with Sort Center or Sorting Center?
I did, before writing this post, find "sortation" in some unabridged dictionaries referring to a mechanized or automated sorting process, but the word still just sounds off to me...
"Sort" and "Sortation" are different words, they are not interchangeable. The "-ation" suffix not just a random suffix added on, it has a specific meaning - "The action or process of doing something". So "sortation" means the process of sorting.
And "the process of transporting" is transportation (or transport). The reason "sort" can't easily replace "sortation" is because it's only one syllable. The two meanings of "transport" are distinguished by pronunciation: TRANSport vs. transPORT
The definition of "sort" that I'm finding in the context we're talking about is: the act of separating things and putting them in a particular order : the act of sorting things[1]. The same source gives a further definition as "an instance of sorting <a numeric sort of a data file>." Perhaps -ation adds some meaning, but I don't see how it wouldn't already be present in the context of any hypothetical sentence. The action or process of the act of sorting seems redundant.
My own bias is certainly towards brevity in most cases where context gives a clear meaning. I should clarify that -ation seems unnecessary where the noun it extends:
(a) already describes a process.
(b) is in common use describing a process.
The suffix seems more useful where it explicitly turns a verb into a noun where there was no suitable noun in common use, or where any existing nouns derived from the same root do not refer to a process. This is the ignored distinction my roommate's offhand comment likely implied.
The problem appears to be that American English simply no longer sticks to the formal meaning added by the suffix. Reserve/reservation and preserve/preservation are used interchangeably to refer to large plots of land left to nature. But making a reservation at a hotel is the process of reserving a room.
I guess this ambiguity is what we get for speaking a language without central authority. I'll take it over ivory tower language academies decrying use of "le weekend..." ;)
my guess is that UPS will eat their lunch. this is UPS's core business. they prob weren't doing what Amazon needed them to do partially because they have other customers and partially because Amazon likely wanted too much from them based on what Amazon was willing to pay. Amazon will likely place onerous requirements on sellers to squeeze pennies out of the shipping process. and then, eventually, when more of commerce has converted to the mail-delivered model, and UPS is making a profit, and Amazon realizes that they're throwing good resources after bad in an experiment gone wrong, they'll get back to focusing on selling stuff and out of the business of delivering stuff.
Even if Amazon only does last mile delivery to locations with warehouse facilities (which will probably be everywhere with a large airport), and only does the deliveries from said warehouses to customers in the local region, it's still probably worth it for them to take over that aspect.
I don't know that last mile out to smaller areas will ever be worth it for Amazon.
Just because it's UPS core business doesn't mean UPS is doing it right. Merchandising was Sears' core business. Heck, the airlines' core business is air transportation, and plenty of them have gone out of business/merged in the last few years.
Also don't forget that UPS is a union ship, with very expensive union contracts. The UPS is the largest individual employer in the Teamsters Union.
Knowing nothing about this specific project, but knowing quite a bit about the cultures of their Transportation, Operations, and Supply Chain orgs, I would:
1) Say this is not news but PR. Congrats to Carney.
2) Expect actual technology to lag behind the vision communicated by 3+ years while the dev teams try to find remotely suitable heuristics for the NP-SweetMotherOfGod problems that the executives think are just a matter of throwing enough servers at. Several entire orgs will be eliminated or repurposed while this happens.
3) Expect costs to be an order of magnitude higher than the competition for a good 3-5 years due to really stupid and trivially fixable mistakes/inanities that are obvious to anybody on the ground floor. These inanities will eventually be addressed by some level 4 or level 5 analyst that will eventually (but not today) get fired for pointing out the wrong person's mistakes...or worse, endlessly moved around orgs with no advancement potential.
4) Expect it to be rolled out to countless cities mindlessly by some executive that thinks they can predict results for Kansas City based on actuals from New York City. These program rollouts will eventually extremely costly and will be neutered to mean nothing, delicately handling the PR hits as they come in, while the program will still exist on the record. The programs will never be shut down.
5) Expect it will eventually (5-10 years out) become cost-neutral, but never profitable. Right as this happens, some other crazy idea will be announced, pushing everybody back in the red.
Amazon doesn't need to compete directly with UPS and Fedex to win. Instead, I'd argue that they need to take over deliveries to easy deliveries (eg, cities) and continue to outsource the harder deliveries.
I'd suggest that this would remove the profit-producing deliveries for UPS/FedEx and leave them with those that they do at a loss.
It also explains the code name: "Consume the City"
The expected response from UPS and Fedex is "if you don't use us for the cities, we'll refuse to take your harder deliveries. You need to be all or nothing."
Or the equivalent: "we see the writing on the wall, so we're going to charge you an arm and a leg for each harder delivery, to make the most money before you handle those deliveries on your own too."
Considering that FedEx & UPS handover their "hard deliveries" to the USPS, I don't think Amazon is too worried. The USPS already handles Sunday deliveries for Amazon, they will probably expand that program if FedEx or UPS start getting too greedy.
I wonder if they can make that response. I know Fedex has argued at least once in court that they are a common carrier, and to my understanding, common carriers have some limits on how they can discriminate price or service based on who the customer is.
I'm sure that if Amazon only left the low or negative margin deliveries with their partners, their partners would be forced to renegotiate those deals worth Amazon.
>Amazon doesn't need to compete directly with UPS and Fedex to win.
Taking some of the deliveries allows Amazon to threaten to take more (or all) of them and pressures UPS and FedEx into keeping down the rates they charge Amazon.
Considering Amazon makes up over a $1 billion of UPS's revenue you think they may just stop accepting Amazon's business even if Amazon starts cutting how much they use them? There's no way. They will keep their business until the bitter end because if they don't their competitors will and Amazon can generate a lot of volume for them.
Why would they start operating the Amazon account at a loss? They would likely lower the volume discount if the volume drops but I don't understand your point.
This is something that a lot of people don't understand about shipping and especially the U.S. mail. Deliveries to dense areas are fast and easy and near shipping routes and warehouses. They subsidize everyone else.
For the USPS, they have to provide a bunch of flat rate services to everyone in the country. Amazon doesn't. All of their shipping innovations are going to be aimed at making it cheaper and easier for people in denser areas to get deliveries. I don't have an issue with this, because if people live far from civilization, they don't get to demand all of the latest parts of it, but it is something to keep in mind with all of this.
And if Amazon can peel off the cheapest customers from UPS and FedEx, that's going to raise the rates for all of the remaining UPS and FedEx customers.
Yup, and the same thing happened in London, UK. Simplified history: The Royal Mail (USPS equivalent) used to have a monopoly on mail and small parcels. They charged a flat fee to mail/ship to anywhere in the country. Then other couriers were allowed to start operating in locations of their choise without having to serve the whole country. They could cherry-pick the profitable locales (.e.g Metro London), undercutting Royal Mail's prices.
I remember seeing an analysis of price and delivery quality:
Royal Mail: 100% price, 85% happy delivery
Other Courier: 66% price, 66% happy delivery
Without going down the rabit hole of the wages these different workers were earning, as a consumer had a choice: subsidize cheaper shipping to the whole country, or get cheaper shipping.
If you're having problems with the Amazon Couriers just chat with Amazon support online. Explain the problems (give examples) and ask them to always ship using a different service. There's definitely an account setting for this that's not visible to the end user, because I went from 100% courier deliveries (with many issues) to 0% courier deliveries.
