
Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments - Judson
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-blocks-sellers-from-using-fedex-ground-for-prime-shipments-2019-12-16-15103614
======
dang
Related: [https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/12/analyst-amazon-delivering-
ne...](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/12/analyst-amazon-delivering-nearly-half-
its-packages-instead-of-ups-fedex.html)

via [https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/13/21020938/amazon-
logistic...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/13/21020938/amazon-logistics-
prime-air-fedex-ups-package-delivery-more-than-50-percent)

via
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21807021](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21807021)
(but no comments)

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bransonf
It’s to the point where I can’t blame Amazon for actions like these.

The consumer has come to expect guaranteed overnight or 2 day shipping. When
they don’t get that, they get really upset.

Amazon doesn’t want its customers to get upset, and it can’t trust its
shipping partners because they don’t have the burden of the consumer
sentiment. No one blames FedEx for their late package these days, they blame
Amazon. Heck, you don’t have to look hard to find product reviews that only
gripe with the shipping time or condition.

Amazon is going to vertically integrate shipping, no question. The market
demands it, and Amazon will probably eventually ship more packages than any of
its competitors. And, Bezos isn’t dumb, so he’ll build and sell this capacity
to others.

Amazon is reaching further and further into the economy, and I don’t see much
stopping them.

~~~
AgloeDreams

        Amazon is going to vertically integrate shipping, no question. The market demands it, and Amazon will probably eventually ship more packages than any of its competitors. And, Bezos isn’t dumb, so he’ll build and sell this capacity to others.
    

It AMAZES ME how unreported it goes that they are doing this right now. They
are doing it hilariously upfront and clearly. They bought massive amounts of
Sprinters for Amazon Delivery to non urban areas, they are rolling out
(classically urban only) Amazon delivery to areas near warehouses right now.

And then.. then. They went out and made an order for 100K Rivian delivery
vehicles, ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND. The headlines were all focused on the Tesla
factor and how they are electric and nobody bothered to ask.. 'Why?'. That's
like the number of trucks UPS Owns, PERIOD. That should have been the headline
'AMAZON ORDERS OWN FLEET TO REPLACE UPS, FEDEX' But nope 'Bezos bets on
electric with Rivian order'

~~~
chrisseaton
> It AMAZES ME how unreported it goes that they are doing this right now.

It don't think it's a secret. Why do you think it'd be a major story?

> nobody bothered to ask.. 'Why?'

Because they're doing logistics... everyone knows that. Have you never had an
Amazon logistics person deliver you parcel?

~~~
derefr
"Doing logistics" for one's own shipping, is a bit different than "trying to
subsume the role of FedEx/UPS in the economy." Certainly it's "only" a matter
of scale, but logistics-as-a-service (the business FedEx and UPS are in) is as
large a market as the one Amazon's already in, and you'd think clear signs of
them being ready to suddenly add another few hundred billion dollars to their
market cap would be reflected in e.g. investment people issuing new guidance
about them.

~~~
tptacek
I'm not seeing how these dots are hard to connect, since "for ones own
shipping" in Amazon's case seems equivalent to "for most consumer shipping".

~~~
jjeaff
Amazon packages supposedly account for less than 10% of packages shipped.

------
evadne
This is so strange.

\- FedEx is slated to report its latest quarterly results on Tuesday (17
December 2019). [http://investors.fedex.com/news-and-events/upcoming-
events/d...](http://investors.fedex.com/news-and-events/upcoming-
events/default.aspx)

\- FedEx ended two big contracts with Amazon earlier this year.
[https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/06/amazon-blames-holiday-
delive...](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/06/amazon-blames-holiday-delivery-
delays-on-winter-storms-and-high-demand.html)

Edit: I see many unhappy comments regarding FedEx here. In the UK we have
Parcelfarce, which has achieved meme status.

~~~
behringer
Fedex is the absolute worst. They're never on time and I can't even go to a
Fedex location to pick up my own fedex packages. They more or less simply get
returned to sender if they require any kind of signature.

