In 2020, the world was about to change forever. Suddenly, nearly every country was hit by the COVID pandemic and people were forced to work from home. While doing so, they also opened Amazon to order home office equipment, home gym equipment, entertainment products, and various other items. While many businesses struggled, Amazon thrived as it provided products to keep people sane while locked inside.
What does this mean? The company had to adjust its delivery strategy to keep up with demand. Traditionally, Amazon lorries would carry thousands of parcels to sortation centres. From here, they went in their different directions based on the delivery speed and location of the individual orders. At this point, they would get loaded onto respective delivery methods whether this was the national mail service, DPD, Hermes, or another delivery company.
As demand increased, more drivers entered the niche and delivered parcels for the company. For those who were furloughed or even lost their job during the pandemic, they worked with van hire services in Adelaide and delivered parcels for Amazon. However, the company realised that it needed to do more, and this led to an extension of the Amazon delivery fleet.
As well as expanding the Amazon Delivery Service Partner program, the company also announced a fleet of 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian. Therefore, you can expect to see an Amazon electric vehicle coming to your door when you order from the company soon. This change to the delivery fleet is part of Amazon’s goal to be carbon-neutral by 2040, known as the Climate Pledge.
Initially, Amazon used electric delivery vans in Los Angeles and reports suggest that the trial went well. As a result, 2021 saw the expansion of the delivery fleet to 15 other cities. By the end of 2022, the company wants to increase the number of electric vehicles on the road to 2022. Eventually, the full fleet of 100,000 electric vehicles will be used around the world by 2030.
Before 2019, around 80% of all Amazon parcels were delivered by third-party companies or services. In recent years, this has grown to around half. Therefore, half of all parcels are delivered by Amazon itself while the other half are delivered by national mail services and other delivery companies.
After 18 months of development, the pandemic didn’t stop Amazon’s ambition and the company was potentially buoyed by the increase in orders. As you would expect from a company like Amazon, each vehicle will be optimised for its route, and it will come with lots of safety features for drivers. As an example, this includes:
- Lane assistance
- Automated emergency braking
- All-wheel drive options
- Front-wheel drive options
- Traffic design recognition
- Pedestrian warning system
- Automatic warning system (for distracted drivers)
The good news for drivers is that the vehicle itself is integrated into the logistics management system. What does this mean? Drivers don’t have to worry about delivery instructions and mapping information because it’s done for them. What’s more, Amazon will build Alexa into the vehicles so that drivers can ask questions using voice commands.
According to the company, it worked with delivery drivers to come up with everything from the seat design to the unloading process. Consequently, the vehicle is optimised for the task at hand.
As time goes on, Amazon will continue to introduce more electric vehicles on the road while also expanding the number of third-party delivery drivers working with the company. Can anything stop the growth of this major corporation?
