Much like AWS spun out of their in-house experience running flexible computing infrastructure, this would be a natural fit for them to flex their logistics strengths.

Via their multi-channel fulfillment offerings, you can already use Amazon's logistics network to ship your products sold on or off of Amazon. This would just be supporting more type of shipments than just fulfillment.

On the other hand, Fedex, DHL, UPS etc have built a big part of their strengths of shipping worldwide overnight. That's very different than what Amazon does, where they try to warehouse products close to customers to minimize shipping distance and time. Great when you want to buy an iPhone, but not suitable for shipping a document from New York City to Tokyo.

> Much like AWS spun out of their in-house experience running flexible computing infrastructure

Actually that’s a myth (https://www.networkworld.com/article/2891297/the-myth-about-... ). Oddly, unlike most corporate founding myths (e.g. eBay and Pez) it wasn’t invented by company marketing.

Yeah, but most ecommerce operators have no incentive to use Amazon, because you are paying your competitor.

There is a reason most grocery stores are shifting, or have already shifted to, Google or Microsoft for their cloud infrastructure.

>paying the competitor

it's a good point, yet many still use Amazon/AWS regardless. Netflix, for instance (AWS). Then, on the micro-scale: FBA[0] sellers (Amazon Marketplace).

I assume it has to do with the ultra low barrier to entry which Amazon/AWS provides. The convenience factor is off the charts. Nevertheless, I assume Netflix has ideations of following in Dropbox's footsteps.[1]

[0] "Fulfilled by Amazon"

[1] abandoning AWS for self-owned dedicated infrastructure

It's a major issue with AWS across a bunch of sectors. I work at a large SaaS company transitioning to public cloud, the number of companies that contractually obligate us not to host on AWS is at least an order of magnitude higher than any other cloud provider.

"Transportation By Amazon" (TBA) has been a concept at Amazon since around 2010 or so. Originally the concept was that Amazon would accept shipments from business customers and inject those shipments into Amazon's sorting and shipping network using the rates negiotated with various carriers.

Since most of Amazon's negiotated rates with carriers are lower than what carriers offer to consumers directly, customers get lower prices and would benefit from Amazon's scale and customer service.

Now with Amazon's own transportation network finally taking off, Transportation By Amazon has gone from a concept that would have relied exclusively on third-party carriers (e.g. UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc.) to a likely reality with primary reliance on Amazon's infrastructure and supported by third-party carriers where Amazon does not have a robust prescence.

Given how often I've had packages thrown haphazardly by Amazon drivers, I will gladly pay extra to have USPS handle my packages with slightly more care. It's an interesting idea, but their drivers are destroying their image before they've entered the market.

Poor behavior by delivery drivers happens across all carriers, USPS included.

If your package is damaged, I would recommend contacting Amazon customer service and let them know. Based on the way they do scans and metrics, they know who the delivery driver was and it will reflect in the delivery driver's customer satisfaction score.

If there are enough compliants against a given delivery driver, they will probably not remain a delivery driver for long. Amazon wants to keep customers happy at all costs and will quickly sack employees and contractors who fail to meet their standards.

Additionally, I have yet to ever have a driver ring the doorbell. They throw it at the house, mark it as complete, and trust that I’ll stumble across it later.

I would recommend signing up for the Amazon TextTrace delivery notifications. There is a prompt to sign up whenever you place an order.

The notifications will send you a text message to your mobile phone or a push notification to the Amazon app on your smartphone as soon as your shipment gets delivered.

I don’t mind text notices, but it will always have a higher latency than ringing my doorbell. The best though is getting alerts about a delivery and then going on a scavenger hunt to find the package. Will it be on the front porch? Will it be tucked behind a bush? Maybe I left my garage door open so the driver helpfully left it there...

I believe this is what SWA, Shipping with Amazon, aims to do.