Amazon's massive nationwide hiring spree underway
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UPS, Fedex drop on Amazon own delivery service report
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https://www.ft.com/content/7a06f7e0-8e06-391d-9e4f-b31648d4bc9d
First it was brick and mortar retailers. Then it was grocers. Now Amazon is reportedly looking to disrupt the package delivery industry with its own in-house service. Shares in UPS and Fedex both fell more than 2 per cent in pre-market trading on Thursday after Bloomberg said Amazon is experimenting with a new delivery programme called “Seller Flex” in which the e-commerce juggernaut will pick up packages from third-party sellers on its website and deliver the goods to the consumers. Amazon has been making moves towards running its own delivery logistics network in recent years – filing patents for a drone delivery system, leasing planes, opening its own cargo air hub and buying a fleet of delivery trucks. But the Seller Flex service, which Bloomberg said has already started on a trial basis this year on the west coast with a broader roll-out planned in 2018, would mark Amazon’s boldest attempt yet to lessen its dependence on UPS and Fedex for the most crucial part of its appeal to shoppers – quick, reliable delivery. America’s addiction to online shopping was a boon for both UPS and Fedex with the surge in e-commerce related deliveries padding the companies’ bottom lines and sending their shares to fresh highs this year.
https://www.ft.com/content/7a06f7e0-8e06-391d-9e4f-b31648d4bc9d
Boxing Battle: Amazon Escalates; FedEx, UPS Falter
Bloomberg reports that Amazon is testing a new delivery service that will encroach deeper into the realms ruled by UPS and FedEx.
Bloomberg reports that Amazon is testing a new delivery service that will encroach deeper into the realms ruled by UPS and FedEx.
Bloomberg reported earlier today that the tech titan is testing a new delivery service called “Seller Flex” where it will pick up packages from third-parties selling goods on its site and deliver them to consumers.
Not surprising, shares of UPS and FedEx are down this morning, falling 1.6% and 0.7% respectively. This move has Amazon infringing further into services provided by both delivery services, which get a good chunk of business from e-commerce merchants.
Amazon could still use FedEx and UPS for deliveries. But Amazon, not the seller will decide how the package is delivered. According to the Bloomberg article, that gives Amazon gets more control over the last mile to the buyer’s front door, generates volume discounts, and helps prevent overcrowding in its own warehouses
A broader rollout is planned for next year. But Bernstein analyst David Vernon says that the service has some drawbacks.
This type of offering will have some takers, but broad adoption for two day delivery has constraints at both the small and high end of the market. Smaller vendors shipping smaller quantities will pay a cost penalty getting volume to Amazon (small volume), while larger vendors running larger fulfilment operations may see distance from a smaller number of facilities as constraining their ability to access the network. Where this offering could make sense is as a faster alternative to the UPS and FDX postal hybrid products (SurePost and Smartpost). Both UPS and FDX buffer volume and delay drop off to the USPS to lower the cost of making the stop at the USPS, while Amazon seems OK with running less full trucks more quickly to the USPS. Regardless, this program would seem to increase the workload on both the USPS and the nascent network of Amazon contractors further driving up inflationary cost pressure in the final mile. As far as discounts go, we don’t think more volume necessarily increases the discount received by Amazon – they are as low as they are going to go – but this could give Amazon a way to apply its discount to more volume provided UPS and FDX agree to it (which they may be less inclined to do).
This isn't the first time Amazon has made moves regarding delivery offerings. It is no secret that the e-commerce giant wants to wean itself off depending on the delivery networks of UPS and FedEx. Worries about the disruption threat facing both companies are growing, popping up occasionally on conference calls with analysts.
The battle is on.
http://www.barrons.com/articles/boxing-battle-amazon-escalates-fedex-ups-falter-1507211651
your orders will probably get there in one piece though. fedex and ups have been fucking up nonstop. i put in at least a dozen insurance claims a month.
Damn really? But you are out in the Bronx? I'd imagine y'all shit is way worse than down here.
ups is the worst. I be thinking damn did I fuck the delivery guy's ol lady or some shit. Why they mad at my boxes.
I figured that they would do this eventually. The unfortunate thing about this situation is they had FedEx, UPS and USPS eating good for a few years now.
The Post Office has not had to raise the price of stamps for a couple of years.
