The e-commerce giant continues to grow its delivery network by building relationships and thinking outside the box.
Amazon appears to be improving its efficiency by brokering a deal with Mercury Gate International to add capacity involving Amazon-owned and third-party trailers. The move is also designed to integrate a network of independent drivers to move truckload freight. And with the other hand, Amazon is enlisting the help of mom-and-pop stores and restaurants to facilitate last-mile deliveries in rural areas.
Mercury Gate is essentially a software vendor that focuses on transportation management systems (TMS). Its products help logistics professionals maximize equipment in a way that can turn many less-than-truckloads into full truckloads. That could be a cost and efficiency game-changer as nearly 200 million people make purchases through the platform on a monthly basis.
“As Earth’s most customer-centric company, we’re always working on new ways to make shipping as simple and reliable as shopping on Amazon.com,” Amazon Freight’s vice president, Hannah McClellan, reportedly stated. “Mercury Gate has a strong reputation for being a technological leader in the transportation space, with a feature-rich platform and a focus on usability. When searching for an inaugural TMS partner, their platform and software solutions were a natural fit with our values and service offering — adding one more way for us to meet shippers where they are to help optimize how they move freight.”
Upgrading its logistical precision is yet another way Amazon maintains its overwhelming market share dominance. The global corporation employs more than 400,000 truck drivers and owns 40,000 semi-trucks and 30,000 trailers. Rather than focus on developing a singular fleet such as Walmart and Target, Amazon Freight Partners enlists independent trucking outfits and owner-operators to transport goods. The company also works with more than a half-million last-mile drivers to complete doorstep deliveries.
In urban and suburban areas, Amazon has been able to deliver products in a short window. Rural areas have proven a greater challenge. Now the world’s largest retailer is partnering with America’s smallest businesses.
An initiative called the Amazon Hub Delivery Partner gives mom-and-pop operations a last-mile side hustle. The program offers small businesses in rural communities an opportunity to add to their business earnings by acting as a hub for e-commerce deliveries. People living outside town centers would receive packages quicker, driving revenue flows into the municipality, and Amazon affirms itself and Prime Membership as the e-commerce leader.
“The appeal is diversifying the business and also creating jobs for people in the community. That’s something we care about, and it’s been really good for my jobbers,” one Alabama business owner reportedly said. “Small towns are not used to that. Customers have been very thankful for that.”
Sources: dcvelocity.com, bizjournals.com, vox.com
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