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Businesses United States Technology

Amazon To Take On UPS, FedEx Via 'Shipping With Amazon' (arstechnica.com) 60

Posted by BeauHD from the do-it-yourself dept.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon is planning to take on UPS and FedEx with a new shipping service named "Shipping with Amazon" (SWA). The new service will reportedly roll out in Los Angeles in the coming weeks. Ars Technica reports: Aside from first starting in LA, SWA will first serve third-party merchants that already sell on Amazon. The company plans to send drivers to pick up shipments from these businesses and deliver the packages for them. While shipping and delivery will mostly go through Amazon, anything outside of the retailer's reach will be given to the USPS and other shipping services for the "last mile" portion of the delivery. In the future, Amazon reportedly wants to open up SWA to businesses that aren't affiliated with the site -- meaning Amazon could ship and deliver packages from companies of all sizes. Amazon also believes it can compete with UPS and FedEx by making SWA more affordable for business customers, but its pricing structure hasn't been revealed.
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Amazon To Take On UPS, FedEx Via 'Shipping With Amazon' More

Amazon To Take On UPS, FedEx Via 'Shipping With Amazon'

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  • Yeah right (Score:4)

    by Toshito ( 452851 ) on Friday February 09, 2018 @07:30PM (#56098013)

    It will probably be more "dropping your valuable item on your front porch in view of everyone - by Amazon"

    • It will probably be more "dropping your valuable item on your front porch in view of everyone - by Amazon"

      Solution: Put a lock box on your porch, bolted to the concrete.

      I have had one for years. The delivery guys always use it.

      It only works for the first delivery of the day, but I have never had a stolen package.

      I also have a locking mailbox [amazon.com]. The mailperson can put mail in, but I use a key to get it out.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        Could you post where you live? No seriously that way everyone can avoid living there. I can leave a $20k roller cabinet full of tools sitting in my front yard and nobody will even touch it.

        • You must live in a real shit hole that no one wants to go to. Or, on the flip side, you are the poorest in a rich neighbourhood.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Mashiki ( 184564 )

            You must live in a real shit hole that no one wants to go to. Or, on the flip side, you are the poorest in a rich neighbourhood.

            Think you got that backwards. If I can leave something out and people don't steal it because it's not nailed down, doesn't make it a shithole or 'poorest in a rich neighborhood.' Try thinking on this really hard and you should figure out where you went wrong.

  • to avoid this all-compassing octopus....
    Any search for something you do on a search engine, this name pops up on top. Me hates it!

    Convenience is one thing, to do the right thing is something else and our world would be a different place..

  • Can they doo eet ??? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Will be intresting if Amazon can out-logistics UPS & USPS ...

    i dont think they can but will be an interesting endeavor to watch .

    • Re:Can they doo eet ??? (Score:4, Informative)

      by darkain ( 749283 ) on Friday February 09, 2018 @07:59PM (#56098163) Homepage

      Have you actually seen the internals of UPS? Their technology is actually an absolute fucking JOKE. USPS and FedEx are both light years ahead of UPS, which isn't saying much, since they all use old and clusterfucked technology.

      • I don't want to see inside anyone's underwear and I don't give a shit about what's behind UPS's curtain.

        All I want is delivery.

        I get that from any of the services I use.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        USPS and FedEx are both light years ahead of UPS, which isn't saying much, since they all use old and clusterfucked technology.

        Have you used UPS's and FedEx end-user shipping products? I have, for the past fifteen years or so, and neither of them have changed much. FedEx may have slightly better internal tech, their web based stuff may be slightly better, but the primary software they ship their larger customers to use to directly create and manage shipments simply gets left in the dust by the stuff UPS ships, particularly so when it comes to managing batch shipments. It is mind-numbing how much more time it takes to work with the

        • FedEx Canada shipping site is different than the US one. It's buggy as shit. Different browsers run into different bugs, so it's whack a mole. One time we couldn't select pickup schedule and complete order (fucking dynamic redrawing of options would make things appear and disappear). Called in, they acknowledged the problem and gave zero fucks with no ETA of fix. I was mostly pissed they had a known problem but kept the thing running so everyone wasting time hitting this block instead of throwing up a mai

    • Re:Can they doo eet ??? (Score:4, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday February 09, 2018 @09:07PM (#56098393)

      Will be intresting if Amazon can out-logistics UPS & USPS ...