This doesn't seem to be very sticky, though. I've had nothing but trouble with OnTrac, so I requested that they not be used to ship items to me. For about three months they used different couriers, but just this week I got a delivery from OnTrac again.
Without proof, it makes sense from their perspective. Theoretically, they should be working to improve their delivery service. By having your preference expire, it should at least let you try what they believe the "best" option to be after a few months. If it still sucks you can complain again. Seems annoying as a customer, but I can get why they'd do it.
Can you give me more information on what you did to get that setting changed? I emailed them yesterday asking them to stop sending me packages with Amazon Logistics, and the rep denied that such a setting even existed and just sent my feedback to their shipping department:
> I'm really sorry about the problems you've had with the last few shipments. Unfortunately, there is no way to request a specific shipper for your Amazon orders.
Why would Amazon care if they damaged their reputation with Fedex and UPS? They can just do what UPS and Fedex do when it is too expensive to deliver a package somewhere -- turn it over to the USPS. Amazon is already using USPS to deliver packages on Sundays, which is win-win-win. Amazon wins, USPS wins, and the consumers win. Amazon's home delivery seems to work well where it's been rolled out, and I don't see competitive barriers to rolling it out elsewhere.
I think the article fails to cover a lot of areas where Amazon will have a competitive advantage over UPS and Fedex. First of all, Amazon will be vertically integrated. They can control the packaging. They can control which warehouses are used to store items. This could lead to better packing efficiency in delivery vehicles, and could make automated loading of vehicles easier. If you have a particular route that is usually 110% full or 40% full, you could either move more items to that warehouse or take some away. Plus, Amazon can incentivize cheaper shipping options dynamically. Will the marginal cost of this order be incredibly high because you'll need a second truck for a particular route? Discount one day shipping, or offer two day shipping to their work instead.
On top of all that, Amazon doesn't have unionized employees. That's a huge advantage when you are trying to reduce costs. Not only are their employees wages probably less, but they also don't have contracts that reduce planning ability, like fixed routes, etc.
(The above is my comment on this post yesterday, though the post failed to get traction. I think it's probably still relevant 24 hours later)
When I was in an apartment I hated it when USPS got my package. When I wasn't home, they'd take it back to the post office which meant I had to then drive to the post office, at a time when they were open (which conflicted with my working hours). UPS or FedEx would leave it at the office.
Now that I'm in a house, I much prefer USPS if only because my post man comes by at 9am and UPS/FedEx don't come by until 2-3pm.
I've had the exact opposite experience in every apartment I've lived in (like....10 now?). And USPS typically has a postal key to the entryway so they can leave packages inside. The best case scenario with FedEx has always been that they may ring a bunch of buzzers randomly before leaving the package on the doorstep and driving off.
On top of all that, Amazon doesn't have unionized employees. That's a huge advantage when you are trying to reduce costs. Not only are their employees wages probably less, but they also don't have contracts that reduce planning ability, like fixed routes, etc.
There's no realistic way to reduce costs being non-union shop in what is traditionally a unionized business. Either the shop will organize on its own or you run the shop to union standards in an effort to stave off organization.
Is Walmarts business "traditionally unionized"? You might have missed that crucial prior in GPs statement.
Additionally, Walmart actively discourages unionization via propaganda during training and outright threats. If Reddit is to be believed, closing an entire outlet is not too big a price to stave off the specter of unionization.
Between Walmart and Amazon, I'd rather have Amazon win, but at some point we're going to optimize away all the on the ground jobs.
Less of a deal for cities, but some of the small towns I drive through for work don't seem to have any other employment than trades/Walmart/service/trucking/maybe "the local plant".
What kind of world are we creating for small towns when 2.5 of those disappear in the next few decades?
Maybe there's not much of a world for small towns? Perhaps the only people who will live outside of big cities at some point will be remote workers looking to get away from so many people.
The Caves of Steel series sees all of terrestrial humanity living in huge hives, for example, with only robots outside of those, doing all the farming and mining.
Here in northern Sweden we are starting to see people coming back to the small towns. There is even a large amount of germans and other nationalities coming here and setting up their new life. Common jobs involve tourism aimed towards their old home-country. They pull in more people that sees the benefits of living less crowded (but still low cost 100 Mbps unlimited broadband).
The price for a house with land and forest can be as little as 1/100-th the price of a house in Germany so not uncommon that they buy more than one, restorate it and invite the kids/grandkids too :-)
The postal service works pretty well, we have had a few incidents while living in a bigger city where packages was marked for delivery failed, not home while being home the whole day. But those got sorted out after a phonecall and haven't had them since. Apparently all the delivery companies hires the same local people to do the actual deliveries so you don't get around the problem by switching company.
I so hope not. I live on the edge of a very small town. We have fiber! We also have clean air, clean water, no crime, a helping community, strong social connections and no congested traffic. I work online. I fish in the evenings or do other outdoor activities. In 30 minutes I can be at a university. I hail from Los Angeles where all of my younger well-paid siblings have had health issues or dealt with crime etc. Small towns have benefits that have vanished in metro markets. I am calmer and enjoy life more here ..and am healthier.
Oh I totally sympathize, I'm thinking of moving to a smaller town. But as a thought experiment, it doesn't seem inconceivable that economic activity will continue to concentrate into the big cities, leaving mostly tourism and a smattering of remote work for the smaller towns.
Maybe there's not much of a world for small towns? Perhaps the only people who will live outside of big cities at some point will be remote workers looking to get away from so many people.
The Caves of Steel series sees all of terrestrial humanity living in huge hives, for example, with only robots outside of those, doing all the farming and mining.
I think that is probably true for skilled workers, but the people delivering packages for Amazon in Chicago appear to be far from skilled. It's not that hard to find someone with a driver's license and replace them. Assuming Amazon has to offer similar benefits to Union shops, they will still save money. For instance, if Amazon offers its delivery drivers retirement benefits, you can rest assured there is no way in hell they offer a pension. On top of that, I can guarantee that Amazon won't hamstring its logistical flexibility by guaranteeing fixed routes.
This is even assuming that Amazon directly employs their delivery drivers. I know Google delivery uses contract drivers in Chicago. I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon has a similar set up in some places. It's pretty hard to organize when you are the driver.
Regardless, Amazon will fight tooth-and-nail to prevent unions from forming. They've successfully done so at their warehouses, and I don't see why deliveries would be any different. See this article by the NYT
I think you have that backwards. Unions work best for unskilled work. They're not really necessary in most skilled jobs where worker demand is high and wages are competitive.
There are many skilled professions which are highly unionized; e.g., the various TV and film production unions. Which professions are and aren't unionized is, to a large extent, just a quirk of historical circumstance.
I think you are correct. I've attributed the fact that UPS and USPS employees will stand around and chat, and Fedex employees run in like their tail is on fire and run out to this point. I know that Fedex is mostly an express service, and UPS and USPS aren't, but I think the union/non-union thing contributes.
Not that the speed in any way sours my opinion of unions. I'd burn out working under Fedex-like conditions.
USPS is good for last-mile delivery, especially outside cities, because they are legally mandated to serve every address.
But the USPS also contracts with UPS and Fedex for backhaul capacity. It's not unusual for a UPS truck to pull up to a Post Office and drop off a bunch of mail, which is then delivered to the address by the postal carrier.
I have had some terrible luck with Amazon shipment lately. Keep in mind that it goes both for their in-house shipments as well as UPS and Fedex. On one item, it got to the absurd point of them telling me that they didn't know where the item was. They had to overnight me another one. Of course, the original one showed up 5 days later. Before they can compete on something new, they need to iron out their current systems.