They was caked up due to the extra and increasing Amazon package volume.
When I saw a UPS driver roll up in a rented Uhaul truck with my Amazon delivery one Xmas.....I knew that it was a wrap.
Na Im in Florida living. I ship all over the country everyday and have had to not make them scan it in because they would not even scan it in. Its nuts how bad in general customer service has gotten.
Brooklyn May Be NYC’s Best Bet to Win New Amazon Headquarters
Brooklyn may emerge as an attractive lure in New York City’s long-shot bid to become Amazon.com Inc.’s new home.
The borough’s image as a hip hub for millennials could give it a leg up as the e-commerce giant hunts for the perfect locale for its second U.S. headquarters, according to Ofer Cohen, president of TerraCRG, a Brooklyn-based commercial-property brokerage. Brooklyn is in the midst of a building boom, with about 7 million square feet (650,000 square meters) of offices planned, as developers seek to leverage the area’s popularity with young people who have migrated across the East River to escape Manhattan’s sky-high rents.
“Everybody got excited in the Brooklyn real estate community” when Amazon announced its intentions, Cohen said. “Brooklyn has been waiting for a technology company to say, ‘I want to make Brooklyn my home.’”
Amazon, aiming to build a corporate compound that will rival its original campus in Seattle, has solicited proposals for the project, which will cost more than $5 billion and create 50,000 jobs over the next 15 to 17 years. New York City entered the fray last week, touting its big-city living, diverse workforce and extensive university system as attributes that officials hope will help overcome the drawback of being one of the country’s costliest housing markets.
Developers across New York are working to assemble their pitches, according to Seth Pinsky, an executive vice president at RXR Realty.
“This is a really exciting opportunity and I certainly hope, as a New Yorker, that Amazon looks very seriously at the city,” he said. “No landlord or developer is going to ignore a request like the one Amazon has put out.”
Industry City
Brooklyn’s boosters say the large amount of space under development may entice Amazon to put down stakes in the borough, which has so far come up short in its effort to attract big-name companies. As of May, not one non-government employer had signed a lease for more than 100,000 square feet, a typical minimum size for a building’s anchor tenant, since mid-2015.
There are several sites in Brooklyn that could potentially meet Amazon’s need for 500,000 square feet for the first phase, and as much as 8 million square feet over the next 10 years, according to Cohen. Possibilities include Industry City, a complex on the Sunset Park waterfront being redeveloped as a hub for artists, tech startups and manufacturers; the nearby Brooklyn Army Terminal; and undeveloped land between the Barclays Center arena and the Fulton Mall, he said.
At Industry City, Atlanta-based Jamestown and its partners have become landlords to 450 businesses, up from 100 since acquiring the neglected industrial plot in 2013, according to Andrew Kimball, chief executive officer of Industry City. The 35-acre (14-hectare) site is well-positioned to meet Amazon’s need for space, especially if neighboring sites along the waterfront were to be integrated in a unified project, he said.
Young Talent
One of the biggest draws for businesses relocating from Manhattan and other areas is that Brooklyn is where the young talent wants to live, according to Kimball. In many cases, companies discover that many of their employees already reside there, he said.
In Williamsburg, Rubenstein Partners’ Jeremiah Kane is making the case for a speculative office building his firm is co-developing. The project, 25 Kent, will have 500,000 square feet -- exactly what Amazon says it needs for the first phase of its new headquarters. Banding with other local developers, he’s suggesting to the city that Brooklyn’s western waterfront can accommodate the rest of the tech giant’s expansion plans.
“We started looking at Amazon’s requirements and started looking at what type of campus they built for themselves in Seattle, and the parallels with Brooklyn are really uncanny,” including its walkable streets, vibrant urban environment and plentiful restaurants, he said.
While New York has an extensive mass-transit network -- cited by Amazon as one of its preferences -- the city’s subways are already overcrowded and in need of repairs. The L train, with direct access to Williamsburg, is scheduled to shut down for 15 months starting in April 2019, about when Amazon would like to start settling into its new locale.
An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.
Deal Breaker?
New York City can probably find enough space to make it competitive in the bidding, according to Albina Reydman, an analyst at CoStar Group Inc. for the Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island markets. But there’s one thing that can’t be changed: affordability.
