Amazon is expanding its US delivery capacities with a massive order for 20,000 Sprinter vans for its new ‘delivery service partners’ network and adding five more planes to its dedicated air fleet.
The Amazon-branded vans will be built by Mercedes-Benz at a newly-opened factory in South Carolina and will be used for the e-commerce giant’s recently-launched Delivery Service Partner (DSP) programme, which is designed to provide additional delivery capacity as Amazon’s own and third-party shipping volumes continue to soar.
Through this programme, which was announced in June, ‘hundreds’ of independent entrepreneurs would be able to hire ‘tens of thousands’ of delivery drivers and operate fleets of up to 40 vans to deliver Amazon parcels in their local areas. Amazon pledged to support these start-up businesses with discounted vehicle leases, branded uniforms, technology, training and other services.
Mercedes-Benz marked yesterday’s opening of its new Sprinter production plant for the North American market at North Charleston in South Carolina by announcing the Amazon order. The $500 million plant has created more than 900 jobs so far.
Dave Clark, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations, said: “We’re proud to partner with Mercedes-Benz Vans to contribute to local economies through the order of Amazon-branded Sprinter vans produced at their new plant in North Charleston.
“Thanks to the tremendous response to Amazon’s new Delivery Service Partner program, we are excited to increase our original order of branded Sprinter vans to 20,000 vehicles so new small businesses will have access to a customized fleet to power deliveries of Amazon packages.”
Volker Mornhinweg, Head of Mercedes-Benz Vans, commented: “The USA is already the second largest market for our Sprinter today. With the new, state-of-the-art production site in South Carolina, we will be able to supply our customers in North America even faster and with more flexibility in the future. This makes better use of the dynamic market potential, placing our new plant in North Charleston as a central component of our growth strategy.”
Meanwhile, cargo airline Atlas Air will put three more B767s into operation for Amazon Air next week and will then introduce two more freighters, currently undergoing conversion from passenger configuration, before Thanksgiving Day (November 22), US-based magazine Air Cargo World (ACW) reported this week. This will expand Amazon’s dedicated US air fleet to 40 planes.
In 2016, the e-commerce giant announced plans to create a dedicated fleet of 40 B767-300 freighters over the following two years to fly its goods across the USA to speed up deliveries. Cargo airlines Atlas Air and ATSG would each operate 20 planes on behalf of the company under 10-year contracts. ATSG already put 20 planes into operation for Amazon by August 2017 while Atlas is so far operating 15 freighters for the company.
Amazon also has options to buy up to 30% in Atlas Air parent company AAWH over the next 12 years and has similar options to buy up to 20% of ATSG shares. Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings owns Atlas Air, Southern Air, Titan and Polar Air Cargo, while ATSG’s main subsidiaries are ABX Air and ATI International.