Amazon Logistics is awful locally in the UK. I mean it. Terrible.
I'm currently waiting for a package "guaranteed" before midday. I've had a couple of emails since then, the last pushing it back to "before 9pm". It's 9.25 now.
They've delivered stuff to the wrong place. They've said they knocked and nobody answered (I work from home, wife is on maternity).
And their vans are rentals.
All in all it feels unprofessional. It makes me questions not only the value of Prime but Amazon as a whole. I've started shopping around a lot more.
Sounds like Lasership in the USA. Non-uniformed people driving the most beat-up, random private vehicles possible, with a "LS" decal slapped on the side. Seems Amazon doesn't want to pay for decent people. They don't even bother to ring the bell when leaving a package on the porch.
That said, I'm not sure they are worse than USPS and UPS, both of whom have left packages outside in the rain in the middle of the driveway without ringing the bell.
I have to say, never had a problem with Lasership. They actually come up to my door, ring the bell, and move on. Never lost a package or anything like I have with FedEx / UPS. And the USPS stopped ringing my door bell a long time ago. Just comes up drops it by the door and leaves. So they seem to be the best in my area, despite them all driving around in their personal vehicles and no uniforms.
I haven't had a doorbell ring or knock at the door by UPS in probably 3-4 years. I get that they're too busy to wait for everyone to come to the door, but you'd think they could at least knock.
Works very well for me. It's rental vehicles, but the drivers are much more engaged than other companies. They usually even call me if I'm not home to ask where to leave the package.
I guess it's always down to the driver. On average, they won't be better or worse than UPS/Royal Mail/Interlink...
I've been a prime member for a while, and ordering from amazon is part of our regular routine for acquiring stuff. I've never had much of a problem, until recently. And UPS was entirely to blame. They (UPS) forgot the AC on the dock, and it ended up being delayed by a week. When it arrived, there were broken parts in the box. Amazon took responsibility and sent me a new one (with a $50 cash back due to inconvenience). I had them file a complaint w UPS. The replacement unit ended up being late as well... it was sent to the wrong address and signed by the recipient. UPS left the package at the wrong address! Amazon was very apologetic and told me they would escalate the complaint to their shipping logistics dept. I could tell they were super frustrated at the lack of control they had over UPS. So they sent me a _third_ AC unit. This one arrived, but there was water damage in the box. I, for one, am for Amazon owning the full experience and removing UPS from the chain.
I've had 2 bad experiences with Amazon orders, and USPS was to blame for both. They put the envelope/package in the wrong mailbox in the apartment complex I live in and marked it as delivered. I've received other people's mail in the past too...
Amazon's customer service has been exceptional, they send an overnight replacement with UPS and required a signature.
Recently, Amazon opened a pickup location near where I live, and I've been shipping more expensive items there. The pickup process takes less than 15 seconds. Literally, walk in, scan barcode, locker opens up, and I pickup my package.
Can't wait for Amazon to own the entire vertical and optimize the living shit out of it.
There are policy changes around labelling, IT, or whatever that I'm sure could reduce the error rate for this. Amazon has a direct incentive to, at least for Amazon packages, solve these problems. UPS has an incentive to ignore complaints.
Or just has these delivery issues treated more seriously. Amazon knows exactly which orders they reship and the complaint that the customer makes, they could directly track that metric against delivery drivers.
Very much so. Early on in our Prime experience about 2 years ago one of the delivery men, after dropping off the package, went back to the van, whipped it out and started peeing in the street. All while our neighbors kids were playing in the front yard. I thought twitter would be a good place to contact Amazon's support, and they didn't seem to care. That guy never delivered again, but no real response to my concerns was a bit creepy to say the least.
Otherwise packages come from all makes and models of cars over the last 6 months. Still pretty cool to get most things same day delivery cheaper than me driving to Fry's for a piece of hardware. I don't see how they make money though and compete in the long run after VC runs out.
None of that will happen, what might happen is better technology, like having to take a photo of the delivery address that gets OCRed and compared before the package is confirmed as delivered.
These big shipping companies started out good, but with time things slid downhill. You don't start out with the goal of providing mediocre service.
The problem is if you want top employees, you have to pay top dollar. Amazon's shipping service company will probably start out good, but it may windup in a similar place once they start trying to "optimize" their shipping service.
They will cut cost, overwork existing employees, and try to extend the reach of their service. If they don't, you will be over-paying for "Amazon" services and many will look elsewhere when it comes down to paying an extra 5% or more for better service.
On the topic of feedback: You can provide feedback to shipping companies. I called FedEx and reported their driver for dropping 2 packages in a row (and damaging the contents). He came back 2 days later with the 3rd package, apologized, and read me back my report. You just have to be proactive and communicate with them.
Exactly. I mean everyone has a horror story from UPS/USPS/FedEx, but for each of those, millions of packages get delivered every year without a single hitch. Amazon running their own service just adds another one to the list.
Personally, I stopped shopping on Amazon after I returned to the US. I realized they had become the new Wal-Mart, and I haven't shopped there since 2009.
I think Amazon will use the data. USPS operator probably fills in a paper form, it get stamps and then it get filled never to be used in any meaningful way again.
Yeah, last week USPS delivered $1800 of SSDs to my house. Great. Except they flagged it as "delivered, on front porch", two days prior, leading to much consternation, shoulder shrugging and the like while I attempted to find them.
Same has happened to me twice, although I'm pretty sure the mailman is scanning items as delivered in order to make a quota and then waiting until the next day to deliver them.
This. I'm pretty sure there is a huge problem with USPS workers fraudulently scanning items as delivered (to meet Amazon's SLA) and then actually delivering them a week later. I'm surprised Amazon hasn't done anything about it yet.
Hm, now I want my order email to include a (nonce) barcode that I print out and leave on my door, and the USPS worker has to scan that before they can claim anything was delivered.
In general, USPS does have the infrastructure to do this: Managed Service Points are barcodes placed on mailboxes that can be scanned by the carrier, to establish when he/she reaches certain checkpoints.
I don't think this is related to Amazon's SLA. I had this happen to me too, but the package was marked delivered 2 days before it's expected delivery date, and was actually delivered 1 day prior. So yes, strange it's happening, but might not be related to amazon's SLA.
This happens to me seemingly every time I order from Amazon and USPS fulfills. Either that or the mailman gets lazy and marks it undeliverable even though they have keys to my building and the mailboxes are inside. I cannot wait for Amazon to put USPS out of business.
> I cannot wait for Amazon to put USPS out of business.
Lack of competition would raise the likelihood of eventual declines in service. Better for Amazon to put pressure on UPS to do a better job of running their business than to eliminate them all together.
One time, I had a package coming via Amazon Logistics. It was marked as delivered but was not there. I asked for it to be sent via a different carrier but their customer service said they couldn't control that.
Perhaps it is USPS that should be exposed to competition [1]. If other carriers were permitted to ship to mailboxes, I have no doubt they would provide a better service. Note I am referring to the United States Postal Service (government run), not United Parcel Service.
This happens to me every time a USPS package is to be delivered on a Saturday or Sunday. My local post office has "temps" delivering on the weekends and they simply just don't come. They mark it "undeliverable as addressed" and then my normal mail carrier brings it on Monday.
Amazon says there is little they can do about it, except offer me a small credit on my account and file a complaint with their folks that handle the USPS relationship.
