Originally Posted by aerospacepilot

If I have learned one thing from reading the biographies of Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs, it is that their company strives to control the entire customer experience from start to finish.

One place that Amazon has never had control over is the shipping segment. Amazon controls everything from the website where you make your purchase to when the distribution center puts your package on a UPS or USPS truck. But they have no control over it from that time until it reaches your door step. That will change someday.

Just look at what happened with UPS this Christmas. Although it was ultimately UPS that screwed up, Amazon will no doubt receive some of the blame as it did not deliver their packages as promised.

UAV's in the national airspace are coming. There's a congressional mandate requiring the FAA to study it and then make it happen. Do you need to worry about this tomorrow? No. 5 years from now? Not really. But at some point in the future, I can see UAV's being used for shipping a reality. Like anything else, there will be some market segments where it makes sense (premium dollar, fast delivery), and probably some segments where it still may be cheaper to deliver by truck (large furniture that isn't time sensitive). And there is always the possibility that FedEx and UPS can jump into that market too.