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Amazon launches freight brokerage business

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Hot Rolled
Joined
Mar 15, 2014
Location
Midwest
I heard a couple years ago that Amazon was preparing to enter the freight brokerage business. It seems like an antiquated industry rife for disruption.

Are you happy with that industry and the way it functions today?


Amazon's digital freight brokerage platform goes live
April 26, 2019 John Paul Hampstead

Breaking: Amazon's digital freight brokerage platform goes live — FreightWaves

Today, freight brokers and carriers worst nightmare has come true: Amazon has quietly taken its digital freight brokerage platform live at freight.amazon.com, and it is undercutting market prices from 26 to 33 percent.
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Notice how ‘monetize’ comes after ‘disintermediate’. From a cursory review of four lanes in Amazon Freight’s current offering, it’s clear that Amazon is not trying to realize fat gross margins on its brokerage. Instead, it is massively undercutting market prices. Amazon’s new portal is intended for shippers who want Amazon’s rates for full truckload dry van freight in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
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As this table makes clear, Amazon quotes rates to shippers that are below even DAT’s broker-to-carrier spot rates. In other words, in its current form, Amazon Freight is a free, marginless brokerage.
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Monetization will come later, but this is the digital freight brokerage startup model on ‘Georgia overdrive’: massive capital deployed to rapidly scale a network on thin or negative margins and take share. There is no telling how big Amazon wants this business to grow, but at a certain point, prices will creep up as Amazon monetizes the brokerage service to fund further innovation.
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etc.
 
There will be a lot of crying... but having dealt with freight I would welcome the entire industry to become automated. I imagine happy truck drivers hang out with the honest politicians.
 
Its about time someone disrupts the industry, where to begin with my gripes. The flatbed haulers need the broomstick removed, they used to have reasonable rates, then when fuel prices went up they raised the rates, but when fuel prices dropped the rates stayed the same, then continued to rise. The freight class system needs to go, if it weighs 5000 Lbs and fits in a 40" cube it should not matter whether is feathers, scrap metal, or gold. Complete and utter inability to ever arrive within a 4 hour time frame, nor the courtesy to call and let you know they are running late, even though every driver has a cell phone, and most trucks are tracked with gps so dispatch knows they are running late too.
 
Uber has been in the freight brokering business for a while. I get a spam email from them at least once a week. I haven't seen where they have "disrupted" anything.

I'm not sure where Amazon expects to cut costs. Driver pay is already very low. Driver turnover in trucking is over 100% annually.

Most other aspects are tightly controlled by government regulation. They cannot change the hours of service, size or weight of trucks, registration and fuel tax rates, insurance costs, fuel costs, etc.

I would guess they will also not be involved in flatbed trucking in any way.
 
Shipping by LTL is a total crapshoot. I ask my carrier who gets all of my business to ship 5000 pounds of stupid iron from MI to MA and get quoted in thousands. Supplier gets it to me for a bit over $600.00. 2 Pallets show up with the 5000 pounds of retired milling machine tables that I am going to use as welding tables.
Something has to change because what we are doing and how we are doing it has gotta change.
 
When I was in a area with trucks all over,I did favours for the drivers ,and they did favours for me........often I would get a machine picked up locally free (to me),where a company truck was coming back from a delivery empty..........there is also a thing called backloading,where the forward trip pays a lot extra cause there is no freight in the delivery location.......I would often get a backloading done for fuel cost,and bit of a tip to the driver......A really good honest ,integrated system would likely eliminate cheap backloading......As a local example Sydney to Brisbane was $120/ton,Brisbane to Sydney was $20 a ton,the rate being offered to transport scrap metal,and involving a lot of waiting outside a big scrap yard to unload.......owners who didnt like scrap damage ,went back empty.
 
Amazon makes a lot of useful things for people, but for me this option didn't fit at all. I can advise you on how to save the money you will earn. I found the article about financial advisor. This article How To Find the Best Financial Advisor for Your Needs had a few tips on how to manage your budget and save money. This is a kind of financial adviser. I took advantage of these tips and now wonder how much money I have already earned. So, guys, sometimes it's great to make money, sometimes it's better to find ways to organize your budget.
 
Amazon makes a lot of useful things for people, but for me this option didn't fit my spam can. I can advise you on how to hoard all the spam you will earn. I found the article about spam advisor. This article How To Ruin Your Company's Business in Three Easy Steps had a few tips on how blow your cover and ruin your company's reputation. This is a kind of spam! I took advantage of these tips and now wonder how much destruction I have already earned my company's reputation. So, guys, sometimes it's great to make money, sometimes it's better to find ways to spam forums.


Say what, moron...???
 
good to know that amazon ships spam to retirees.
Thanks for the info anne. Are you an orphan who has to make money by annoying others? Does your dog run the finishing deopartment. I know your adopted father has lots of good government contracts to keep the family shop busy.
Bill D.
 
Tesla is up more then 50% in the last six months. that is some financial advice. But it is highly overvalued and I am waiting for it to drop so i will sell it fast once that starts.
It seems like a good machinist could make very good forgeries of old coins and sell them for a profit. Probably best to stick to old countries who no longer exist. is it illegal to forge a coin from the civil war(south) or nazi gernamny? who would be in a position to force you to stop. Ancient roman coins look easy to make. They were forging them 2,000 years ago. Old communist moiney or medals woudl be a possibility. Any one want to be a hero of the revolution?
Bill D
 
years ago a Wells Fargo semitrailer drove from Sacramento to the Federal reserve bank in San Francisco. only one stop at a weight station. When they unloaded they found a hole cut in the roof and many bags of cash missing. Never caught the crooks. So there is some financial advice. Does amazon have armored cars?
Bil lD.

1999 Loomis truck robbery - Wikipedia
 
Years ago a cop friend came by my house to see if I could mill a windscreen support for his T-Bucket.As he was explaining what to do he got a call to go to the Loomis/Wells Fargo center a few blocks away.

Turns out one of the drivers stole over 18 million in cash,at that time one of the largest cash robberies in the country.

He got stuck there all day since two other guards were missing and they had to wait to open the safe to see if they were inside.
I had driven by the place many times and thought that it was just a maintenance facility with all the armored cars that were always parked there.He(Philip Johnson) almost got away with it.He was released after serving 22 years.
 
Back to Amazon,there is a lot of building going on in the park we are in.It was the Imerson Airport until they built JIA in 1970.

I just read that Amazon is building a 1Mil.sq ft center behind us.Thats 4 times the size of ours.I knew Amazon had at least one facility here but it turns out they have three in operation.
The Port Authority has been dredging the river for the post-panamax ships so maybe that's what they are getting ready for.
Blows my mind that Bezos was selling used books out of his garage in the 90's.
For years I've heard that the company wasn't making any money;just how long does it take for it to crash?How much larger can it get?
 








 
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