Amazon Continues its Focus on Speed and Safety

Despite economic uncertainty and the closure of 44 of its warehouses late last year, e-retailer Amazon remains committed to improving its same-day delivery capacity by increasing the number of its ultra-fast delivery facilities to as many as 150 over the next few years.

The new delivery hubs are much smaller than the warehouses that were closed and are built around preparing orders for immediate delivery rather than storing inventory. Amazon has already opened more than 40 such hubs in the last four years in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Phoenix metro area.

It seems Amazon has sacrificed cost for speed with reports saying that it costs the company $1.55 more to deliver products from these ultra-fast sites than it does from standard warehouses. The smaller hubs, however, are cheaper when it comes to same-day fulfillment of orders. These costs are offset with a $2.99 charge for orders less than $25.

Other companies, such as Target, Walmart and Shopify are meeting Amazon’s challenge with significant investment in ultra-fast delivery facilities. For example, Target plans on spending $100 million on new sortation centers in various areas.

And Shopify has expanded with its recent acquisition of Deliverr, giving them the ability to fulfill orders within hours and not days. The challenge for Amazon’s competition is to expand its same-day delivery nationwide. So far, Amazon is the only company with that potential.

To that end, Amazon recently announced an initiative intended to support its delivery drivers. This year they will invest $200 million into safety technology for its transportation network, including equipping delivery vehicles with automatic braking, front-collision and lane-departure warnings, speed limiters, stability control and more. Its trailers will also feature anti-lock braking and cargo and door sensors.

Route-planning software and predictive analytics are also being rolled out. Drivers can take advantage of those features with Relay, Amazon’s mobile technology that provides realtime alerts and GPS navigation assistance. In addition, Amazon will take advantage of Fleet Edge, a routing technology that uses data about road conditions such as construction and other hazards to calculate safer and more efficient routes.

“We’re excited about the progress we’ve made to date and what our continued investments in 2023 will mean as we work to continuously improve in both safety and sustainability,” said Udit Madan, vice president of Amazon Transportation, on the company’s website. “We will continue to invest and invent to ensure our trucks, delivery vans, trailers and drivers are among the safest on the road.”