“At the end of the day, the deal breaker -- if there is one -- would be cost of living. That’s something that you can’t really get around,” she said.
Other cities that have announced their interest in Amazon, such as Chicago or Denver, have a lot of the cultural benefits that draw people to New York, and housing costs that are far cheaper. Average monthly apartment rents are $2,400 in Chicago and $1,600 in Denver, according to Reydman. That compares with $3,800 in downtown Brooklyn and $4,300 in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, she said.
“Yes, there’s art, there’s culture, there’s all these great things in Brooklyn, but in order for your employees to benefit from that, they need to be making enough money,” Reydman said. “Making enough money to benefit from these things in Brooklyn and New York is different than making enough money to afford it in Chicago
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...st-bet-for-nyc-to-win-new-amazon-headquarters
I think that some city in Georiga gets this.
Could Amazon resist the call of Amazon, Georgia?
Oct 3, 2017 4:47 PM EDT
STONECREST, Ga. - Officials from a recently incorporated city outside Atlanta want to shed some of their new municipality's land and rename it Amazon, Georgia, in the hopes it will spur e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) to locate its second headquarters there.
The Stonecrest City Council voted 4-2 on Monday to de-annex 345 acres of land and to ask the Georgia General Assembly to use it to form the city of Amazon, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
"How could you not want your 21st century headquarters to be located in a city named Amazon?" asked Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary.
Oh damn......it is terrible man...I'm shocked Amazon has gotten away with this for this long.
Dats turrible. I thankfully never had that issue.
Does anyone proof-read articles anymore? I see a lot of mistakes like this on ESPN's site but I thought Barron's was a respectable publication.
I see they're hiring more employees that don't know how to fucking count. Fucking idiots.
Ive worked in a distribution center. Trust me, that is not a job you want unless you don't have many other options. That shit is slave work..even more so than UPS.
Amazon is shipping me another package for free
They are also trying to block Lasership from delivering packages to me in the future.
Amazon support laughed when they saw the trackingThey forced Lasership to do and investigation.
They are also trying to block Lasership from delivering packages to me in the future.Amazon support laughed when they saw the tracking
They forced Lasership to do and investigation. Look at this bullshit
lasership tracking
10/08/2017 8:17 pm Order has been delivered Left At: Front Door
10/08/2017 8:16 pm Out for Delivery to recipient
10/08/2017 8:15 pm Loaded onto vehicle
WTF
They teleport now
Amazon reportedly wants one-time access to your home for deliveries
They’re also thinking about a system allowing them to drop off packages in your trunk.
They’re also thinking about a system allowing them to drop off packages in your trunk.
The extensive lengths Amazon goes to deliver packages can be stymied by a different kind of last-mile problem: Thieves nabbing stuff left on the doorstep. To combat these so-called 'porch pirates,' Amazon is considering a new program that would give its delivery employees one-time access to your car trunk or even inside your home, sources told CNBC. But Amazon has been toying with these ideas for years, making it uncertain whether either idea will make it to consumer deliveries soon.
For car deliveries, Amazon is in talks with Phrame, which makes smart license plates with a key-storing compartment unlocks via smartphone. Then users can remotely grant a delivery person access for them to pop open the trunk. Amazon is also toying with a smart doorbell that would recognize and allow delivery persons to enter on a one-time basis.
