Amazon Flexing its delivery muscles?

Sources report that Amazon has been “quietly inviting” the drivers participating in its “Flex” programme to deliver its standard packages, in addition to Prime Now orders. As previously reported by Post&Parcel, Amazon launched the Flex programme  last year as a way of “crowdsourcing” drivers to deliver goods for the Prime Now service in some US markets.

Now, an article published by Reuters today (18 February) has reported that Amazon has sent an email to Flex drivers inviting them to widen the scope of their activities. Reuters also said it had received confirmation from an Amazon spokesperson that Flex drivers in Texas are already delivering Amazon.com packages and not just Prime Now orders.

The world’s media has been bloated with reports that Amazon is looking to build up its own global distribution network to complement/replace/compete with (delete according to your propensity to speculate) the likes of UPS, FedEx and DHL.

The speculation has been spurred by the news that Amazon has leased airplanes and trailers, as well as registering with the US Federal Maritime Commission to become an ocean freight forwarder. Earlier this month, Bloomberg unearthed an Amazon internal management report produced back in 2013 which outline a delivery programme codenamed “Dragonboat”.