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Amazon is Now a Bigger Shipper in the US than FedEx (axios.com) 58

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Amazon is not primarily known as a logistics company, but in 2020 the company shipped more parcels than FedEx. From a report: Logistics is a $1.5 trillion business -- and it has long been controlled by a handful of key players, like FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. Now Amazon is poised to conquer it. Amazon has 21% of the U.S. shipping market -- right behind UPS (24%) and ahead of FedEx (16%). The USPS remains dominant with 38%, and all other shippers account for just 1% of the market, according to Pitney Bowes, which tracks the global shipping and e-commerce industry. Amazon's rise is remarkable, as it had zero share of the U.S. shipping market as recently as 2014, and it relied on legacy shippers like FedEx and UPS for all of its deliveries. Since then, Amazon has poured resources into building a network of warehouses, trucks, planes and delivery drivers. As it strengthened its own shipping arm, Amazon took its business away from the other shippers. Now, the company is turning shipping from a cost to a source of revenue by offering its logistics capabilities as a service.
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Amazon is Now a Bigger Shipper in the US than FedEx More

Amazon is Now a Bigger Shipper in the US than FedEx

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  • At least in my neck of the woods. We routinely get notices - for packages that don't require any signature or special handling - that packages were not delivered because they "could not contact the customer".

    What this really means is the postal worker didn't want to get out of her mail truck to put the package on the porch.

    Sometimes they'll get magically delivered the next day, if a different person happens to be driving the mail truck. And sometimes they'll just get returned to the shipper as undeliverable

    • Fun!
      I like the USPS. They are the only ones that don't do that. I have had problems with both FedEx and UPS doing that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tailhook ( 98486 )

      I really can't wait until USPS is finally put out of our collective misery.

      The USPS is required by the US constitution. It's not going anywhere. The constitution doesn't mention anything about ensuring the service sucks as badly as it does, or that it's expected to provide gold plated benefits and pensions for multiple generations of early retirees. That's just implied when government runs stuff.

      • "The USPS is required by the US constitution."

        Technically not.

        Article I, Section 8 gave Congress the power "To establish Post Offices and post Roads" and “To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper” for executing this task.

        While the founding fathers thought the postal service was important enough to address in the Constitution, they didn't mandate it. The Constitution states "The Congress shall have power" "To establish Post Offices and post Roads". Nowhere does it state they were requ

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by uncqual ( 836337 )

          You are correct.

          One way to address this claim is to point out that Congress also has the power

          To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

          and

          To declare War

          Yet, no one claims that Congress is failing to meet their obligations if they don't borrow money because the budget is balanced and there is no debt (admittedly, they could borrow a token amount of $0.01 to fulfill that obligation if it were an obligation).

          Similarly, no one claims Congress is failing to meet their obligations if they don't have a

      • How much it sucks is very much a function bit region. I have never had a problem with them.

        Likewise, I think it is relatively good they are a constitutionally guaranteed entity. For one I think it gives mail fraud more teeth but also it's a simple fix to carrier services ever being fully monopolized.

        • By region or even by driver. Occasionally somebody's Ring doorbell cam will show a driver abusing a package, or even stealing it. I doubt that's primarily a function of whose uniform they are wearing.

          • Is this endemic in the US, people stealing from their neighbours?

            Just doesn't happen in the UK.

            You do get scalleys everywhere who do "mischief", but it's usually just shagging in the graveyard or drinking underage. In my village, in rural Lincolnshire, I've locked neither my back door, nor my car in over 20 years.

            Amazon (& other delivery drivers) just leave stuff in "safe" areas. Mine is small shed next to back door (always open) neighbours opposite have a large plastic, lidded, tub behind their trash c

            • If you have a nice job and home you are not going to risk it all for a mystery package off somebody's stoop, but the US has a lot of destitute people with nothing to lose.

            • Have you seen the Amazon Lockers? These were basically completely developed in relation to having packages stolen. I bet there are some services and also more CCTVs in UK to reduce this behavior more in areas where it could be a problem (e.g. inner city apartment buildings). This being said lots of the issue in Washington state and California were people stealing packages in the suburbs and so this is also the motivation behind ring doorbell cams. It's actually rather disgusting.

