Wanted: Hundreds of Entrepreneurs to Start Businesses Delivering Amazon Packages

DooKey

DooKey

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Amazon has announced a new program to get entreprenuers to start up buinesses that deliver Amazon packages. Amazon says successful owners can earn up to $300K per year in profit by operating a fleet of up to 40 delivery vehicles. If this is something you are interested in doing you can contact Amazon and they will help to set up the business. Believe it or not you can get going for as little as $10K and Amazon is committing $1M for military veterans to help them get started. Go here if interested.

“We have great partners in our traditional carriers and it’s exciting to continue to see the logistics industry grow,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations. “Customer demand is higher than ever and we have a need to build more capacity. As we evaluated how to support our growth, we went back to our roots to share the opportunity with small-and-medium-sized businesses. We are going to empower new, small businesses to form in order to take advantage of the growing opportunity in e-commerce package delivery.”
 
$300K a year gross for the risks and responsibilities of owning and managing an fairly large operations that requires the capital outlays to lease or buy 40 vehicles, a shipping depot, an office and all the personal to drive, maintain, and support that venture.

Seems like a low margin, high risk, high expense headache to me.

On the other hand this does seem like a great way for Amazon to avoid much of the scant remaining labor laws while parasitically capturing and profiting from the delivery side of internet retail instead of paying FedEx, UPS, and the USPS.
 
Interesting turn for the "gig economy". I knew I should have pushed harder to start my "PaXageR" company!
 
FedEx Ground has been doing this forever. Provided you can make the numbers work, seems like a good business.
 
I hear UPS is actually quite great to their employees and you earn better routes over time as well as climb a ladder with pay raises and all. Since UPS is a big business that charges amazon and such companies a lot of money, UPS can train their employees and treat them nicely in bulk. Small businesses can't compete with this.. This isn't creating jobs, it's creating petty lifestyles of pizza delivery without the tip (which, if you don't know, is awful).

Watch package stealing go on the rise even more. I won't be surprised once there'll be a whole delivery company bust.
 
I would have to look very, very hard at the margins here. I doubt it is worthwhile, but it's hard to say. $300k margin on a 40 truck fleet, with shipping infrastructure and overhead? Yeah - no. And I live within 10 miles of an Amazon DC.
 
lucidrenegade said:
FedEx Ground has been doing this forever. Provided you can make the numbers work, seems like a good business.
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"Provided you can make the numbers work" is a big if. FedEx Ground contracting always seemed like more smaller operators running a courier business and are working off FedEx's centralized hubs for a given region. It looks like Amazon is foisting the hub part of that equation and more onto the contractor.
 
Teenyman45 said:
$300K a year gross for the risks and responsibilities of owning and managing an fairly large operations that requires the capital outlays to lease or buy 40 vehicles, a shipping depot, an office and all the personal to drive, maintain, and support that venture.

Seems like a low margin, high risk, high expense headache to me.

On the other hand this does seem like a great way for Amazon to avoid much of the scant remaining labor laws while parasitically capturing and profiting from the delivery side of internet retail instead of paying FedEx, UPS, and the USPS.
Click to expand...

Yeah I unloaded 3,500+ semi trucks by hand it's no fun I think they are looking for cheaper alternatives to UPS and FED-EX.
 
greenman said:
I hear UPS is actually quite great to their employees and you earn better routes over time as well as climb a ladder with pay raises and all. Since UPS is a big business that charges amazon and such companies a lot of money, UPS can train their employees and treat them nicely in bulk. Small businesses can't compete with this.. This isn't creating jobs, it's creating petty lifestyles of pizza delivery without the tip (which, if you don't know, is awful).

Watch package stealing go on the rise even more. I won't be surprised once there'll be a whole delivery company bust.
Click to expand...
Not really they just avoided a strike over working coditicons.
 
Montu said:
Amazon has announced a new program to get entreprenuers to start up buinesses that deliver Amazon packages. Amazon says successful owners can earn up to $300K per year in profit by operating a fleet of up to 40 delivery vehicles. If this is something you are interested in doing you can contact Amazon and they will help to set up the business. Believe it or not you can get going for as little as $10K and Amazon is committing $1M for military veterans to help them get started. Go here if interested.

“We have great partners in our traditional carriers and it’s exciting to continue to see the logistics industry grow,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations. “Customer demand is higher than ever and we have a need to build more capacity. As we evaluated how to support our growth, we went back to our roots to share the opportunity with small-and-medium-sized businesses. We are going to empower new, small businesses to form in order to take advantage of the growing opportunity in e-commerce package delivery.”
Click to expand...