For me it's usually Amazon Logistics that causes problems like that. Just had a order last night that was marked delivered with no sign of it, so it depends on where you are. Usually I get better tracking and notification from some of the others too.
Have had that happen a lot with USPS. When I asked the mailman about it he said "Oh yeah I don't like carrying that scanner thing around so I just scan all the packages back at the post office and then we'll deliver them in the next day or two." Sigh.
Only Amazon is reliably delivering(1) to my address. I have received parcel for somebody else, at a different flat number of a different building ( building have names here ) at a different street name and number, and different postcode ( postcode contains generally very few buildings, mine for example only contain my tiny block of 11 flats ).
I have 3 parcels that were lost in the last month. And I live in London, on a High Street, in a building that has existed since the 70's and is found precisely in literally every mapping application.
I can see why people paint Amazon as the evil empire bound on destroying everything it touches and I actually agree with it. But it is hard to ignore how incredibly reliable they are compared to basically everything else. I buy from Amazon even if they are more expensive, and often I don't buy stuff when they are not available there. The "Dispatched from and sold by Amazon." is worth paying for.
(1) Within the parcel shipping companies. I must say that Royal Mail is doing great at my address.
In three different locations in London I've had problems with three different carriers. At my current address Amazon Logistics is by far the worst.
DPD is the only one I've found entirely reliable across those three locations (two offices and my home; one of the offices some of the carriers insisted didn't exist, while DPD had no problems delivering to it), but from what I see they too get plenty of complaints in other locations.
It seems to vary hugely depending on which depots and drivers delivers to your address.
On the flip side, I have had no problems with UPS, our local UPS delivery guy is nice and actually brings stuff around back to reduce theft chance.
The one package I've had delivered end to end by Amazon got stolen because they dropped it off without even bothering to ring our doorbell. (They replaced it for free though, so that's nice).
UPS is amazing where I am. Our local driver knows where to put my packages. When he is off, he has trained the other drivers to do the same.
USPS and Fed-EX are horrible in my area. They often mark packages as "undeliverable as addressed" and I have to call and complain.
I had an Amazon rep stick up for this behavior recently. The rep said "well maybe you aren't on a GPS or perhaps you haven't labeled your house clearly enough or maybe your address is different than what you think it actually is (given roads get re-named over time)"
Sorry for the "me too" post, but my experience is a mirror of yours in that I am a longtime Amazon Prime member who orders quite a lot from the site and have been really happy until about the past year where I've noticed a huge uptick in failures for packages to arrive when expected.
In every case it was one of the carriers who failed, not Amazon. USPS has been the absolute worst for me, followed by UPS, but all three of them (including FedEx) have had a noticeable increase in strange events like claiming to have attempted to deliver a package when I was home the entire time and am 100% positive nobody attempted to deliver anything. Who the best/worst is for anyone in particular probably varies based on the local staff of whatever carrier, but it seems like all of them have slipped quite a bit.
It entirely depends on the people. At my old place it was UPS that went out of their way to deliver things early, make sure it wouldn't get stolen, etc. FedEx was the opposite.
Now here in SF USPS is great, except on my carrier's off day. The sub doesn't give a shit, delivering to the wrong address, throwing packages in the bushes, or just leaving packages behind for my normal carrier to deliver a day late.
Eh. I live in San Francisco and USPS was so bad that I broke down and got a PO box a few years ago. I would regularly get people's magazines and whatnot from the same house number a few blocks away. Mail between my house and both of my next door neighbors' houses gets mixed up frequently enough that my landlady put a big sign on the house with instructions for the mail carrier.
You're gonna have problems with all carriers at some point. You're talking about a very labor intensive and time sensitive job. Someone's gonna get tired at the end of the day or need to meet unrealistic performance metrics. Shit happens.
What put USPS over the top for me though was the PO box. That affords me a semi-anonymous address and the ability to pick up packages at my convenience. If you get a box at the Lakeshore station they're even open on Sundays.
I'm not going to defend UPS, but have you ever had a package delivered by Amazon? I wouldn't say they're an improvement. Items are delivered late at night, broken, and most of the time they don't even bother ringing my apartment when they deliver.
Anecdotes are anecdotes, sounds like your local UPS driver isn't very good at his job. I'm not sure Amazon can have much of an effect in this area. Delivery positions aren't glamorous high paying jobs that inspire people to care, and amazon doesn't have a reputation for inspiring employees either.
I had my wife's birthday present delivered two days after her birthday, and no one at Amazon Customer Service knew of a way to contact Amazon Local (the carrier). None of the two phone numbers Google returns work.
At least with FedEx and UPS you can talk to someone and sort things out. I recently dropped by the local FedEx warehouse to pick up a packet that was on its way to be returned because they'd miss me at home. Amazon Local? You can't even know what are their business hours.
A nearby friend has problems with fedex. Their driver that covers the neighbourhood seems hell bent on delivering things to the wrong addresses. At one point he even delivered a massive bulky item to her front door. It completely blocked the door and was far too large/heavy for her to move. This would have been great except it was a Friday evening, and was clearly marked for someone else several blocks away on a different street.
I've had a UPS driver just slap a "missed you" note on the door, rather than actually deliver the item. I did complain to UPS, but it seemed like complaints were rare, nor did they seem to have a standardised system to address them.
It seems like the incentives, feedback loops etc aren't really present for the final part of the delivery. And it seems like neither UPS nor Fedex care, or care enough. Amazon could do a lot better in collecting the feedback, and then potentially do something about it.
Yes, there's much disillusionment here about Amazon's capability in a field they're just getting into. Apparently they'll pay everyone extremely well, fire anyone who makes a mistake, and everything will work out perfectly.
Canadians also loathe UPS. Anybody who ships UPS or FedEx ground to Canada is going to get angry customers complaining about $50 CODs, often more than the shipment is worth... Or even refused packages sent back at the sender's expense.
It's one thing to say "customs is expensive" - it's another to dump a massive fee on the recipient without even warning the vendor thst this is possible.
My company orders through Amazon Prime almost daily, and we've never had an issue. And I'm certainly not in a metropolitan area.
>get angry customers complaining about $50 CODs
These people should learn about brokerage fees and do the leg work themselves if they don't want to pay those fees. You're obligated to do the paperwork when you import something. UPS will do it and charge you for it (albeit a bit expensively). If it's a problem, blame the seller.
>it's another to dump a massive fee on the recipient
I order from Amazon about once a month, possibly more. UPS is usually okay, but it really depends on the driver. One of the drivers is actually stellar, others are average, and I've had drivers who just put up the couldn't deliver sticker despite the fact that I was home all day and didn't get buzzed.
Purolator was terrible, but the last time was during the whole Canada Post upheaval and they were swamped. It was "Out for Delivery" for about 5 days.
Canada Post is much like UPS in that it depends on who is making the delivery. I've had some excellent ones, some average ones, and others who just put up the sticker without contacting me.
It varies greatly by location, from what I hear. Where I live (London suburb) Amazon Logistics is the delivery company I have the most problems with. Last office I worked at it was another company that caused all the problems.
In my experience, usually on big shipments like air conditioners, FedEx and UPS prefer for you to pick it up at their warehouse. So if they made a mistake there, my guess is its a relatively recent policy change.
I spoke to my mailwoman the other day, and she told me USPS will be delivering the majority of the amazon prime packages. And what that told me is that the other companies are trying whatever they can to get that amazon order, even potentially guaranteeing delivery of 'AC's, when thats not something they would normally do.