      For UPS, that is easy. Their operations are not very efficient. Ask anyone who has worked there ... or dealt with them daily. For a fun activity, try to get your incompetent and arrogant UPS driver fired for negligently causing thousands of dollars of damage to deliveries. Despite dozens of video recordings from your loading dock security camera documenting his behavior, he will keep his job, and his attitude and surliness will get even worse.

      USPS is much better run, and Priority Mail and Media Mail are great deals for delivering small packages. But for anything big, or express, they are not so good.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        For a fun activity, try to get your incompetent and arrogant UPS driver fired for negligently causing thousands of dollars of damage to deliveries.

        You're trying to get a dues-paying Teamster fired. You may prefer playing the lottery. Your odds will be better.

    • This is the real elephant in the room:
      https://www.bizjournals.com/da... [bizjournals.com]
      Bezos and Buffet have buddy buddy in some interesting ways lately, if the blockchain supply chain fires up under Amazon, it's a done deal. Forbes on same thing:
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/b... [forbes.com]

    • Purolator left my area after years of shitty service. Really, really shitty. FedEx Depot is an hour away and not open late hours or Saturday. They charge to change destination and only sender can change that. UPS has a pickup location nearby, but barely any place I buy from uses them anymore (a third party seller is apparently sending the $2.99 HDMI cable by UPS). I otherwise like the local drivers and have no real complaints with UPS. Amazon has taken an order on Saturday and had it at my local post of
  • When the postal service goes bankrupt, Amazon will pick it up for a song.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by q_e_t ( 5104099 )
      Since the constitution mandates that the government provide a service, won't it need an amendment for Amazon to purchase it?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The postal service is doing just fine. Well, it was doing just fine until the Bush-era neocons passed a law mandating it to fully fund pensions for 70 years. That's right, your pro-corporate welfare Congress is busy sabotaging the USPS because it actually works and it's against the narrative for government to do anything right. So when government does do something right, especially with good employee benefits and such that actually manages to fund itself without tax money, offers useful (and nationwide t

  • This'll suck (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday February 09, 2018 @07:47PM (#56098113)
    UPS and FedEx pay alright. I know some folks who 'ship' for Amazon. It's like Uber. Crap pay, psuedo contact work and no benefits. Something to do when your full time job isn't enough to make rent. Welcome to the new economy.

    • Welcome to the new economy.

      In the new economy, none of these jobs will exist, because robots will do all of them. And good riddance. FedEx destroyed a radiator I had shipped so that delayed a repair job four days. Put a big fat hole through the side of the box. UPS tried to destroy the replacement, but they only managed to accordion the box around the edges a bit, and not to actually penetrate it, and the packaging was sufficient that this doesn't seem to have broken anything. It's not necessarily the workers' fault, they may just no

  • Meanwhile in the middle of the country (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Friday February 09, 2018 @09:00PM (#56098369)

    Your Amazon packages will still come in the mail

    • Just wait until the crusade to eliminate gov't tyranny (in the form of useful public services) bequeaths flyover land the end of Mail Neutrality.

  • I like Amazon's delivery model. They sent me a router in its box, rather than a box in a box. They have options for sign on delivery which is a hassle compared to they don't quibble about packages not received. I ordered a router that didn't do what I thought it would and they paid for the return shipping and when it was scanned into UPS my refund showed within the hour. (Still hate them for the 1-click patent). Compare that with driving to a box store and getting raped on price and getting raped on return

  • UPS can't deliver to correct addresses on a regular basis.
    Fedex doesn't deliver at all here.

    Amazon gets it right every time.
    *shrug*
  • SWA delivery driver attempts delivery with signature required but nobody is home and leaves sticker on the door
    Ethnic man calls in to SWA

    Customer Server: "How can I help you?"
    Ethnic Man: "Who can I make a complaint to?"
    Customer Service: "What seems to be the problem sir?"
    Ethnic Man: "One of your delivery drivers left a fucking SWA stickah on mah door!"
  • What is this? Is Amazon turning into frikkin' Standard Oil? Somebody please exercise the Sherman Act. It hasn't been invoked in like 50 years and it's long overdue.

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