Amazon avoids long delivery times with its own containers and boats

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made one thing particularly clear to us: Our supply chains have so far been extremely fragile and do not allow any major interruptions or delivery difficulties. After more than 1.5 years, automobile manufacturers are still having problems getting their parts, but there is also a persistent shortage in other markets.

Here and there, this ensures that products are not in stock, have a long delivery time or have become comparatively expensive. So that we can continue to shop diligently and use Amazon as the retailer of choice for our daily needs, the company behind it has (perhaps even unintentionally) planned with foresight.

Because the company no longer uses the classic container ship providers or even rents containers in China, but relies on a completely proprietary solution. On the one hand, their own ships are chartered to bring goods from China, for example, into the world, and on the other hand, they do not head for the overloaded ports, but other regions. In the United States, for example, goods are shipped to Washington and then brought overland to LA instead of going straight to the overcrowded LA.

Furthermore, over the past few years, up to 10,000 of their own containers have been made and sent out into the world. The advantage is that Amazon does not have to return them to a landlord in China, but each container can be used flexibly. Once in the United States, it can be used for rail transport or brought to Europe with other items.

In 2020, Amazon invested almost 61 billion dollars in shipping goods, and the online retailer now takes 72 percent of its own goods into its own hands. These are immense investments, but when you consider that container prices climbed from $ 2,000 to $ 20,000 during the pandemic, Amazon has once again acted proactively.

Products with a high margin are not even sent by sea. Converted aircraft (such as those of the Boeing 777 type) are sent into the air with up to 110,000 kilograms of goods and land even faster at their destination. For comparison: A container ship can do 180 to 3,600 times as much, but is also on the move for significantly longer. Amazon is once again showing that long-term investments are worthwhile and that even a pandemic can only cause minor problems.

Via CNBC