whalesurfer

...Within a few weeks, Amazon.com will begin competing directly with longtime partners United Parcel Service, FedEx and DHL.
But not in the United States. At least, not yet...

...Amazon wants to build out its own U.S. cargo operations to avoid delays from carriers such as UPS and FedEx, which have, at times, struggled to keep up with the rapid growth of e-commerce. This past holiday season, FedEx failed to deliver some Christmas packages on time, blaming inclement weather and a surge in last-minute holiday shopping. Two years earlier, it was UPS that struggled with the crush of holiday shipping...


Amazon?s delivery ambitions take on industry giants | The Seattle Times

MaxKts

So, Amazon is building a church for Easter!

METO Guido

"Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? Watch it. Now, my straw reaches acroooooooss the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I... drink... your... milkshake! I drink it up."

Daniel Plainview…There Will Be Blood

whalesurfer

This was just an article and who knows what the future holds?

My extremely uneducated guess is that within 5-7 years Amazon will be doing most, if not all, of their domestic deliveries on their own.. They've been hiring IT managers from ups (and I believe dhl too?) left and right, apparently some of the it folks were very talented in their respective fields. Jeff Bezos is a brilliant and a ruthless entrepreneur, he'll try to excel at this too.
Call me crazy but I wouldn't be surprised if Fred Smith were to sell, let's say a 50% stake of FDX to Amazon and allocate part of his fleet to Amazon deliveries, at least during big holidays. He's about to retire and is looking for a way to secure FDX's legacy in the "new" commerce world..
Either way, presently FDX has very little exposure to Amazon, ups does. Almost every business venture Fred and Jeff have put their hands on turned into a success story. On the other hand, big brown has been "excelling" at shrinking the operation into oblivion for the short term payoffs and dividends.
We'll see what the future holds.. :-/

max8222

I am interested in how Amazon flying their own planes would have flown into the airports that FedEx did not make it into due to thunderstorms and tornadoes? Maybe severe pilot pushing? Or how about his use of Uber type drivers delivering to the homes when the roads are icy? You think someone is going to risk their own car and safety to make sure little Johnnies skate board gets delivered over night. Sounds uniformed and unrealistic.

Sideshow Bob

On the other hand, Silicon Valley is littered with masterminds who have failed. Steve Jobs had some flops as has Elon Musk, both of which had/have a couple dozen IQ points on Bezos.

So much of the buzz is that the tech press adores Bezos and Amazon on what amounts to political/philosophical grounds. The hipster class, who thinks that all APPs and streaming content...indeed internet access should be free applauds Bezos as all so progressive because Amazon makes little profit and Jeff's salary is so low, as if he "cares" about the "little guy". The stock price is all about potential as opposed to the current balance sheet, not unlike how climate change is based on computer models always talking about 50 years from now.

Many of these "experts" know little or nothing about shipping and even less about aviation. If you mentioned "slots" they'd say you were talking about putting more RAM in their home built PC. If you mention "hub" efficiencies they'd think racks of routers.

UPS and FDX have built and refined their systems over decades, populated by guys in the hard core trucking industry that aren't just going to roll over for the hipster dufus golden boy who thinks he's infallible. And there are other retail giants out there like Wal Mart who won't just secede the world to Jeff because all the pimple faced geeks say Bezos is going to rule the world.

Hype is sparkly and novel...business is brutal.

md11retiree

FWS is about to retire? Ha ha ha! The FedEx BOD just raised the mandatory retirement age to 75 last Spring to accommodate Fred. You'll probably retire before Chairman Smith.

whalesurfer

Wasn't aware of that and all I can say is CONGRATS! Really! That's great news. I remember watching an interview a few years back, I think it was on Bloomberg tv, and I thought he said he'd like to retire in 5 years?
However him staying on is the best thing FDX pilots could possibly hope for. I'd take his worst of the worst decisions over the best ones brown manglers have managed to screw up.. Menlo, Post Office contract, DHL, TNT, etc.... ..and yet the (obviously WRONG) decision makers' bonuses only got fatter while pilots and mechanics got furloughed and/or laid off!

Waldorf

*** are you talking about?

Waldorf

Either quit drinkin and postin or doin crack and Postin. Dumbest post Ive seen in a while.