Amazon started trying out trunk deliveries in a pilot program back in 2015, following up on Volvo's trial the year before. Reports surfaced a year later in September 2016 that two companies connected to the shipping giant, smart lock maker August and garage door firm Garageio, were both exploring allowing delivery persons temporary entry into homes to drop off packages. Like those earlier news points, Amazon's latest forays into house or trunk delivery were only reported via unnamed sources, so it's unclear how seriously the company is considering these alternative methods.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/10...s-to-your-home-for-deliver/?sr_source=Twitter
Every time I order some shit from Amazon and they use their own delivery service I end up getting my money back and the item because their dumb ass delivery drivers always leave my shit outside. I call them and say I never got it...the refund my paper and I enjoy the item I picked up from outside my door
I love Amazon
I hate them. Fuck Amazon for using themWaiting on a same day package today that was suppose to be delivered yesterday. Its says delivered on the website
LaserShip, Amazon’s New Shipping Partner, Might Be the Most Hated Company on the Internet
There are certain industries that inspire outsize amounts of rage when they screw up. Airlines are one. TV providers are another. But angry comment for angry comment, there may be no more rage-inducing business than package delivery. If you want to garner widespread customer fury, just deliver a package late or damaged and wait for the storm to roll in. LaserShip — an Uber-like service that delivers packages for Amazon, Walmart, and Sephora, among others — might just be the most hated company on the internet. Some comments, helpfully gathered by the criticism website LaserShit.com:
LaserShip — and the ocean of dissatisfied customers it leaves in its wake — is an inevitable result of stratospheric growth. Reliable shipping companies like FedEx, UPS, and the USPS aren’t able to deliver all of the same-day, next-day, and two-day packages that Amazon’s Prime customers are paying for, and the infrastructure just isn’t there to do it as cheaply and efficiently as Amazon needs. That’s led to parasitic companies popping up to take advantage of Amazon’s need for cheap, fast package delivery. The poster child might just be LaserShip.
Amazon uses a variety of ways to get people their packages. Because its volume is so huge, an algorithm automatically chooses the best available option between the USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon’s own Flex delivery service, and any of several companies Amazon calls DSPs, or delivery-service providers. Customers can’t select which shipping service they’d prefer; there’s too high a chance that one of those companies is maxed out on how many deliveries it’s making, or that the cost for Amazon would be too high. A same-day delivery done by FedEx could cost Amazon $50, according to Kevin Porter, who has worked for LaserShip, FedEx, and UPS as a courier. So Amazon sources cheaper options. One of those is LaserShip.
Twitter and many message boards, including posts on Amazon’s own forums, are full of complaints about LaserShip. Packages aren’t delivered. Packages are delivered late — this is more troubling given that Amazon often claims a strict delivery window of the same day, the next day, or in two days — or are left outside. Packages are marked as delivered and not delivered. Packages are delivered to the wrong address. Packages are often just completely lost. (The message for that one is, “LaserShip is unable to confirm control of your package at this time.”) Sometimes, an error will show up on the tracking page: “Parcel damaged and will be discarded.” Customers who attempt to contact LaserShip report being totally unable to solve their problems; they are better off contacting Amazon or whichever company they originally purchased their item from.
There are thousands of complaints about LaserShip. Do a Twitter search for the company’s name and you’ll find dozens of tweets per day, essentially none of them positive. (There’s a slight bias there; when was the last time you tweeted that the mail got to you on time? Still, though.) A single one of the threads on Amazon’s forums about LaserShip has nearly 6,500 posts, with more added frequently. Yelp reviews of a facility in New Jersey — one star out of five, 192 reviews — are almost entirely from people who have just had packages delivered, or not delivered, by LaserShip. Few people seem to have actually interacted with the New Jersey facility in any direct way. There’s even a Change.org petition for Amazon to stop using LaserShip.
LaserShip was started in 1986 as a document-delivery service, but within a few years, landed Barnes & Noble as a client during the dot-com boom. Ever since, the company has expanded from its Vienna, Virginia, headquarters, just outside Washington, D.C., to deliver to most of the East Coast. The company, despite its age, is structured like a sharing-economy service: Its couriers are independent contractors, not employees, and those couriers must use their own cars and pay for all expenses, including gas and repairs. Couriers for LaserShip are paid by the package; Porter told me that he was paid between $2 and $4 per package earlier this quarter.
But to make its service affordable, LaserShip cuts corners at every available opportunity. (The company did not return multiple requests for comment.) “Their equipment sucked,” said one former employee who asked to remain anonymous. “It was hard to do our job with bad supplies.” The handheld scanners, said this employee, frequently broke down and were hard to use. The routes, set up by LaserShip employees, were often wrong or incomplete. The company delivers in major cities, but unlike the USPS, does not get apartment codes or keys, meaning that packages are often left outside to be stolen or damaged.
Again, unlike Amazon’s Flex service, which pays its similarly structured couriers by blocks of time, the LaserShip couriers are paid by the package, which encourages them to make as many deliveries as possible in the shortest amount of time. There are many videos of LaserShip couriers throwing fragile packages out of car windows in the general direction of houses.