Same here, I have bad experiences with UPS all the time. I have caught them twice manipulating the system and lying to Amazon (they said they attempted delivery although they didn't).
For me UPS has been the weakest link in the otherwise marvelous Prime program.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 201 ms ] threadThey're far and above better than Fedex / UPS and never throw the packages over my gate into my flowerbeds.
They also deliver on Sundays and they call me since my apartment building's package room is closed on Sundays.
I haven't had that near as much in town, but USPS is my absolute last choice in the space.
I complained to the postmaster multiple times. Although, as a typical gov. employee, he just laughed and said we do what we want, it is your neighborhoods problem. Eventually the whole neighborhood got together and made some changes happen. It is still not perfect, but better.
The first ones were terrible. They seemed to have no good fallback if the building's gate was locked and nobody was available to buzz them in, and stuff just got lost. They were customer focused, yes, but that just meant they shipped me free replacement stuff with free overnight non-Amazon shipping. Not the best experience overall, though, compared to getting it on the original date.
Fast forward to 2016 and they're pretty good here. Though USPS has been best for my building (and elsewhere people here are talking about USPS being the worst - again, it's a hard problem to solve for every area for everyone).
* Package marked as delivered on Saturday. Package actually delivered on Sunday.
* Package not delivered because there was no safe place to leave it (there's a sign next to the front door with instructions do leave it in the complex's leasing office across the street).
* Package delivered to my door, despite my door being behind multiple card-access doors.
* Package left at the door to the leasing office, even though the leasing office was open and the lights were on.
These have all happened in the past three months. I'm borderline ready to cancel Prime.
At least Amazon is more than willing to work with you to figure out how they can make your experience more palatable.
UPS in the USA do [2]
[1] http://www.royalmail.com/personal/uk-delivery/special-delive...
[2] https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/time/service/next...
If you can void your guarantee based on "forces outside your control" in something like shipping, where you're at the mercy of traffic, weather conditions, and human error, it's not really a guarantee.
The UK is a substantially easier country to ship in logistically than the US. I don't doubt that Royal Mail's guaranteed delivery works.
I've had a lot less issues with UPS than I've had with the Amazon delievery service.
Are you sure about that?
It sounds like you bought from an arbitrager: someone who's just a middleman, posts something for sale which they don't even have, but at a higher price than some retailer that does. Then, when you buy it, they go buy the thing (on Amazon in this case), use your address as the delivery address, and then pocket the difference. It's extremely common on Ebay and Amazon both, and many other places.
I've had Amazon Logistics carriers: Be unable to find my door (it's a non-gated, outward facing door in a row-style townhome with street access). Leave things at an _entirely different_ residential complex, whose address matched neither my street name nor number. They've done this twice, and not even at the same wrong complex (the hint is it said "left at reception", and we don't have a reception area). Try to pressure me into letting them just leave something on the sidewalk outside a gated apartment ("would that be safe?").
I'm a Prime addict and I feel like my dealer just started cutting the supply. At least let Prime members opt-out of Amazon Logistics (hell, I'd pay extra in my annual fee to do so).
Not sure that I've ever had a package delivered by Amazon, but if I did there weren't any problems. That UPS incident is my only personal shipping issue in years.
I wish I could say the same. I get calls from UPS delivery guys/gals about 30% of the time because I live in a duplex and my unit faces the alley. So they come in through the main street, can't find "Unit B" and end up calling me. I have to explain to them that they have to enter through the gate on the side.
This one time they left the package in front of the mailboxes, out in the open. When I got home, the entire box was soaking wet from the rain. Gross.
Just like you mentioned, it was really bad at first. Packages would routinely arrive late, wrong address, etc. I live in a gated apartment complex and they would always leave the package with the leasing office instead of using the code I provided (UPS, FedEx, would always leave at my door).
Now it is indistinguishable from other carriers, in that all my packages arrive on time, at my door, without any problems.
The only thing I don't like is PrimeNow, which uses 'part time' carriers like Postmates, and they ALWAYS get confused by my apartment complex - so I stopped using it.
UberEats on the other hand can never find my house as their routing sends them down an alley that has no street numbers.
Since I couldn't guarantee what carrier would be used, I eventually had to use Amazon Locker only. I live in a house now and no longer have this problem.
I would shop from Amazon again if I could choose to have something delivered by Royal Mail as then I know it would get to my door.
Amazon did the whole "left with neighbour" thing... but my neighbours are drug dealers and their clients come and go all the time... the packages never turned up and I'm hardly going to go confront the neighbours about it.
I shopped there for convenience, to reduce hassle, and their delivery service increased hassle.
For Amazon they need to find a means of setting humane targets and then finding a way to accurately measure performance of staff...
I live in a safe neighborhood, the door and the number are easy to see from the street, so the delivery person should waste no time locating the place. I never had issues with Amazon.
Seems like they're pushing the system a bit too far.
> For Amazon they need to find a means of setting humane targets and then finding a way to accurately measure performance of staff...
Yeah, my suspicion is that this is the root cause of my troubles with them. I live in an apartment building, but I have a street-accessible front door, so I have a sign clearly saying to leave packages with the apartment manager in the office. Half the time they just dump the packages at my door anyway, the other half of the time they just dump them at the office's street-accessible door, because they got there when it was closed.
I don't know what's so hard about noting a delivery exception and attempting again the next day. All the other carriers seem to be able to handle that. A few of the drivers have called me for instructions, but it's kind of pointless: the next day's driver is just going ignore all the instructions and dump the package anyway.
It wouldn't be so bad if I could have all Amazon Delivery packages redirected to one of their nearby drop boxes, like I do with UPS. The problem is if I set things up to use an Amazon drop box, ALL my stuff will go there, not just the Amazon delivery orders, and they don't support 2-day shipping. I still want the USPS orders to go to my mailbox, since that's the most convenient option.
They really need to allow users to enter shipping preferences, since not all carriers are the same for everyone. For me USPS and UPS are the best, Fedex and Amazon Logistics are the worst.
Nordic socialist consumer protection laws are nice :)
> Nordic socialist consumer protection laws are nice :)
Errr... so a law that I couldn't have a package left on my protected porch I've never had an issue with or with my neighbors with whom I'm friendly, even if I want to, is "nice"? No thanks.
"Your DHL Express shipment #### from #### is expected to be delivered to you today between 9-20. If you are not at home, you can give DHL power of attorney to deliver the shipment to your address without signature. Reply PROXY and specify location"
Though I actually used their other option, which was to have it delivered to the collection boxes in the nearby supermarket.
I've had other deliveries left with my neighbour, but most seem to end up at the post office.
The system is by no means perfect but I like that it dictates very clearly who is responsible for what/when.
And as pointed out by Symbiote most companies have a way to give them power of attorney to deliver the package without someone signing it.
I'm having the opposite problem (UK also), my amazon deliveries are fine but roughly 50% of my royal mail post is going missing (bank statements, credit cards, gig tickets). Multiple complaints, nothing has improved.
Sample size of 1 says very little. My big complaint about amazon deliveries is the silly 8-8 time slot they allocate. Who on earth spends 12 hours in one place every day?
EDIT: Nice downvotes. Someone complains he has a drug dealer for a neighbour and that's amazon's fault and somehow that's my fault?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeI...
If you're living in a bad area, Royal Mail will lose your mail as well.
