
Amazon expands its air cargo fleet - artsandsci
https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/18/amazon-expands-air-cargo-fleet-with-15-more-planes-will-have-70-planes-by-2021/
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W-Stool
Here's a scenario that gives me pause: you as a company goes all in to re-
engineer your critical apps to use AWS as efficiently as possible. Your apps
are now no longer portable away from AWS without a lot of time and work.

Then Amazon enters your business space in direct competition to you. Through
your business with AWS you are now funding a large, fierce, and direct
competitor.

Anyone else think of this, or am I just being paranoid?

~~~
ProAm
This is what Amazon does. See Amazon Basics? Sellers sell on Amazon, Amazon
tracks what sells well, enters market with same cheaper product and puts you
out of business.

You are doing a large part of the market research for your competitors by
using cloud services and platforms. You just pray they are good actors and
ethical.

~~~
Stratoscope
> See Amazon Basics? Sellers sell on Amazon, Amazon tracks what sells well,
> enters market with same cheaper product and puts you out of business.

Or they contract with you to sell a private label version of your own product.

For example, Ergotron makes a very nice quality monitor arm:

[https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00358RIRC/](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00358RIRC/)

Amazon Basics has a monitor arm that looks just like the Ergotron, except it's
all black instead of silver and black.

[https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00MIBN16O/](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00MIBN16O/)

I have a couple of the Amazon arms. The reason they look the same is because
they are made by Ergotron. It says so right on the box:

 _Ship From: Ergotron Inc - Private Brands - US_

~~~
jjeaff
Sure, they partner with you and force you to sell the same thing for less
money, with less brand recognition.

All under the implied threat that if you don't partner with them, they will go
to a competitor and push that product before yours.

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makerofspoons
Increased use of airplanes is one factor in why US greenhouse gas emissions
grew last year after years of decline: [https://www.vox.com/energy-and-
environment/2019/1/11/1817711...](https://www.vox.com/energy-and-
environment/2019/1/11/18177118/airlines-climate-change-emissions-travel)

~~~
airstrike
U.S. airlines != Amazon cargo. How do you propose Amazon ship their products?
Rail?

Amazon is effectively just replacing UPS / FedEx. In the long run, the net
result to society is the same whether UPS, FedEx or Amazon flies the plane
(assuming every plane operates at the same capacity and have equal fuel
efficiency). The pollution from these planes is a function of how much people
shop online, not which company flies the plane.

~~~
reaperducer
_How do you propose Amazon ship their products? Rail?_

Amazon ships by rail already. I see Amazon Prime-branded trailers on flatbed
rail cars tearing across the country all the time. And the number of Prime-
branded tractor trailers I see on the highways between cities has grown
exponentially in the last year or so.

~~~
0xffff2
Sure. Honestly, how much utility does 2 day shipping really have? Is it really
enough to justify the increased emissions of flying a package across the
country instead of using a more efficient method?

Of course that's not really Amazon's problem. We really need more reasonable
taxes on fossil fuels that make it cost-prohibitive for Amazon to rely on air
shipping.

~~~
justaguyhere
_We really need more reasonable taxes on fossil fuels that make it cost-
prohibitive_

And more awareness among consumers - how often do we need same day/next day
delivery? I bet not that often

It would be nice for consumers to support local businesses instead of always
buying from mega corporations...

~~~
alanbernstein
I'm well aware of the environmental costs of these decisions. For a while, I
avoided online shopping, for a number of reasons. One day, a few years ago, I
drove to four or five different stores in my city to try to find some specific
hardware product, where physical fit was important. I did not find it. Then I
searched online, and found an answered buyer question that made it clear that
the thing would work for me. After this, my online shopping ramped up a lot.
What's worse? 45 minutes of driving an old car, or .01% of the freight volume
of an 18-wheeler over hundreds of miles?

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Bokanovsky
I wonder if Amazon will offer any up any spare freight capacity on their
planes? After all if they're not using they can always sell that capacity.

~~~
turtlegrids
A logical eventual extension of
[https://freight.amazon.com/](https://freight.amazon.com/)

~~~
Bokanovsky
That makes sense. I wonder how much a slot would cost compared to regular
airfreight? I'm not even sure how much the regular Amazon freight service
costs compared to regular truck freight.

~~~
petra
According to recent news, Amazon freight is about 30% cheaper.

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Theodores
Since they own the planes can they move stock around rather than packaged
parcels, doing the boxing at the remote end?

If they could do this then they could pack so much more stuff on the planes
than a commercial parcels company could.

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xutopia
I am scared at the scale that a single company can have nowadays. This is
astounding!

~~~
pjc50
This isn't much compared to the Korean chaebol - have you seen how much stuff
Samsung really make?

~~~
pie420
lol, samsung is worth a third of what Amazon is worth. Apple could buy
Samsung. Samsung is a big company, but Google, Microsoft, amazon, and Apple
are in a whole different league

~~~
Theodores
Stuff made, not market cap.

It depends on big and how you define it. For instance Samsung has getting on
for three times as many employees as Apple. Plus they actually make stuff
rather than just get some other company to do it for them.

The stock market values companies precisely because they don't have the
liability of employees that make stuff. Personally I value companies that do.

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sct202
I'm surprised they're pushing this out so fast considering one of their planes
crashed outside of Houston fairly recently.

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peter303
Techies who dont have Prime and dont buy something every week, please raise
your hands.

Five hours later: still waiting for first hand.

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compsciphd
drove down from Palo Alto to San Diego up to LA yesterday and I passed so many
amazon 18 wheelers. they were by far the most prevelent of a single "trucking
company" that I saw (there were a handful of others that I saw more than one
truck of, but must have seen at minimum 5-10 amazon trucks)

~~~
djsumdog
They're pretty much the new Wal-Mart.

~~~
HillaryBriss
Wal-Mart also wants to be the new Amazon

[https://wwd.com/business-news/financial/amazon-walmart-
top-e...](https://wwd.com/business-news/financial/amazon-walmart-top-
ecommerce-retailers-10383750/)

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tomschlick
Omega Co is expanding.

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ChuckMcM
Bet they could get a great deal on lightly used 737-MAX planes available from
these sellers. (insert Amazon Marketplace link :-))

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yread
MAX doesn't have a freighter conversion program yet though.

~~~
ChuckMcM
This is the company that famously turned doors into desks. [1]

1 [https://blog.aboutamazon.com/working-at-amazon/how-a-door-
be...](https://blog.aboutamazon.com/working-at-amazon/how-a-door-became-a-
desk-and-a-symbol-of-amazon)

~~~
ambicapter
Well, desks don't fly through the air at 500 mph with ~hundred tons of cargo
aboard :/

~~~
zhte415
Well, Steve Ballmer never worked at Amazon.

* Ducks, I'm going to take a karma hit for this _

