People speculate Amazon is looking enter the freight industry and to be more specific become a Freight Forwarder. Amazon has conquered the online shopping industry, and now they are seeking to generate innovation and expansion. You may have heard that Amazon is now trailing drones as part of their last-mile delivery system. You might have missed a few announcements which provide evidence that Amazon could be making moves to enter into the freight industry. Amazon may be developing mobile technology so it can schedule and track truck shipments. This technology can be implemented into an Uber-like app for trucks.
What Has Made People Think this?
Amazon has a purchased around 4,000 semi-trucks and 40 cargo planes. They will spend nearly $1.5 billion on their new Air Freight Hub in Kentucky. Amazon has also recently expanded into Ocean freight they have not purchased any ships but it they have acted as a freight forwarder by helping Chinese merchants, last year they helped around 150 containers. Amazon claims that the purpose of these trucks and freight planes is to better their distribution services. Their aim is to not be reliant on companies such as DHL and UPS. However, a few people believe Amazon is just playing their cards close to their chest which is a wise move in the world of business.
With all these trucks Amazon could look to bring a freight forwarder in-house and give it an Amazon technology makeover. The freight forwarder would handle the operational side while selling excess space on Amazon trucks and planes to 3rd parties. As a result, this would trim the costs of their logistics side of the company.
The logistics industry have seen other big tech firms such as Uber looking to enter the freight sector by matching freight to available trucks. It’s not only big tech firms but firms like UPS have entered the freight forwarding industry by purchasing freight forwarding companies.