“I saw piles of packages that weren’t delivered,” says the anonymous former LaserShip courier. They would sit in those piles for days, the courier said, sometimes never actually leaving the facility, and eventually marked as “undeliverable.” One of the most common errors that LaserShip commits — marking an item as delivered when it has not been — makes more sense in that context; couriers have a financial incentive to simply claim an item was delivered and deal with the consequences later, if there are any.
Partly, the problem is also due to the apparent lack of screening or training for couriers. “LaserShip has the worst drivers. No training. All independent contractors,” says Porter, who delivered packages in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. An anonymous LaserShip courier conducted a Reddit AMA where he claimed many drivers had a limited understanding of English, which could impact their ability to navigate a route. “They will hire anybody (seriously) you don’t even have to know a lick of english. Have a car and drivers license? Bam you’re hired,” he wrote. Pay seems to vary; couriers I spoke to reported wages ranging from $500 per week to $1,500 per week, though that’s before gas and wear-and-tear on the courier’s car, which can cost hundreds of dollars each week.
LaserShip primarily handles the most demanding aspects of delivery, while simultaneously being the least capable of performing that job. The company often delivers same-day packages or provides extra deliveries during peak periods like the Christmas season, according to former couriers I spoke to. Several former couriers also said that some blame might lie with Amazon, that packages LaserShip is supposed to deliver do not actually arrive to the LaserShip dispatch centers. Whether that problem lies with Amazon or with the path that packages take from an Amazon distribution center to a LaserShip dispatch is not clear.
LaserShip has also been embroiled in several lawsuits. The company settled a 2014 lawsuit for $800,000 after Massachusetts couriers accused the company of misclassifying them as independent contractors instead of employees. A New York lawsuit accused the company of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by making unlawful deductions to their wages, failing to pay wages, and failing to pay overtime when the couriers worked in excess of 40 hours per week.
Amazon declined to give me an on-the-record interview about LaserShip, but did provide the following statement: “Across the U.S., small and medium sized businesses provide work opportunities to thousands of individuals who deliver packages to Amazon customers. These businesses have their own employees and are required to abide by applicable laws and Amazon’s Supplier Code of Conduct, which focuses on fair wages, benefits, appropriate working hours and compensation. Safety and customer trust are our top priorities, which is why we require delivery service providers to conduct comprehensive background checks for their employee drivers.”
What I learned from the LaserShip employees, as well as customers, suggests that LaserShip is not conducting anything like a “comprehensive background check,” which may be in violation of the company’s contract with Amazon. In any case, frequent LaserShip victims recommend that Amazon customers opt for two-day shipping — usually done through big, respectable organizations like the USPS and FedEx, which Porter says “babysits” their packages — rather than same-day or next-day shipping, which might be shipped through LaserShip. To take the step of opting for a slower delivery in order to ensure that your package arrives at all feels crazy, but this is all a result of a nation-state company like Amazon growing so fast; the infrastructure of existing delivery services is not capable of doing what Amazon needs. The weird little parasites like LaserShip are a species that’s found a niche in the market wherein Amazon doesn’t really have much of a choice but to put up with them. Customers, though, don’t seem all that eager to do the same.
http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/09/...mpaign=select-all&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1
lol
everything said here is kinda basically true.
when i walk into the hub in the morning all you smell is weed. several contractors are hiring idiots who aren't trying to grow for themselves and are happy making about 800-1000 a week. dirty, high, drunk sometimes, no insurance, fucked up attitudes, not giving a fuck. the majority are hispanic workers but they are the one's doing most of the work.
i have witnessed packages sit for days. hell on one of my routes i constantly keep getting the same packages over and over that are for a completely different route other than one of mines everyday for weeks now. hell i had something from temu that was supposed to be delivered to me from lasership and it was lost LMAO
To get in as a contractor is practically simple. pass a piss test and have the right insurance policy and vehicle and you're definitely in.
the scanners they stopped using cuz they were garbage and they switched over to a phone app which isn't much better. when i go on the road i can average 30-40 packages an hour but the way the apps been fucking up lately driving you all over the place i'm lucky on some days to get 15 an hour done.
Depending on where you live it, they pay you OK but I can’t deal with Amazon because they treat you like shit. Even if I was looking for a job I heard they are laying off a bunch of people anyway right now. God, please let me retire as a senior technician from this telecom company or won the lottery
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