Is Amazon the Next Big Trucking Company?

By: ClassADrivers.com

Amazon, the $1 trillion company, is trying to take over the world. With total control over eCommerce market share and ownership of a major institution of journalism, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has come under increased scrutiny and faced calls to break up Amazon under antitrust laws.

But Amazon continues to expand. And a fleet of semi-trucks would add great synergy with their eCommerce shipping needs. That’s why Amazon now has its own fleet of trucks, manufactured by none other than Kenworth and Volvo.

Amazon’s fleet is not simply a bunch of branded semi-truck trailers, which are usually pulled by a separate trucking company.

The new semi-trucks are actual tractors, with a bold Amazon label displaying their owner. Given the size, however, these day cabs will likely only be used for deliveries under 500 miles.

But of course, this could just be the beginning. Or is it?  We just don’t know yet how many semi-trucks have been made or what this means for future Amazon hauls.

Amazon Trucking

Although no official announcement has been made, Amazon is paying for these trucks to be built. With full ownership of a private fleet, they probably have a long-term plan in the works to put them to use.

If this initial venture is successful, it’shard to imagine that Amazon will stop here. At Class A Drivers, we have to ask ourselves if Amazon the next big trucking company.

By deploying their own trucks, Amazon can provide all of their eCommerce deliveries in-house, even if this only refers to local deliveries at first.

This would eliminate quite a few hauls that are given to trucking companies and owner-operators. And that is just if they only continue to produce day cabs. If Amazon moves to start manufacturing sleepers, Amazon could effectively push other trucking companies out altogether.

As American consumers fell in love with eCommerce, this provided a boon to the trucking industry as more and more products saw more and more movement across the country. But with such a large share of the eCommerce pie, it was inevitable that Amazon would try to save money with their own fleet.

Of course, Amazon controlling a fleet of trucks might not be bad for truck drivers themselves. Walmart, another megacorporation, is one of the higher-paying trucking companies.

Unfortunately, Amazon does not have the best record with treating their employees fairly. Online memes have been created over their treatment of warehouse workers, and the company experienced similar backlash over their propagandistic “Amazon FC ambassadors” program.

Amazon would need to step up their worker treatment to at least the level of Walmart to get respect from truckers.

To compete with Amazon, we hope that trucking companies will work even harder to increase pay and improve the job for career truck drivers.