Amazon.com. Inc. is struggling to handle some of its own two-day deliveries and has turned over about 1 million parcels a day to UPS Inc. and the U.S. Postal Service to meet its delivery commitments, according to a leading consultant.
Satish Jindel, founder and president of ShipMatrix, said Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has shifted more middle-mile shipments to UPS’ two-day delivery service and more last-mile shipments to the Postal Service’s final-mile service, Parcel Select. UPS (NYSE: UPS) and the Postal Service are Amazon delivery partners. Those parcels were originally to move on Amazon’s network.
Much of the problem is occurring “upstream” where Amazon’s longer-haul middle-mile network resides, Jindel said. The lengths of haul of the shipments now being handled by UPS vary, he said.
The issues have nothing to do with the performance of Amazon’s last-mile drivers or the contractors, known as Delivery Service Providers, that employ them, he said.
Jindel, who went public with the comments after what he said were conversations with multiple Amazon stakeholders, estimated that the number of parcels affected is in the single-digit percentage range. Amazon handles about 16 million parcels per day, according to ShipMatrix estimates.
Amazon offers a broad range of delivery options, notably one-day shipping and its traditional mainstay of two-day shipping. It also makes different delivery commitments to members of its Amazon Prime ordering and delivery service, which includes unlimited two-day deliveries, and non-Prime users. The different offerings spawn variability and complexity, which adversely impacts Amazon’s delivery reliability, Jindel said. The problems are amplified by Amazon’s massive and burgeoning delivery volumes, he said.
In a statement, Amazon said that “delivery promises fluctuate based on a variety of factors including time of day, transportation capacity, regional demand, and customer location. No customers have lost 2-Day Shipping benefits.”
Amazon’s problems began around the middle of November and were unrelated to the company’s two-day fall Prime Day event in mid-October.
C. Testa
‘Struggling’…? No sir. 2-Day NO…LONGER…EXISTS. Best you’ll likely get as of ‘now’ is a WEEK. ..’PRIME’ membership is now 100% USELESS and RIP. I quite PRIME membership TODAY. And also, their ‘prices’ are NO LONGER competitive. In fact, many things, most things seem to have jumped up ‘drastically’ and are now HIGHER than most small companies online. Amazon is DEAD.
Anony Moose
The number of packages that are “delayed” has been increasing since mid 2022. It was rare to have a delay pre 2022, even during the height of COVID when I imagine demand was very much higher on home delivered products. Now between 10-25% of our orders are delayed. No reason seemingly on most. Ours seem to be all delayed at “carrier facility” which should be Amazon’s warehousing as it shows no indication of being handed off to another carrier for most of our delayed orders.
We used to be able to trust a delivery time. I have lost that trust.
Gary Tivey
Tracking shows some upstream issues with the “handoff” of packages to USPS
Tracking ID: 9374889717417999975919
Sunday, February 12
4:04 PM
Package arrived at an Amazon facility.
Albuquerque, New Mexico US
Saturday, February 11
7:09 PM
Package left an Amazon facility.
Aurora, CO US
6:27 PM
Package left the carrier facility.
Albuquerque, NM US
11:15 AM
Package arrived at an Amazon facility.
Aurora, CO US
Friday, February 10
6:07 AM
Package left an Amazon facility.
Hebron, KENTUCKY US
3:25 AM
Package left the carrier facility.
Albuquerque, NM US
Thursday, February 9
4:55 PM
Package arrived at an Amazon facility.
Hebron, KENTUCKY US
7:32 AM
Package left the carrier facility.
Albuquerque, NM US
Tom Hill
You are giving your business in part to a company that sucks at delivering (usps)Their entire system is slooow. Go back to what you were doing ,it was working!!
Stephen McKitrick
Amazon is dropping the ball big time. I don’t see Amazon growing any further and will most likely fade from existence within the next 5-10
Years.
Gene
Why every time a company offers something good, and it’s working, the consumers love it, then they take it away after they get you money.
KPV
When I first signed up for Amazon prime I received all packages ordered within 2 days. I live at the same place and I’m lucky to get them within 4 days now, plus I pay more for prime. Amazon is failing in the thing that made them great.
Bob
Maybe a class action suit is in order. They promised 2 day delivery and conned everyone into reordering Prime for a higher price. I for one am done with Prime they lied and I wont be renewing it. They wont come clean and they just give you the runaround when you ask why. It is no longer worth the price you pay.