What I read is this:

1. It's not profitable enough for Amazon to get into directly.
2. The professional logistics companies with all the experience and tech are charging too much.
3. They expect you to do it for less than UPS and FEDEX which operate on economies of massive scale.

[H]ard Pass, Jeffey
 
So, just like Walmart and friends paying too little so that tax payers are actually paying the real salary through SNAP, ER visits and other resources and than Walmart and all were making massive record setting profits pre-Trump tax cut.

Translation: We need a plausible way to pay workers shit, we are too big a target so here is the plan: So why dont you hire 40 people and pay them a wage that they cant live on without a roommate in multi-room rented house situation. We (Amazon) will continue taking our regular share, but you go ahead and take an extra $7.5k (300/40) out of their pay thorugh whatever criminal/unethical way you can for your self.

edit: if you're ethical you wont make any money and will go bankrupt, but wink wink, if you find the right illegals you can blackmail, anyone that you can prey on, we estimate you can eventually get $7.5k from the cream of the crop.
 
greenman said:
I hear UPS is actually quite great to their employees and you earn better routes over time as well as climb a ladder with pay raises and all. Since UPS is a big business that charges amazon and such companies a lot of money, UPS can train their employees and treat them nicely in bulk. Small businesses can't compete with this.. This isn't creating jobs, it's creating petty lifestyles of pizza delivery without the tip (which, if you don't know, is awful).
Click to expand...

If you get a chance, talk to your local UPS driver(s). You'll find that it's definitely not rainbows and sunshine. I've got a fairly good rapport with my local guy and some of the shit they make those guys do... It's no wonder some of them just toss packages and boxes like they don't care anymore.

Also, small businesses have never been about competing on scale. They compete on specialization and expertise. Neither of which would be present in the delivery industry. This is just Amazon trying to get deliveries done cheaper than what UPS/FedEx are willing to do it for. And you can bet that if they aren't willing to do it for what Amazon's asking, a small company flat-out won't be able to do it. $300k/yr "profit" (that's probably gross profit, not net) isn't jack shit if you're running a fleet of 40 vehicles (which would probably equal upwards of 60 employees).
 
Will have to see how this works out for those that actually jump into it. Pretty cool if you ask me, if it can be successful or not, who knows?
 
Up to 40 delivery vehicles aka, making sure no ethical review can come back and say they were illegally/unethically enforcing companies under 50 employees to get rid of healthcare costs.
 
whatevs said:
Up to 40 delivery vehicles aka, making sure no ethical review can come back and say they were illegally/unethically enforcing companies under 50 employees to get rid of healthcare costs.
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So, you're saying companies below the threshhold of employees that cannot or do not provide health insurance are unethical?
 
whatevs said:
100% absolutely yes.


When your business model is to turn a profit off your employees, instead of the services your provide...
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Health insurance is serious, serious money. Even with significant revenue streams, that could be pretty devastating to very small businesses. I do not know of any business owners that straight up do not want to provide insurance to their guys. I know of several that simply cannot afford to do so.
 
whatevs said:
100% absolutely yes.


When your business model is to turn a profit off your employees, instead of the services your provide...
Click to expand...

Really. So what business do you run and what do you provide your employees? I would hate to think that you are a sanctimonious, left wing fundamentalist who is a do as I say but not as I do sort of person. Even if you don't run a business, what percentage of your paycheck do you voluntarily contribute back to the IRS on top of what they forcibly take?
 
Joust said:
Health insurance is serious, serious money. Even with significant revenue streams, that could be pretty devastating to very small businesses. I do not know of any business owners that straight up do not want to provide insurance to their guys. I know of several that simply cannot afford to do so.
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Im not saying the world is even close to fair right now. The rules in the US have been messed up for a while and are seriously going in the wrong direction back to the 1600s. I'm sure one of the next SCOTUS rulings will likely bring back indentured servants.

But when your business cant support health insurance for your workers, it HAS to come at expense of the employee and tax payer, eventually. It's not magic. You cant have your own version of what happens. You will need health services at some point. It's not right that we are in such an environment. No politician works for American and Americans anymore, just their donors. Just how it is.

"Everyone" had slaves back in the day, just how it was. But it really wasnt, was it. There were plenty of people that didnt see other humans as trash. I always wonder what happened to all the folks that though owning slaves was OK. I mean, even up to 70/80s it royally sucked to be black in most of the US. Whatever happened to those folks from the 70s when it became "out of fashion" to treat blacks as n-----s. What happened to all the people from the 90s/2000s that called and believed gays to be f------s. Nothing. They are all still there.