Things that don't fit, Royal Mail will take to the concierge in the next building over (Amazon almost never does this).
Before, my problems were generally when USPS was making a Sunday delivery. They'd often leave the package outside the entrance to my apartment building - otherwise known as "the public sidewalk".
The last few weeks, most of my packages were handled (well, mishandled, to be more accurate) by Amazon's delivery service. I finally cancelled the two remaining orders that were somewhere in transit, and cancelled the auto-renew for my Prime account.
Now, I order directly from shops, and might get a Costco membership for bulk items.
It was my package, they were the Amazon courier and couldn't figure out how to open my front gate.
It was bizarre.
Last week I paid extra to have two packages delivered by Monday. On Monday the expected delivery date had changed to Tuesday; on Tuesday, it was Wednesday; on Wednesday, Thursday; and on Thursday, my packages finally arrived. As far as I can tell Amazon has kept the fees I paid despite failing to hold up their end of the bargain.
Going to the distribution center to pick up the package typically entails a 30-45 minute wait. They require both an ID and proof of residence (e.g. electric bill) if the address on your ID doesn't match the delivery address - and of course nobody in line knows about this so you end up spending that 30-45 minutes with a crowd of angry people who can't even pick up their packages.
Some neighborhood are fortunate to have great responsible delivery worker/driver who actually cares about delivering packages safe and sound; but to many of them though, it's just a job.
I get a month extra Prime each time, but I likely won't be renewing when it runs out.
The security and peace of mind is well worth the cost. There are very few packages I need the minute they're delivered.
Edit: saw your response, fair enough.
I had to put a sign on my mailbox asking delivery people to toss the package over the fence and into my yard if I'm not home. This is basic common sense in a big city. Sadly, its sometimes ignored. I now just deal with work delivery which means a good chance of a package getting lost in 30 floor skyscraper I work in. Its incredible how shitty package delivery is in general.
Maybe it’s the state you live in? They have never given anything to my neighbours when no one was at home during delivery, they always tried next day, call or leave a form to schedule next delivery time so someone DOES receive the package.
If you look at the "Ground Control" infographic in the article, a significant portion of logistics is in the linehaul network: tractors + 53' trailers full of thousands of packages. At the end of the day you don't really know if Amazon, Fedex, or USPS handled these shipments, all you see is the guy who shows up to your door. I imagine there is the potential for huge savings to have Amazon vertically integrate this.
Sure, personalized delivery to your doorstep is a tough problem to solve. But delivery of thousands of packages between point A and B? Not as tough.
but [Amazon] may cancel the CMI deal with just 180 days’ notice merely for the sake of “convenience”, which can be implemented from January 1, 2018.
CMI is (air)crew, maintenance and insurance and they then combine that with a dry-lease of the airframes from an Atlas subsidiary.
http://theloadstar.co.uk/atlas-air-shareholders-approve-amaz...
So it looks as if 2017 will be the proving-year for Amazon to determine whether they want to take the plunge into self-managed logistics, and they have an escape clause if not.
Or that the companies who provide better/faster/cheaper not to grow large on providing what the people want at the prices they want to pay?
Which Amazon has been spammed by chinese dropshippers.
> cheapest prices
Not always. Depends what you're looking for.
To be honest, my experience is rather the other way around... I expect Amazon to have the stuff my local shops don't.
but there's no reason to be alarmed. Amazon really isn't as big as they look. Revenue last year: $107B
Compare that to other things: About 1/5th of Walmart. 2/3rds of CVS. 10% less than Costco. 1/3rd more than Target. 15% more than Home Depot. Sure they're #1 in ecommerce, but ecommerce is only 16% of retail sales in the US.
There are actually quite a few companies the size of Amazon. And many of those companies are actually more profitable than Amazon too.
[1] http://www.channeladvisor.com/blog/?pn=scot/deep-dive-into-a...
I find that smaller unique shops still have a huge edge, it's just the medium to large shops that are losing. I still would rather a world with lots of small people making good money selling unique goods via post/internet then a huge segment of the population just punching the clock at minimum wage.
Nothing new. Blockbuster killed small video rentals, Barnes and Noble killed small bookstores, Walgreens/CVS killed small drug stores, and WalMart killed a number of store types.
Plus anything is better than the rag tag set of local shippers they use for same/next day orders (or 2-day orders that were late getting out). I'm not going to name and shame, but I've had bad experiences with all of the non-majors (i.e. not UPS, FedEX, USPS) they use from coast to coast.
They could choose to offer parcel shipping services to any retailer as part of the Amazon Marketplace Web Services API, just as they currently offer the Multi-Channel Fulfillment API[1], which allows a retailer to fulfill orders from any sales channel using the Fulfillment by Amazon network.
[1] http://docs.developer.amazonservices.com/en_US/fba_outbound/...
If they can't do it better/cheaper then the reason to do it is because UPS or Fedex are rent-seeking, and doing it themselves would bring Amazon's cost close to the actual cost of delivering
Amazon only has to move things between their warehouses and consumers. 99% of pickups are at their warehouses. Hell if they use UPS/FedEx for returns then it's 100%.
Amazon Fresh (groceries, which UPS/Fedex cannot do)
1 hour delivery (which UPS/Fedex cannot do without keeping their fleet at Amazon's warehouses)
Restaurant delivery
etc
The point is to capture the means of delivery so they can become the carrier for parcels/food/whatever. Uber is trying to do this too. As is Postmates. UPS/Fedex have the issue that they are very good for bulk travel, but weak at last mile (it works for them now because of the volume they do, but the best they can reasonably do is next-day).
Amazon is looking at hitting the low hanging fruit first. Where they can ship large amounts of times from point A to point B then have USPS or their own carriers deliver. They're not trying to compete with UPS or FedEx today. Maybe some day in the future but that's years off at best.
If they can do their own shipping for certain items to certain locations (especially if they need to move an item to another state before having UPS / FedEx / USPS ship it) they can likely save some money.
Fedex never really got Fedex Ground right.
And don't get me started on why they have to use 16 digit package tracking numbers that start with '1Z'. WTF?
One word: Teamsters.
UPS drivers are Teamsters. Which means they have good paying jobs with pensions and fringe benefits.
All Amazon has to do to be cheaper is to hire no-benefit minimum wage part-timers. Or even better, just use independent contractors. It's the Uberization of package delivery!
It will be far cheaper, but it won't be better.
Why would FedEx ups change when it makes a pile now. I recall hearing how letters would never be sorted automatically.
It will take an outsider like Zon to get to the future.
http://www.sidehustlenation.com/amazon-fba-clearance-arbitra...
I had a roommate in college from London who pointed out that Americans tend to add "-ation" onto words where it isn't necessary or doesn't further elaborate the meaning (e.g. transportation where transport is sufficient). I haven't been able to un-notice our rather pointless addition of letters to nouns. What is wrong with Sort Center or Sorting Center?
I did, before writing this post, find "sortation" in some unabridged dictionaries referring to a mechanized or automated sorting process, but the word still just sounds off to me...
My own bias is certainly towards brevity in most cases where context gives a clear meaning. I should clarify that -ation seems unnecessary where the noun it extends: (a) already describes a process. (b) is in common use describing a process.
The suffix seems more useful where it explicitly turns a verb into a noun where there was no suitable noun in common use, or where any existing nouns derived from the same root do not refer to a process. This is the ignored distinction my roommate's offhand comment likely implied.