              On a related note, it's comm

    • "What this really means is the postal worker didn't want to get out of her mail truck to put the package on the porch."

      Did your (or any) mailman tell you this is their SOP, or are you just guessing that's what happened?

      You know, the USPS was so important the founders specifically addressed its creation in the Constitution. It's also the largest employer in the United States and still moves 170M+ pieces of first-class mail/day. You'd have an easier time getting the Coast Guard decommissioned.

      • I know this first-hand. On multiple uscheduled package delivery days (according to USPS’s own daily “USPS informed delivery” notification service) over the years, I have been home and watched the mail truck drive right by all our houses without stopping (note that we’re on a side road - there’s no reason for a mail truck to drive here other than home delivery).

        Then a few hours later I get the “unable to deliver” notification.

        Also when this happens, no other mail get

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by uncqual ( 836337 )

        According to Walmart's 2021 Annual Report [q4cdn.com], at the end of the fiscal year Walmart employed "1.6 million associates in the U.S." of which 94% were hourly and 64% were full-time.

        According to the Post Office [usps.com], they had 495,941 career employees as of September 30, 2020 - i.e., less than 1/3 as many as Walmart.

        Of course, this does not include contractors in either case but they are not "employed" by Walmart or USPS.

    • Re:USPS shipping is *horrible* (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Thursday October 21, 2021 @03:44PM (#61915229)

      Yeah who knew that cutting funds and putting a man in charge to sabotage things would result in poor service.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by deKernel ( 65640 )

        Are you trying to somehow imply that this poor behavior magically started in 2016 because if you are, you are mistaken. There service has been going down the tubes for many years before Trump was elected.

      • That has made things worse, but the USPS was shit before Trump. They are technically in last place, with primitive problems like routing loops going undetected for sometimes multiple return trips for the same package. I recently had a package mis-sorted and it went from China to (eventually) SF to Reno and back to SF and back to my house. Not long ago their primitive-assed website sent me a delivery notification for a package which had been delivered two weeks prior. In my prior address they wouldn't even c

    • Same in NH.

      After dicking around for more than a week I spoke to the Postmaster. He indicated that the mail lady doesn't like 40lb packages and gave it to another driver who got it there within hours.

      These union workers can't be fired for refusing to do their job. Results are as one might expect.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by cats-paw ( 34890 )

      That's funny, I was going to say the same thing about Fed-Ex and I live in a rather large city.
      USPS ? Never had a problem.
      UPS ? No problem.
      Fed-Ex , lot's of problems and it's not isolated. Many people we know have problems with them too.

    • the Republican party has been slowly gutting it for decades every chance they get. In 2016 they put DeJoy in charge of it and it wasn't "slowly" anymore. The Dems are weak in the knees so rather than pack the Postal Board to fire DeJoy they just let him run roughshod over things.

      I can already hear some people furiously typing up "but it's been bad for a long time!". This stuff started in the 70s folks and it's accelerated every year since.

      This is the country you voted for.
    • We frequently get reasons of "Could not access location" and "Receptacle Full" from USPS. We're rural, so my guess is it didn't fit in the mail truck -they are likely picking those reasons because blaming the customer won't damage their statistics, even though the reason is a lie. Every time they do it, I send a complaint to the local postmaster - Using a legit excuse of not enough manpower, truck not big enough, or whatever else would make it more likely they get the equipment and headcount needed to del

    • What this really means is the postal worker didn't want to get out of her mail truck to put the package on the porch.

