go back 2.5 years...a plain-clothed individual steps out of a personal vehicle in my driveway, trots to me on my lawn tractor in the deep corner of my property. I power down to hear him as he hands me a package I ordered a couple days prior. I asked who he was with, if it was UPS....nope, he explained that he's an Amazon employee on his way home from work and happened to see my package passing through, decided to hand-deliver; sort facility about an hour away.

I'm sorry but I do not believe that story. More so if it were to be true there's bigger issues I have problems with (safety, security, liability etc etc).

I have no reason to lie to you, heck I don't even know you so don't be sorry. I might not believe it either had I not lived it, but none-the-less--true story. At the time it took a few minutes to really sink in that it wasn't a commercial delivery service, but with motor running I returned to cutting the grass and popping a cold one to the setting sun!

So far, little more than a branding head fake…bb shot across an eyebrow window at best. Stealthy conquest of the big 2, in what kind of wet dream does that work?

Yea, I mean the established players never lose their way or falter. Just look at Sears, Woolworth's, USPS, Pan Am, Oldsmobile, Lehman Brothers, US Steel......I mean you'd think Amazon would know better than to try.

Good point. All I’m suggesting is; it can’t be done in secret and it can’t be done overnight. WAG? A series of moves underway to ramp up pressure on highly profitable delivery providers who are perceived to have them by the short hairs.

There is PLENTY of Amazon volume to go around.

I'd also guess that margins on Amazon parcels are pretty low for that reason.

It makes good business sense for Amazon to diversify their delivery vendors and to seek lower delivery costs. If they can spin up their own air delivery service using ATSG and accomplish both objectives then good for them - but I don't see them going away from third-party shippers for bulk movement and home delivery any year soon and I certainly don't see them challenging third-party shippers for outside business. Package delivery isn't web/cloud hosting - it is MUCH more capital/labor/regulation intensive and a far stretch from Amazon's core businesses.

But I've been wrong before...

Not really a good point. A quick google search of U.S. companies older than 100 years will put things back in perspective.

Amazon going into logistics/express deliver/freight would be the equivalent of Apple going into the ISP business, Starbucks growing its own coffee, Budweiser getting into the bar and restaurant market, etc. Do they just lack the genius of Bezos to do so? Amazon's foray into shipping is like Delta's into oil, a cost reducing strategy.

[EXCLUSIVE] Amazon building its own overnight airfreight operation, sources say | Cargo Facts

Where do we apply :D

Countless numbers of startup outfits have tried and FAILED in the last 25 years. ALMOST NONE of them are still around today. Many of them sounded like good business ideas ... in the end, none of that mattered. Bezos is a pretty smart guy! Is he smart enough?

Good luck!


:eek: