Amazon: Paving the Road to Same Day Delivery
Consumers are relying more and more on purchasing merchandise online. One of the top online industries for selling merchandise is Amazon, and with online sellers’ competition fierce, Amazon is searching for a better way to service their customers by introducing same day delivery, but how would this goal be achieved?
In the past few years, Amazon has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in distribution centers placed in all the country’s major metropolitan areas. Amazon is working to deliver shipments to their customers in hours rather than days. This could revolutionize the online buying market, setting higher goals for all online sellers. But the real question is realistically how this can happen?
If a delivery truck is driving 50 mph for 100 miles, it would take about a 10 hour work day to complete a same day delivery. Factoring in break times, yard times, and other non driving related services, this would mean that for every 100 miles outside of a major city like New York, Chicago, and Atlanta, Amazon would need a distribution center.
A 2010 census reports the top 20 populated cities at having a combined total of almost 117 million people. However, it is only 37 percent the U.S. population of 316 million people. This means that Amazon would need a minimum of 12 distribution center within 100 miles of the top 20 major cities and they would only be servicing 37 percent of the national population.
In order for Amazon to reach their goal of same day delivery for just the customers in the top 20 cities, they would need 12 million distribution centers just to account for the 37 percent of the national population. Though it’s a slow process which may or may not succeed, Amazon is setting the stakes higher for other online sellers.
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