The problem appears to be that American English simply no longer sticks to the formal meaning added by the suffix. Reserve/reservation and preserve/preservation are used interchangeably to refer to large plots of land left to nature. But making a reservation at a hotel is the process of reserving a room.
I guess this ambiguity is what we get for speaking a language without central authority. I'll take it over ivory tower language academies decrying use of "le weekend..." ;)
[1]: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sort
I don't know that last mile out to smaller areas will ever be worth it for Amazon.
Also don't forget that UPS is a union ship, with very expensive union contracts. The UPS is the largest individual employer in the Teamsters Union.
https://teamster.org/upsupsf-contract-updates/ups-agreements...
1) Say this is not news but PR. Congrats to Carney.
2) Expect actual technology to lag behind the vision communicated by 3+ years while the dev teams try to find remotely suitable heuristics for the NP-SweetMotherOfGod problems that the executives think are just a matter of throwing enough servers at. Several entire orgs will be eliminated or repurposed while this happens.
3) Expect costs to be an order of magnitude higher than the competition for a good 3-5 years due to really stupid and trivially fixable mistakes/inanities that are obvious to anybody on the ground floor. These inanities will eventually be addressed by some level 4 or level 5 analyst that will eventually (but not today) get fired for pointing out the wrong person's mistakes...or worse, endlessly moved around orgs with no advancement potential.
4) Expect it to be rolled out to countless cities mindlessly by some executive that thinks they can predict results for Kansas City based on actuals from New York City. These program rollouts will eventually extremely costly and will be neutered to mean nothing, delicately handling the PR hits as they come in, while the program will still exist on the record. The programs will never be shut down.
5) Expect it will eventually (5-10 years out) become cost-neutral, but never profitable. Right as this happens, some other crazy idea will be announced, pushing everybody back in the red.
Rinse and repeat.
I'd suggest that this would remove the profit-producing deliveries for UPS/FedEx and leave them with those that they do at a loss.
It also explains the code name: "Consume the City"
Or the equivalent: "we see the writing on the wall, so we're going to charge you an arm and a leg for each harder delivery, to make the most money before you handle those deliveries on your own too."
Taking some of the deliveries allows Amazon to threaten to take more (or all) of them and pressures UPS and FedEx into keeping down the rates they charge Amazon.
For the USPS, they have to provide a bunch of flat rate services to everyone in the country. Amazon doesn't. All of their shipping innovations are going to be aimed at making it cheaper and easier for people in denser areas to get deliveries. I don't have an issue with this, because if people live far from civilization, they don't get to demand all of the latest parts of it, but it is something to keep in mind with all of this.
And if Amazon can peel off the cheapest customers from UPS and FedEx, that's going to raise the rates for all of the remaining UPS and FedEx customers.
I remember seeing an analysis of price and delivery quality: Royal Mail: 100% price, 85% happy delivery Other Courier: 66% price, 66% happy delivery
Without going down the rabit hole of the wages these different workers were earning, as a consumer had a choice: subsidize cheaper shipping to the whole country, or get cheaper shipping.
> I'm really sorry about the problems you've had with the last few shipments. Unfortunately, there is no way to request a specific shipper for your Amazon orders.
I think the article fails to cover a lot of areas where Amazon will have a competitive advantage over UPS and Fedex. First of all, Amazon will be vertically integrated. They can control the packaging. They can control which warehouses are used to store items. This could lead to better packing efficiency in delivery vehicles, and could make automated loading of vehicles easier. If you have a particular route that is usually 110% full or 40% full, you could either move more items to that warehouse or take some away. Plus, Amazon can incentivize cheaper shipping options dynamically. Will the marginal cost of this order be incredibly high because you'll need a second truck for a particular route? Discount one day shipping, or offer two day shipping to their work instead.
On top of all that, Amazon doesn't have unionized employees. That's a huge advantage when you are trying to reduce costs. Not only are their employees wages probably less, but they also don't have contracts that reduce planning ability, like fixed routes, etc.
(The above is my comment on this post yesterday, though the post failed to get traction. I think it's probably still relevant 24 hours later)
Now that I'm in a house, I much prefer USPS if only because my post man comes by at 9am and UPS/FedEx don't come by until 2-3pm.
There's no realistic way to reduce costs being non-union shop in what is traditionally a unionized business. Either the shop will organize on its own or you run the shop to union standards in an effort to stave off organization.
Additionally, Walmart actively discourages unionization via propaganda during training and outright threats. If Reddit is to be believed, closing an entire outlet is not too big a price to stave off the specter of unionization.
Less of a deal for cities, but some of the small towns I drive through for work don't seem to have any other employment than trades/Walmart/service/trucking/maybe "the local plant".
What kind of world are we creating for small towns when 2.5 of those disappear in the next few decades?
The Caves of Steel series sees all of terrestrial humanity living in huge hives, for example, with only robots outside of those, doing all the farming and mining.
The price for a house with land and forest can be as little as 1/100-th the price of a house in Germany so not uncommon that they buy more than one, restorate it and invite the kids/grandkids too :-)
The postal service works pretty well, we have had a few incidents while living in a bigger city where packages was marked for delivery failed, not home while being home the whole day. But those got sorted out after a phonecall and haven't had them since. Apparently all the delivery companies hires the same local people to do the actual deliveries so you don't get around the problem by switching company.
Can you please share prices ?
The Caves of Steel series sees all of terrestrial humanity living in huge hives, for example, with only robots outside of those, doing all the farming and mining.
If you think of WalMart as the replacement for Sears, then Sears was at least partially union... or something.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-mart-to-shut-down-meat-...
This is even assuming that Amazon directly employs their delivery drivers. I know Google delivery uses contract drivers in Chicago. I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon has a similar set up in some places. It's pretty hard to organize when you are the driver.
Regardless, Amazon will fight tooth-and-nail to prevent unions from forming. They've successfully done so at their warehouses, and I don't see why deliveries would be any different. See this article by the NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/technology/amazon-proves-i...
> unskilled
http://www.alpa.org/about-alpa/what-we-do
> necessary
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/15/415m-settlement-...
Not that the speed in any way sours my opinion of unions. I'd burn out working under Fedex-like conditions.
This was true in the past, but FedEx and UPS are practically identical in their service offerings for the last 15 years.
But the USPS also contracts with UPS and Fedex for backhaul capacity. It's not unusual for a UPS truck to pull up to a Post Office and drop off a bunch of mail, which is then delivered to the address by the postal carrier.
I'm currently waiting for a package "guaranteed" before midday. I've had a couple of emails since then, the last pushing it back to "before 9pm". It's 9.25 now.
They've delivered stuff to the wrong place. They've said they knocked and nobody answered (I work from home, wife is on maternity).
And their vans are rentals.
All in all it feels unprofessional. It makes me questions not only the value of Prime but Amazon as a whole. I've started shopping around a lot more.
That said, I'm not sure they are worse than USPS and UPS, both of whom have left packages outside in the rain in the middle of the driveway without ringing the bell.
I guess it's always down to the driver. On average, they won't be better or worse than UPS/Royal Mail/Interlink...
I've had 2 bad experiences with Amazon orders, and USPS was to blame for both. They put the envelope/package in the wrong mailbox in the apartment complex I live in and marked it as delivered. I've received other people's mail in the past too...
Amazon's customer service has been exceptional, they send an overnight replacement with UPS and required a signature.
Recently, Amazon opened a pickup location near where I live, and I've been shipping more expensive items there. The pickup process takes less than 15 seconds. Literally, walk in, scan barcode, locker opens up, and I pickup my package.