I don't know why progress has not only halted, but regressed across the world. China has an emperor for life. Russia too. US and democracy are in its last death gasps with Trump. And he wasnt the first, it was GW Bush and old republicans that literally threw out the US Constitution.

Guess everyone got complacent...
 
^someone needs to listen to Steven Pinker to cheer up a bit.

In general, I would agree with DoubleTap post #10.

Also
whatevs said:
It's awesome that just today WaPo has an article on trucker shortages.

America’s severe trucker shortage could undermine the prosperous economy
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Meh, it's like the pilot and migrant farm picker problem. It's a shortage due to the pay/work balance/equation. Shift the balance, and the shortage goes away. That being said, it WILL make everything more expensive, and probably have some other, unintended consequences... TANSTAAFL.
 
Hatriot said:
Really. So what business do you run and what do you provide your employees? I would hate to think that you are a sanctimonious, left wing fundamentalist who is a do as I say but not as I do sort of person. Even if you don't run a business, what percentage of your paycheck do you voluntarily contribute back to the IRS on top of what they forcibly take?
Click to expand...
And who pays for the employees health insurance when the employer does not? Its not magic. Tax payers do. Everyone has some health issue at one point.
 
^ Here's a thought - stop the third party payer system for all but emergency health care, and watch prices come down and most non-emergency care become affordable again so we can all take care of our own needs instead of expecting everyone else to take care of us.

yes, Amazon is looking to take advantage of the breaks small businesses get to keep their costs down, but the likelihood they can do it cheaper than Fedex/UPS while turning a decent profit and keeping low employee turnover is very low. The insanity of pre-paid healthcare is definitely part of the problem for the bigger companies.
 
BB Gun said:
^someone needs to listen to Steven Pinker to cheer up a bit.

In general, I would agree with DoubleTap post #10.

Also


Meh, it's like the pilot and migrant farm picker problem. It's a shortage due to the pay/work balance/equation. Shift the balance, and the shortage goes away. That being said, it WILL make everything more expensive, and probably have some other, unintended consequences... TANSTAAFL.
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Not true.

There is such a massive amount of profits being made right now, even pre-Trump tax cuts. The problem is that nothing is going to employees. Nothing needs to get more expensive. There is massive buttloads of money in the system right now. Profits need to get less.
 
That's like driving a taxi for a living and considering yourself an entrepreneur
 
BB Gun said:
^ Here's a thought - stop the third party payer system for all but emergency health care, and watch prices come down and most non-emergency care become affordable again so we can all take care of our own needs instead of expecting everyone else to take care of us.

yes, Amazon is looking to take advantage of the breaks small businesses get to keep their costs down, but the likelihood they can do it cheaper than Fedex/UPS while turning a decent profit and keeping low employee turnover is very low. The insanity of pre-paid healthcare is definitely part of the problem for the bigger companies.
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Too many broken parts. I agree, the $1000 dollar routine cholestral check in one place versus $10 in others... There are just too many parts of the system that fake/free profit is involved because of broken/bad rules. Fixing health wont dent it.

Every system has a forced 3rd party involved. 401k, always have to go through a broker. Most companies dont offer Vanguard as a choice. Buy a car? Go through a salesman to take a random cut.

If one set of folks have rigged the system, why shouldnt everyone else have a rigged system to enrich themselves.
 
tetris42 said:
By "trucks", I think they mean "rickshaws", then the numbers start to work.
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Might work if you do it like this guy.....hire these guys or pull it yourself ;)
1.jpg
2.jpg
 
Teenyman45 said:
$300K a year gross for the risks and responsibilities of owning and managing an fairly large operations that requires the capital outlays to lease or buy 40 vehicles, a shipping depot, an office and all the personal to drive, maintain, and support that venture.
Click to expand...

I kinda feel that if it was cost effective, they'd just do it themselves, like they did with their planes and trucks.

They're trying to sell that high risk low reward on the people looking to make a change in their life.

BB Gun said:
^someone needs to listen to Steven Pinker to cheer up a bit.


In general, I would agree with DoubleTap post #10.


Also



Meh, it's like the pilot and migrant farm picker problem. It's a shortage due to the pay/work balance/equation. Shift the balance, and the shortage goes away. That being said, it WILL make everything more expensive, and probably have some other, unintended consequences... TANSTAAFL.
Click to expand...


My dad runs his own trucking company and he mentioned how many small business truckers he's seen quit this year, all citing the new ELD system.

