Amid postal service problems, new plans for the Amazon rural delivery service. As reported by The Information the new service takes the name Wagon Wheel and will explore the best way to service rural parts of the U.S.
Amazon has long been working on its delivery service in both rural and urban areas trying to improve its offering to customers. One area it has worked hard on is its drone delivery service. It certainly looks very impressive and has recently gain FAA approval.
However, Amazon has had some significant issues with some of its Basics products. A number of these products received dangerous reviews with issues such as spontaneous combustion! However, the company did not recall any of these products in a shocking investigation.
However, this new story of an improved rural delivery service has to be seen as a good news service. As reported by The Verge, this will give greater control over its last-mile deliveries.
Amazon planning new rural delivery service
This new and improved service is designed to stop relying on the U.S. Postal Service in favor of a new in-house reliable system. The new system would rely on shipping hubs in rural areas under a plan called “wagon wheel”.
According to Amazon, a wagon wheel station provides support for smaller shipping facilities. It is not yet clear as to when this new system will launch and exactly what it will look like.
However, the company’s third-quarter earnings call suggests Amazon will continue to invest in its shipping and delivery infrastructure. The company claims they want to err “on the side of having too much capacity”.
Last year Amazon generated $1.6 billion in profit and $3.9 billion in revenue for the postal service. This saw the postal service delivery 1.54 billion packages for Amazon accounting for about 30 per cent of Amazon’s total volume.
Amazon has not confirmed or denied The Information’s report. However, a company spokesperson said Amazon wants to continue “offering fast, free and convenient delivery options for customers provided by our transportation partners, and our internal delivery teams”.
With little specific detail on exactly what the ‘Wagon Wheel’ system will look like it is hard to get too excited about it. However, if it does work out as a success for rural customers it will be of great help to those that struggle to get good coverage from the postal service. Hopefully this system will roll out quickly and efficiently in the near future.