Can't wait for Amazon to own the entire vertical and optimize the living shit out of it.
When the mailperson that delivers your mail currently gets fired by USPS and gets hired by Amazon - do you think much will change in that regard??
Otherwise packages come from all makes and models of cars over the last 6 months. Still pretty cool to get most things same day delivery cheaper than me driving to Fry's for a piece of hardware. I don't see how they make money though and compete in the long run after VC runs out.
When you give bad shipping feedback, if the same person gets bad feedback multiple times, they get retrained and then fired.
These big shipping companies started out good, but with time things slid downhill. You don't start out with the goal of providing mediocre service.
The problem is if you want top employees, you have to pay top dollar. Amazon's shipping service company will probably start out good, but it may windup in a similar place once they start trying to "optimize" their shipping service.
They will cut cost, overwork existing employees, and try to extend the reach of their service. If they don't, you will be over-paying for "Amazon" services and many will look elsewhere when it comes down to paying an extra 5% or more for better service.
On the topic of feedback: You can provide feedback to shipping companies. I called FedEx and reported their driver for dropping 2 packages in a row (and damaging the contents). He came back 2 days later with the 3rd package, apologized, and read me back my report. You just have to be proactive and communicate with them.
Personally, I stopped shopping on Amazon after I returned to the US. I realized they had become the new Wal-Mart, and I haven't shopped there since 2009.
https://about.usps.com/strategic-planning/cs02/2f3.htm
It's a more modern version of the mechanical "watchclocks" installed in buildings to ensure that guards make their appointed rounds. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_tour_patrol_system https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchclock
I have no idea how regularly USPS examines or audits their MSP data.
Source: I recently had a package stolen from the usps pipeline and was told this by their investigators.
Working for USPS is not a comfortable place to be. USPS kind of got taken over by Amazon traffic, and it's been an adjustment.
Definitely file a complain with amazon and provide the order number. They will lay down the hammer.
Lack of competition would raise the likelihood of eventual declines in service. Better for Amazon to put pressure on UPS to do a better job of running their business than to eliminate them all together.
why dont they send the first try with UPS, and the second with FedEx or someone else?
One time, I had a package coming via Amazon Logistics. It was marked as delivered but was not there. I asked for it to be sent via a different carrier but their customer service said they couldn't control that.
I guess nobody has built that feature yet. :(
[1] http://fortune.com/2015/03/27/us-postal-service/
Amazon says there is little they can do about it, except offer me a small credit on my account and file a complaint with their folks that handle the USPS relationship.
So they magically transport you there in a second as well?
Only Amazon is reliably delivering(1) to my address. I have received parcel for somebody else, at a different flat number of a different building ( building have names here ) at a different street name and number, and different postcode ( postcode contains generally very few buildings, mine for example only contain my tiny block of 11 flats ).
I have 3 parcels that were lost in the last month. And I live in London, on a High Street, in a building that has existed since the 70's and is found precisely in literally every mapping application.
I can see why people paint Amazon as the evil empire bound on destroying everything it touches and I actually agree with it. But it is hard to ignore how incredibly reliable they are compared to basically everything else. I buy from Amazon even if they are more expensive, and often I don't buy stuff when they are not available there. The "Dispatched from and sold by Amazon." is worth paying for.
(1) Within the parcel shipping companies. I must say that Royal Mail is doing great at my address.
DPD is the only one I've found entirely reliable across those three locations (two offices and my home; one of the offices some of the carriers insisted didn't exist, while DPD had no problems delivering to it), but from what I see they too get plenty of complaints in other locations.
It seems to vary hugely depending on which depots and drivers delivers to your address.
Everyone has their own experiences; I think the only thing that would work for everyone is choice of carrier on checkout.
The one package I've had delivered end to end by Amazon got stolen because they dropped it off without even bothering to ring our doorbell. (They replaced it for free though, so that's nice).
USPS and Fed-EX are horrible in my area. They often mark packages as "undeliverable as addressed" and I have to call and complain.
I had an Amazon rep stick up for this behavior recently. The rep said "well maybe you aren't on a GPS or perhaps you haven't labeled your house clearly enough or maybe your address is different than what you think it actually is (given roads get re-named over time)"
In every case it was one of the carriers who failed, not Amazon. USPS has been the absolute worst for me, followed by UPS, but all three of them (including FedEx) have had a noticeable increase in strange events like claiming to have attempted to deliver a package when I was home the entire time and am 100% positive nobody attempted to deliver anything. Who the best/worst is for anyone in particular probably varies based on the local staff of whatever carrier, but it seems like all of them have slipped quite a bit.
Now here in SF USPS is great, except on my carrier's off day. The sub doesn't give a shit, delivering to the wrong address, throwing packages in the bushes, or just leaving packages behind for my normal carrier to deliver a day late.
You're gonna have problems with all carriers at some point. You're talking about a very labor intensive and time sensitive job. Someone's gonna get tired at the end of the day or need to meet unrealistic performance metrics. Shit happens.
What put USPS over the top for me though was the PO box. That affords me a semi-anonymous address and the ability to pick up packages at my convenience. If you get a box at the Lakeshore station they're even open on Sundays.
Anecdotes are anecdotes, sounds like your local UPS driver isn't very good at his job. I'm not sure Amazon can have much of an effect in this area. Delivery positions aren't glamorous high paying jobs that inspire people to care, and amazon doesn't have a reputation for inspiring employees either.
At least with FedEx and UPS you can talk to someone and sort things out. I recently dropped by the local FedEx warehouse to pick up a packet that was on its way to be returned because they'd miss me at home. Amazon Local? You can't even know what are their business hours.
I've had a UPS driver just slap a "missed you" note on the door, rather than actually deliver the item. I did complain to UPS, but it seemed like complaints were rare, nor did they seem to have a standardised system to address them.
It seems like the incentives, feedback loops etc aren't really present for the final part of the delivery. And it seems like neither UPS nor Fedex care, or care enough. Amazon could do a lot better in collecting the feedback, and then potentially do something about it.
It's one thing to say "customs is expensive" - it's another to dump a massive fee on the recipient without even warning the vendor thst this is possible.
Are you our new spokesman?
My company orders through Amazon Prime almost daily, and we've never had an issue. And I'm certainly not in a metropolitan area.
>get angry customers complaining about $50 CODs
These people should learn about brokerage fees and do the leg work themselves if they don't want to pay those fees. You're obligated to do the paperwork when you import something. UPS will do it and charge you for it (albeit a bit expensively). If it's a problem, blame the seller.
>it's another to dump a massive fee on the recipient
Refuse the shipment.
Purolator was terrible, but the last time was during the whole Canada Post upheaval and they were swamped. It was "Out for Delivery" for about 5 days.
Canada Post is much like UPS in that it depends on who is making the delivery. I've had some excellent ones, some average ones, and others who just put up the sticker without contacting me.
In this case does AC stand for air conditioner?
In my experience, usually on big shipments like air conditioners, FedEx and UPS prefer for you to pick it up at their warehouse. So if they made a mistake there, my guess is its a relatively recent policy change.
I spoke to my mailwoman the other day, and she told me USPS will be delivering the majority of the amazon prime packages. And what that told me is that the other companies are trying whatever they can to get that amazon order, even potentially guaranteeing delivery of 'AC's, when thats not something they would normally do.
For me UPS has been the weakest link in the otherwise marvelous Prime program.