      While I personally have not had such problems with the USPS, don't think this problem is unique to the USPS. I had that problem with FedEx. I ordered a large, heavy (but still manageable by one person) piece of furniture. The FedEx guy drove right past my house and never stopped. This happened again the next day. I finally got a FedEx supervisor on the phone (back when you could still manag

    • I once had a problem with getting Netflix DVDs delivered and left a frustrated message in the USPS website contact form not expecting any response. Local postmaster phoned me next day and I never had another problem. Another time I had a seller ship me something to the wrong address. I was able to go to the local sort center and a postal worker spent a solid twenty five minutes looking for and found my package as it was on the way back being returned nondeliverable. You would never get that help at the

  • Why did shipping companies start calling themselves "logistics"? It's like they were trying to claim they were adding some service beyond shipping, which they are not.

    • Same reason we call cow, beef. Someone thought that shipping was way too low brow. Needed a fancier sounding word.

      • > Same reason we call cow, beef.

        Beef can come from cows or bulls.

        Oddly enough the singular term for either is "cattle-beast". So 'beef' is cattle-beast meat, and a French import at that.

        Some very odd conserved forms of the basics of life exist in English. Abstract stuff changes more fluidly.

        Anyways, the Whos in Whoville eat roast beast for Christmas dinner.

    • Because shipping is part of logistics. Your question is like asking why Apple or Dell call themselves “electronics" companies.

    • UPS, at least, sells logistics software. It solves the traveling salesman problem for local service companies.

      I bet you could find that out from their website.

    • Re:Logistics? (Score:4, Informative)

      by MooseTick ( 895855 ) on Thursday October 21, 2021 @03:34PM (#61915185) Homepage

      UPS, FedEx, DHL and others do provide logistics. They will and do warehouse inventory, provide air and ocean cargo services, customs brokerage, and trade management tools and data.

      And they also do other things "beyond shipping".
      UPS has stores that offer "PO Box" type addresses, assists in packaging, passport photos and more.
      FedEx has FedEx Office locations that offer printing services, assists in packaging, passport photos and more.

      Both also let you send them a PDF and will print and ship the material wherever you want.

    • This song explains [youtu.be] "When it's planes in the sky for a chain of supply that's logistics"

    • It's like they were trying to claim they were adding some service beyond shipping, which they are not.

      They most definitely DO. Especially to businesses they provide a whole raft of logistics services and management

      • It's like they were trying to claim they were adding some service beyond shipping, which they are not.

        They most definitely DO. Especially to businesses they provide a whole raft of logistics services and management

        My wife runs a retail and wholesale business and UPS along with fedex and USPS mostly just screw up deliveries.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by uncqual ( 836337 )

      UPS does more than just "shipping".

      For example, they used to have (and may still have) a repair center for laptops. When you sent your Toshiba laptop for repair, only UPS employees touched it. UPS employees took it to their repair center right by the airport, UPS employees repaired it, and then UPS employees would take it to the airport and get it on a plane (perhaps a UPS plane) back to you. The goal was to get back in your hands quickly by handling the logistics of shipping, repair, parts, and return ship

  • They keep asking what I ordered. I didn't order anything, I wanted to send a package to my niece. Overall terrible experience. 1 out of 5.

  • Around here Walmart + FedEx will deliver packages much faster than Amazon + UPS.

    I've seen a package arrive in CT at 4am and be delivered in Central NH by 10:30am. That's hustle.

    • Walmart is weird, in a good way, in that I've placed an order on Walmart.com and had it show up the same day on my doorstep... no box, no slip that I noticed, a guy just drives up in a regular car and leaves the jugs of oil on my stoop, and bye-bye.

  • The only path to under $1 delivery is drone delivery.

  • My wife ordered something from someone in Richardson Texas (near Dallas) and paid for two day shipping. Not only was the package not delivered almost 4 days later, but FedEx routed the package from Richardson Texas through Memphis Tennessee. Richardson is only about a 5 hour drive from the Houston area. Memphis is around a 10 hour drive. There is even a giant FedEx warehouse west of Houston near where I live. We ended up filing a claim with the seller and got a full refund.
    • Nobody does it like USPS. Last year I ordered a few kitchen knives from a store in Kentucky. I am West coast. The package tracked to Puerto Rico, then to a second post office in Puerto Rico. It probably would have sat there until the next hurricane, but a shipper inquiry actually got the package out of Puerto Rico and to me quickly.

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