I'm glad Amazon is finally putting a stop to it.

~~~
kilo_bravo_3
Fedex has gotten to the point that if I see a merchant that has an exclusive
arrangement with them (mainly suppliers for material I need to buy for work) I
try somewhere else.

Whenever I don't have a choice, they disappoint me.

Just last week, I had a Fedex shipment that was late. One of the reasons it
was late was that it passed through almost two dozen Fedex locations.

Seven in three days.

My package spent three days traveling from Coal City, IL (9:11am 11-Dec) to
Swatara Township, PA, (10:59pm 13-Dec) a distance of 741 miles, on an EPIC
UNFORGETTABLE 12-day adventure on its route from California to Maryland.

61.75 hours to travel 741 miles is an average speed of 12 mph.

Just a taste of the epic journey:
[https://i.imgur.com/C0NlH9K.png](https://i.imgur.com/C0NlH9K.png)

Anecdotes are nice but this happens so frequently I've given up on Fedex and
will only use them as a last resort.

I live in an area where Amazon Prime delivery is so fast that I swear that
sometimes they deliver the damned thing I order before I actually order it.

~~~
suresk
That's nothing - last week I had a package take 4 business days to travel a
total of 10 miles, as part of a longer 14 day journey.

It was most likely just sitting at their sorting center, which I can see from
my back window.

I don't know if there is something especially going wrong in my area, because
there was a news story about how bad FedEx has been - people needing medical
equipment and stuff that has been sitting for weeks.

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ceejayoz
Funny thing, though. If it were possible, I'd have Amazon block _their own_
shipping service, for the same reasons. I've asked, and it isn't permitted. In
my area, USPS/UPS have been rock solid, but ever since they largely switched
to their internal FBA, I've had late packages at least monthly.

It's clear they're buckling under the Christmas load, too. I've had over a
dozen items delayed thus far.

~~~
dylz
I've had some utterly ridiculous situations, like having an CCTV capture a
package being delivered, the driver taking a picture of the delivered package
for tracking, and then the driver leaving with it.

I've also had them deliver packages to the wrong apartment numerous times,
taking pictures of floor mats that don't even exist within a mile of me.

~~~
dawnerd
Yeah it's pretty clear the pictures is so Amazon can shrug when you say
something wasn't delivered. Like it's smart of them as I'm sure package theft
costs them a boatload of money.

But boy do their delivery people suck. The number of times they've called me
asking where I live... that's their job to figure out, not mine.

Kinda laughed the other day as my amazon delivery person was also delivering
postmates at the same time. No wonder they're not hitting their deadlines.

------
mikl
Amazon, that also runs its own competing package service
([https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/13/21020938/amazon-
logistic...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/13/21020938/amazon-logistics-
prime-air-fedex-ups-package-delivery-more-than-50-percent) ), pressuring
others to not use the services of a competitor.

Ah, remember when monopolists still feared the Sherman Act? Good times, eh?

------
marklabedz
If Amazon made it possible for a customer to pick (and pay for the presumed
incremental cost of) alternative carriers, they'd have a gold mine of data on
customer WTP and carrier quality at the local level.

~~~
sokoloff
I suspect that Amazon does not want to put additional cognitive load on the
purchaser right at the most critical point of the conversion funnel.

As a customer, I want a delivery time/date and let Amazon figure out how to do
it. They're presumably way better at it than I am. If Amazon fails at that, I
want to be able to complain without feeling like "oh, it was my fault because
I picked Rickshaw Bob as the carrier".

When Amazon would willy-nilly give away a month of Prime when a guaranteed
package was late, I would frequently _wish_ I could get a package over to Mail
Innovations or SurePost. Both would pretty reliably be late and for most
packages, I'd rather have the $10 credit.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> I suspect that Amazon does not want to put additional cognitive load on the
> purchaser right at the most critical point of the conversion funnel.

> As a customer, I want a delivery time/date and let Amazon figure out how to
> do it.

The big problem here is that Amazon no longer offers you the ability to pick
the delivery date. They'll tell you when your package will arrive, and you'll
suck it up.

It's a huge step backwards from the old system, where slow shipping was free,
two-day shipping was moderately priced, and one-day shipping was expensive.
(Or, with Prime, two-day shipping was free and one-day shipping was $7.99.)

Under normal circumstances, I don't care which delivery company drops off my
package. I might develop a preference if one of them is chronically late, or
usually damages the package[1]. But I _always_ care what the delivery date is!

[1] Guess what! Amazon's also stopped shipping individual books in boxes with
bubble padding. Now they come in manila envelopes. And they usually take
damage in transit from being squeezed by the envelope.

