Amazon Launches Local Business Delivery Network - Slashdot

Posted by msmash

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  This sounds quite constructive, actually. I'm game. I could use all kinds of non-Amazon goods delivered. Usually, I'm pretty skeptical of tech companies crowing about new products, but in this case, it's a pretty obvious value prop.

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    This sounds like a toe-dip towards avoiding unions. Remember they're not under a senate investigation for shitty and dangerous work conditions. My state is in the list. Let's see who they pick and who is liable when they invariably fuck up.

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    This is a delivery service for only Amazon packages.

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    > of non-Amazon goods delivered

    I'm afraid you have it backwards. Amazon will be dropping off 30 *Amazon packages* a day at a florist, pizzeria or bodega, and the business owner will be in charge of employing drivers to deliver them. I think it's just an attempt to drive the existing contractor business model to new local entrepreneurs who may not have considered it. Clearly they're suggesting that if you already have delivery drivers, especially not fully utilized ones, this is an easy way to make an ex

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      "Revenue" and only revenue. Your expenses will eat 99%+ of that and it doesn't mean much unless you want to show off your balance sheet where people care about meaningless/marginless revenue.

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      • Re: This is constructive. Could help small biz a l

        I don't know how large the regions are, but it seems practical for a company that already does deliveries.

        For example a pizza place could work it into their day I'd think. Presumably deliveries for pizza don't pick up until 12 and then die off again at 2 until 6 or so.

        If the delivery range is similar in scope to a pizza place I could see them clearing a few thousand a month on this.

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          If you get $3.00 to drive 5 miles to deliver a package, you can estimate your vehicle costs (gas and wear) at the IRS mileage rates of 65 per mile. If you did 100 of these a week, you'll have several hundred in revenue but you'd be $25 in the red before you even pay an employee wages.

          I might be exaggerating the distance between stops, but it's not a good deal.

          • Re: This is constructive. Could help small biz a

            I'm using the numbers 30 packages/day and $7500/month from this thread.

            So $8/package.

            If it's something where it's slack labor in a shift I could see clearing money there.

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    >in this case, it's a pretty obvious value prop.
    
    This is the "embrace" stage. Amazon wants even more small businesses to feel like they have no choice but to sell through Amazon. Up next: fees to those businesses to be "promoted".

• For a short time Amazon was doing local food delivery akin to Grubhub or Doordash. For whatever reason they gave up on that very quickly. I wonder what will happen with this scheme.

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    I'd say, as long as they're smart about it, and utilize their existing delivery infrastructure, I don't see a reason this can't work long-term for them. And if they get half-competitive at it, they may leverage it into a full delivery system outside of Amazon proper and compete with the big guns of the shipping industry. More competition in that space can't be a bad thing, though I don't love that it'll be another arm of the Amazon behemoth reaching through society.

• Remember when Amazon was a book store, and not a shipping company like FedEx?

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    Remember when Amazon was a book store and not a grocery store like Whole Foods?

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    And a healthcare company, and a gaming company, and a streaming media company, and not one but two grocery stores, and...

• They are just offering to take the biggest cut of your local sales. While it may work in some cases, be cautious or you will get eaten.

  • Re: Be careful when dealing with Amazon.

    It sounds like they are dropping off Amazon packages, for local pickup or for the small business to handle the last mile.

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      That's what I thought too.
      It'll be because the people who work at these places won't be in a position to say no to their boss so they'll wind up delivering this stuff for free, the small business will get a tiny payment and Amazon gets cheap delivery.
      The premise is based on exploitation, just like Uber.

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    They're definitely trying to Uber their way out of Health Care and Unions, and they're also almost certainly aiming to foist as many customer service issues as they can onto the local "partners". I see this as them pulling the risk-transfer scheme of Tyson/Perdue: the contract farmers get all of the risk and barely any profit, Tyson makes money no matter what (including if the Farmer goes bankrupt).

• A friend of mine in Belgium runs a small gas station-cum-convenience store. He was approached by Amazon years ago - I'm talking maybe 6 or 7 years ago, possibly more - to be a drop point for Amazon packages.

  He told me he tried it for 2 weeks, then gave up and told the Amazon rep in no uncertain terms what he thought of them over the phone.

  The issue, he said, was that he was paid a miser for a high volume of really heavy packages that literally filled up his convenience store. Like big screen Tvs, furnitures and all kinds of oversize shit people can buy on Amazon.

  The truck would come, dump a dozen such boxes, which he then had to drag inside the store and store in the middle of the aisles. Then he had to deal with angry customers who had waited for their delivery for too long, returns of the same size boxes but poorly patched up with tape and barely holding together, etc... for a few cents per package.

  He said the whole deal was really rotten and utterly ridiculous, and that he had enough shit going on running a convenience store that's open 24/7 without the Amazon aggravation on top of it.

  He does act as a drop point for other shippers like DPD, Mondial Relay and such, and apparently he's happy enough with them that he keeps doing it. He had hoped to draw more business with Amazon, but he sure didn't try it for long.

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    That all makes sense.

    I'd be surprised if there is much efficiency to be gained by getting random businesses to handle last mile? Already every single day you have UPS, FedEx, US Mail, and Amazon driving every street, each completing something like 250 deliveries, using purpose-designed vehicles and route optimization software. It's very efficient.

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        No matter how look at it, it is a bad deal. I suspect it is nearly impossible to meet your goals.

        https://logistics.amazon.com/m... [amazon.com]
        https://flex.amazon.com/lets-d... [amazon.com]

        With jobs like Amazon Flex you make yourself available but you don't pick your own work, you don't set your own rate, you don't even pick the path you get to drive, and somehow they call you an 'independent contractor'. Its bullshit, they only thing you get is schedule flexibility, the rest is a crap job.

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        People come to pick them up, this is the standard way in European cities. Delivery companies do that and compete to be registered with the local convenience shops. The advertised benefits for the drop location, apart from the few cents per package, is increased traffic in your shop, improving your image. This month I got to step into a women's attire shop and a mobile phone repair shop to pick up a delivery (from GLS and DPD).

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          Perhaps so in Europe, but I don't think that's part of this. Check out the Amazon page about it. https://logistics.amazon.com/h... [amazon.com]

          They expect the business to physically deliver the packages. I assume if you have a van and a delivery driver on the payroll who is underutilized, it could work out well, but also it's Amazon, so I assume most participants will be doing so with slim to negative margins once all costs are accounted for.

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            You're right it's not the same model. This particular thread was launched by GP telling us about "A friend of mine in Belgium" who has experience with drop-off services including that of Amazon, and someone questioned this business model. I assumed they questioned the drop-off business model.

            Totally agree they can't make the final delivery workable other than relying on poor people working for a misery base and some tips. That also means one more reason to avoid purchasing on Amazon, if now also has to tip