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How Amazon Freight’s customer-first ethos is changing the industry

Director Rebecca Salt spoke with FreightWaves’ Rachel Premack at F3

Amazon Freight has pivoted to a more regionalized network model in response to the changing consumer landscape, Amazon Freight Director Rebecca Salt said at the F3: Future of Freight Festival.

This shift means products are closer to customers, enabling quicker deliveries and a reduction in transportation miles — a win for both service efficiency and environmental impact.

The company has also significantly expanded its network, now boasting more than 50,000 trailers. This growth reflects a broader commitment to the kind of infrastructure enhancements that open more logistical lanes and options for customers. It’s a strategic move to reduce empty miles, aligning operational goals with the company’s wider Climate Pledge, which aims to reach the Paris Agreement 10 years early and net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. 

Salt also discussed the lessons learned from rapid scaling during the pandemic. The crisis highlighted the supply chain’s critical role in daily life and prompted Amazon Freight to collaborate more closely with shippers.

A survey conducted with FreightWaves earlier in 2023 showed that shippers are seeking more diversity and reliability in their carrier portfolios, calling for enhanced flexibility and customer service. 

“What shippers are looking for is a carrier that, when there’s volatility or when there’s an issue in the supply chain, they’re asking, ‘How can I help? What can I do to support?’” Salt said.

Amazon Freight’s focus remains firmly on customer needs, prioritizing a dynamic and flexible supply chain. The company’s growth strategy involves integrating more assets into its network, allowing for increased reliability and responsiveness to market volatility. Salt’s presentation illustrated how Amazon Freight is steering the evolution of the industry by centering on customer-centric innovation and robust technological integration.

Leveraging technology for network efficiency and customer service

Amazon Freight’s strides in technology integration have become a cornerstone of its strategy. The insights from the FreightWaves survey reveal a shift in shippers’ priorities toward carriers that offer not only reliability but also the agility to adapt to dynamic market conditions.

The persistence of traditional methods like email for load bookings, as highlighted by Salt, marks a significant opportunity in the industry. It underscores a latent potential for more sophisticated tech adoption that can streamline operations and elevate supply chain visibility.

Source: “Out With the Old” Industry Paper, Amazon Freight & FreightWaves

In response, Amazon Freight is pioneering the move toward advanced booking portals and integrated tech solutions. These efforts look to enrich the customer experience and reflect Amazon Freight’s commitment to fostering a customer-focused, responsive service environment.

The introduction of Amazon Shipping — Amazon’s new parcel delivery service — mirrors this dedication to innovation. This service complements the full truckload offerings, leveraging Amazon’s extensive network to deliver speed and reliability.

Concurrently, an intermodal transport pilot is indicative of the company’s approach. It looks to innovate deliberately based on customer feedback, which helps ensure the final product meets the market’s needs and preferences.

This is the balancing act for Amazon Freight: a tightrope between steadfast reliability and the flexibility required to navigate the freight sector’s fluctuations.

Market projections and commitment to sustainability

Salt delved into Amazon’s strategic pivot toward sustainability, a commitment that permeates every facet of its operation. This push for environmental stewardship is exemplified by the ambitious goal set forth in the Climate Pledge: to achieve net-zero carbon by 2040.

Amazon’s strategy includes a fleet of renewable natural gas vehicles and, notably, a foray into electrified trucking —in the EU — signaling a robust effort to slash carbon emissions.

“In every planning doc that anybody writes — doesn’t matter where you are in the company — you always have to have a question … about sustainability,” Salt said. “We’re not just investing on the road; there’s a lot of investment, for example, in the air side as well.”

3 Comments

  1. BILL HOOD

    I have to say that while understanding you are a business (you are looking to make a profit), I have got to believe that even you know how awful Amazon is when it comes to logistics (on the road, the warehouse side seems to work, which amazed me during the three months I managed 20 straight trucks out of ATL6).

    As a safety and compliance company working with small carriers, in 2023, we had 7 10+ truck operations shut down due to Amazon canceling their contract due to CSA scores. Here is the catch, in each case over 90% of the violations had to do with Amazon trailers.

    Now, my initial response is the driver should never take the trailer if it is not road-legal. But this leads to the problem of it can take hours for Amazon to transfer the freight to another trailer leaving the carrier dealing with a late delivery. Amazon rarely responds to the request to remove the ding due to it being the fault of Amazon.

    Talking with someone that I know who manages trailers out of the Nashville region while looking for suggestions for my carriers, she told me she can have 10 trailers marked out of service and at a minimum 5, if not all 10, will be loaded. Not because they don’t have trailers, but because they load what they can grab, and the management overrides the OOS.

    Now, the DOT understands that Amazon trailers are in rough shape and not maintained. So they target these carriers.

    Hoping you can see the endless cycle of Amazon burning through carriers.

    And here is something most will not know. During the first quarter of this year, I had one of my clients willing to allow me to try and help him out of the Amazon Death Sprail. Almost three months of being the primary point person for this 20+ truck carrier. Over 70 phone calls went unanswered. 150+ messages with only three responses I would consider not being automated messages, two telling me they are looking into the issue with no response. The third told me, and I can appreciate the honesty but not the result, that they would not do anything about the late delivery caused by the documented trailer issue (4 of 8 tires with over half the tires not just below the minimum tread depth but BALD and a 5th tire actually flat) because if they took responsibility for anything relating to safety, they could be held liable if there was an accident. No kidding. They are more concerned with the liability of doing something than actual safety.

    So in the name of liability, Amazon ignores safety and treats their carriers with respect.

    I would say when the market turns and it is harder for them to find carriers they will change but we all know that there will be a line of carriers looking to add trucks that can’t afford trailers or get qualified for a lease that will be signing up.

    It would be interesting to see what the tenure of an Amazon carrier is these days. We have yet to see one make it two years.

  2. Robert C. Ryan Jr.

    Please interview trucking companies and drivers running Amazon freight. It’s too many inefficiencies in Amazon running a freight operation. You can truly tell theynare tech people not logistics people. Case in point. 3am pick up a empty at amazon Baltimore. 4am arrive at a warehouse to load. But said warehouse opens at 8am and the loads goes 244 miles away to norfolk va by 2pm. That driver lost 4 hours of his day for nothing in this elog world.

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