~~~
buzzerbetrayed
> The big problem here is that Amazon no longer offers you the ability to pick
> the delivery date. They'll tell you when your package will arrive, and
> you'll suck it up

But this isn't true. You can choose which day you want your package delivered.
That's the point of setting your "Amazon delivery day". What am I missing?

~~~
thaumasiotes
You're missing that I'm talking about delivery speed, not about scheduling
deliveries for a day when I'll plan to be at home.

------
Spooky23
Makes sense. Now I understand why UPS is delivering so late in my area,
including having guys hanging out of UHaul trucks.

FedEx ground is a dumpster fire, unless they are doing the smartpost thing
where USPS delivers. In my area, they are almost as bad as Laser.

~~~
throwaway9980
Egads! I thought nothing could approach the uselessness of LaserShip. I’ll
pray for packages good sir or madam.

~~~
umvi
The only time I ever had a package stolen was LaserShip

------
WBrad
I worked for Fedex ground for a while and I can't blame Amazon for this
decision. Fedex contracts their ground delivery out and the quality of service
is greatly affected by that. Some areas are great and some are awful. My
experience was working under an awful contractor who was near abusive in his
work requirements. If anyone has any questions I'm open to answer.

~~~
noobermin
Tbh I'm not sure Amazon is better wrt work requirements.

~~~
WBrad
They probably aren't. The reason distribution companies like Fedex and Amazon
contract their ground delivery out is the margins are too slim and they don't
want to deal with vehicle maintenance. So corners are cut by contractors to
actually make money in the deal. If there was a reasonable amount of money to
be made Amazon would be using regular employees.

------
cperciva
Good riddance. FedEx Ground has a 0% success rate for actually delivering
anything to me -- and when I complain, they tell me that if I want my package
I have to drive out to the airport to collect it (~45 minutes away).

UPS is only slightly better at delivering packages, but at least they drop off
my stuff at a pick-up location a few minutes away.

I would pay extra for an Amazon Prime Actually-Get-Stuff-Delivered service
which only uses Canada Post and Amazon's own delivery people.

------
petee
FedEx ground is the worst; they aren't the same company as FedEx Express, they
are locally operated instead (according to drivers I've talked with), and
quality varies by region. I've had drivers fake signatures and dump packages
at the door.

My last 3 shipments bounced around Chicago for 6 days, traveling 19 miles
total, and were finally delivered late

~~~
bagacrap
Actually Ontrac is the worst.

------
sh1mmer
I’m surprised there isn’t a comment yet about how this seems like monopolistic
behavior and Amazon should be look out for anti-trust probes for stuff like
this (at least I’d hope).

------
omfg
We had to switch to FedEx this year because Amazon overloaded UPS so much they
couldn’t get their overnight deliveries to the destination in time.

------
dobleboble
I don't understand how amazon can contract a local company to drive amazon
branded trucks, wear amazon branded clothing, and deliver exclusively amazon
packages, but somehow they are not considered an amazon company and do not
have to provide amazon level pay and benefits. Part of the cost of
USPS/FedEx/UPS are the good union protections. This is a large part of why I
am moving as much of my spending as possible away from amazon.

------
majormunky
As I sit here waiting for my new ultrawide alientware monitor, should have
been here Wednesday, now its Friday. Somehow they thought that going from
Whitefish, Montana, to Kennewick, WA, and then to Troutdale, OR, was faster
than just stopping in Spokane, WA.

------
BooneJS
FedEx has misplaced 3 packages in the last 3 weeks. One made it “on truck for
delivery today” before being sent to Ohio to replace a barcode. So weird.

~~~
JohnTHaller
I had 3 Amazon delivery ones get screwed up within a week (one of mine go
missing and two delivered here that weren't mine), so Amazon's in-house
service certainly can't be called 'better'

~~~
knolax
I once had an Amazon delivery to an Amazon Locker in an Amazon Store fail 3
times before they gave up.

~~~
ceejayoz
_That 's_ an email chain I'd have fun forwarding on to jeff@amazon.com.

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sitkack
This should bring monopoly abuse scrutiny upon them.

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outside1234
Queue the anti-trust trial. Only a question of mechanics now, especially since
Trump hates Bezos.

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dexmaxtron
I think Amazon is very stupid and they should not only complain about blocking
that other company but that they should do their best and their promises of
package arrivals