You see the prior system of manual logs was easily manipulated, but costs were kept down because of it. Drivers could drive way above their hourly allotments and make more money. Now, the ELDs prevent circumvention, they're tied directly to the truck and will report any time allotment violation. If you're 30min from home and run out of hours? You have to stop or get a violation.

The system essentially made trucking more expensive as drivers have to drive less, so they need more per load to make any money. On top of that, the running clock encourages them to cut corners (speed, hurry, etc.), to try and get as much distance in their time allotment as possible.
 
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This reads like an Amway pitch. Just sign up 40 people to drive for you, then they each get 40 people to drive for them....
 
Hatriot said:
Really. So what business do you run and what do you provide your employees? I would hate to think that you are a sanctimonious, left wing fundamentalist who is a do as I say but not as I do sort of person. Even if you don't run a business, what percentage of your paycheck do you voluntarily contribute back to the IRS on top of what they forcibly take?
Click to expand...

most business owners who dont run organic cupcake shops are hard conservatives. until after they make their first billion and discover inner-liberal enlightenment and then all of the sudden they deny all the hard decisions it takes to get there.
 
I could put together 40 vehicles, 4 trucks 9 delivery drones each.

Truck just cruises along like an aircraft carrier and the drones cycle in and out delivering and recharging. Anything above a certain weight you make a special drop for, just gives you more time for charging the fleet.

End of a delivery run and you return to base, pull a daily maintenance service on say 3 drones, just a quick check up, next day do it all again.

Sounds like you need 2 delivery guys per truck, a clerk, and let Amazon help with all the payroll, taxes, business aspects.

Just an idea.
 
whatevs said:
And who pays for the employees health insurance when the employer does not? Its not magic. Tax payers do. Everyone has some health issue at one point.
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this is so backwards its hard to know where to start. how about when your employer doesnt pay for your health insurance, YOU pay for it?
 
BB Gun said:
Meh, it's like the pilot and migrant farm picker problem. It's a shortage due to the pay/work balance/equation. Shift the balance, and the shortage goes away. That being said, it WILL make everything more expensive, and probably have some other, unintended consequences... TANSTAAFL.
Click to expand...

Not sure....the pay is decent with decent benefits being a trucker. A guy I fish with runs a short load trucking firm and his average driver makes $60k/year with full benefits. If you are willing to not be home on weekends the pay goes way up from there. If you are willing to drive every legal hour you can...hitting $100k isn't too hard. I believe the real "trucker problem" is 3 fold: new medical laws make it harder for people who aren't healthy to drive, people want exciting desk jobs, people can see the writing on the wall that AI vehicles with take field away eventually.
 
Teenyman45 said:
$300K a year gross for the risks and responsibilities of owning and managing an fairly large operations that requires the capital outlays to lease or buy 40 vehicles, a shipping depot, an office and all the personal to drive, maintain, and support that venture.

Seems like a low margin, high risk, high expense headache to me.

On the other hand this does seem like a great way for Amazon to avoid much of the scant remaining labor laws while parasitically capturing and profiting from the delivery side of internet retail instead of paying FedEx, UPS, and the USPS.
Click to expand...

What they need is Uber for package delivery. Random people, instead of picking up people, pick up packages and drop them off for them.
 
Spidey329 said:
The system essentially made trucking more expensive as drivers have to drive less, so they need more per load to make any money. On top of that, the running clock encourages them to cut corners (speed, hurry, etc.), to try and get as much distance in their time allotment as possible.
Click to expand...

excessive speeding is bad, but driving fatigued is just as bad or even worse, is it not?

The next step would be to encourage drivers to not speed with some kind of GPS tracker, would it not?
 
KarsusTG said:
What they need is Uber for package delivery. Random people, instead of picking up people, pick up packages and drop them off for them.
Click to expand...
You mean like a courier?

Or, exactly a courier?
 
Joust said:
You mean like a courier?

Or, exactly a courier?
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Ya, but like uber where anyone with a phone and can pass a quick background check can work whenever they want for however long they want. I bet they would drag half the uber drives away lol.
 
Teenyman45 said:
$300K a year gross for the risks and responsibilities of owning and managing an fairly large operations that requires the capital outlays to lease or buy 40 vehicles, a shipping depot, an office and all the personal to drive, maintain, and support that venture.

Seems like a low margin, high risk, high expense headache to me.

On the other hand this does seem like a great way for Amazon to avoid much of the scant remaining labor laws while parasitically capturing and profiting from the delivery side of internet retail instead of paying FedEx, UPS, and the USPS.
Click to expand...


It doesn't say $300K gross, it says $300K in profit, that's above operating costs, not including operating costs.
 
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