Amazon has ordered 20,000 Mercedes-Benz vans for use in a new package delivery service, more than four times as many as the retail and technology giant anticipated when it announced the program this summer.
The vans are part of Amazon’s effort to meet its rising demand for trucks and personnel to take items from its warehouse network to customers’ doorsteps, called last-mile delivery in the industry. Amazon currently relies on logistics giants UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service, as well as independent contractors, for that work.
The Seattle company announced a new entrant in June in the form of a program for entrepreneurs interested in building a business on the back of Amazon’s delivery ambitions. The company said it would offer select interested entrepreneurs deep discounts on branded trucks and uniforms. It envisioned successful participants building out a network of 20 to 40 trucks, and fewer than 100 employees.
When Amazon announced the program just about three months ago, it anticipated ordering 4,500 vans. The response since, from more than 10,000 applicants, pushed the company’s order of new Sprinter model vans to 20,000, Amazon and Mercedes parent Daimler disclosed at an event Wednesday that coincided with the opening of a new Mercedes production facility in North Charleston, S.C.
Amazon won’t own the vehicles itself. The company says fleet-management companies will buy the trucks and lease them to the contractors that have gone through Amazon’s application and training process.
An Amazon spokeswoman said the company anticipates having more than 100 contractors up and running under the new program by the end of the year.
The spokeswoman didn’t say how many of the 10,000 applicants Amazon would approve. That pool, she said, includes many existing logistics firms that contract with Amazon.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-orders-20000-vans-for-new-delivery-program/
“Amazon won’t own the vehicles itself. The company says fleet-management companies will buy the trucks and lease them to the contractors that have gone through Amazon’s application and training process.”
This is where the independents will get screwed. The independents will have to pay for all expenses that have to do with the maintenance of the vehicles, fuel and all other expenses, including all taxes to do with their business. This frees up Amazon from any obligations but will still be able to dictate who gets to haul what and for what money.
Amazon will still dictate how much these “independents” will make. The independents will think that they own their own business but really they wont because they will be at the mercy of Amazon. In the end, Amazon will decide how much they will make.
A total deception fooling the contractor/ independents into thinking they are in control.
Example
https://www.truckinginfo.com/278940/lawsuit-filed-against-xpo-over-port-truck-driver-wages-and-benefits