Amazon buying 20,000 Sprinters

[busb2]

The Wall Street Journal story this morning disclosed Amazon is purchasing twenty thousand Sprinter vans to be used for order deliveries in order to reduce their reliance on USPS, Fedex etc. The Vans are all to be delivered by the end of 2019. I wonder if this will have a negative impact on availability of new 2019 chassis based Interstates. I have been planing to order a new one as soon as the 2019 chassis was available. Now, I fear the wait might be longer than I had anticipated.

[InterBlog]

That was such a remarkable news release yesterday that I actually texted it to my husband.

Clearly, the Sprinter is here in America to stay (rumors of its imminent death have been greatly exaggerated).

[uncle_bob]

Hi

One would *guess* that Mercedes does fleet deals all the time, all over the world. The difference here is that it's a pretty big chunk of them all on one very highly publicized order. I doubt Amazon wants them delivered all on the same day . Normally down in the fine print there is information on the delivery schedule. If it's a five year commitment ...yawn ...If delivery is a thousand a week starting tomorrow, that would be unusual, but not to crazy.

Unless they all are set up for 4x4 drive, it should just be a drop in the bucket production wise. If they are all 4x4's ... good luck ordering one any time soon .... 4x2 production is around 130,000 a year. 4x4 production is maybe 10 or 20% of that.

Bob

[Tomzstream]

An update on the plant now operating. Will we see any 2019 Sprinters at the coming Winter RV shows?

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/09/05/...outh-carolina/

[nvestysly]

There will likely be production/scheduling/delivery problems with the new Mercedes plant in South Carolina. It's difficult to imagine a plant of this size not experiencing issues when it opens. Will it affect RV manufacturers? Who knows? My crystal ball is a little blurry right now.

The Amazon "Delivery Service Partner" program has been in the news for several months. For as little as $10,000 upfront an individual can start delivering Amazon packages with the idea they can grow their business and add employees over time. My understanding is all of those delivery vans will be Sprinters. Here's a link to one of the articles on the subject:

https://money.cnn.com/2018/06/28/tec...ers/index.html

And a YouTube advertisement for the program:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDM9w1IqlVQ

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

. . .
. . . <snip> . . . Amazon wants them delivered all on the same day .
. . .

And by 4WD drone!

[turk123]

Amazon is looking for 50,000 sq ft. warehouse space in our area and all over the county.

Sadly, the plan is to lease the trucks, uniforms and branding to independent individuals who will clear approximately $30,000 a year. Upkeep, maintenance, insurance is all on the operator. We will see how many take them up on the offer.

The new Amazon company is called "The last mile".

[Mollysdad]

I get packages delivered by Amazon Logistics frequently.
It's incredible. I can order sometimes at noon, and by 8 pm it's at my door, with an e-mail notice, a photo of the package on my porch, and once it told me "The driver has 17 stops before yours."
with a GPS point on a neighborhood map showing his location.

Jeff Bezos might be a tyrant, but he knows how to give customer service.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by turk123

. . .
Sadly, the plan is to lease the trucks, uniforms and branding to independent individuals who will clear approximately $30,000 a year. Upkeep, maintenance, insurance is all on the operator. We will see how many take them up on the offer.
. . .

This has been FedEx's SOP for decades. Lots of sad stories for many owner/operators.

Capitalism -- profits first . . .

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by turk123

. . .
The new Amazon company is called "The last mile".

Wait until they offer caskets delivered to your door [within hours of your bodily demise], host the funeral under the delivery truck's awning, and take the body away!

Don't assume that Jeff Bezos has not seen further down the road than most of us have!

"Never say never . . . "

At least they don't carry Soylent Green yet!

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

. . .
Jeff Bezos might be a tyrant, but he knows how to give customer service.

. . . while he fills Sam Walton's shoes, and destroys more of America's brick and mortar retail industry.

Capitalism's brainwashing at its finest hour!

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

Capitalism -- profits first . . .

Milton Friedman on the Donahue show.

Brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ0-...&frags=pl%2Cwn

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

This has been FedEx's SOP for decades. Lots of sad stories for many owner/operators.

Capitalism -- profits first . . .

Unanswered is the question of how much people think that a contract Sprinter driver SHOULD clear in a year. If not $30,000 as stated, then what?

A Staff Sargent in the US Air Force with 3 years of experience typically grosses $30,589.20 per year, according to the internet, just to pull a random example for perspective. A licensing and permitting specialist position in our state environmental agency can be had for $31,143.96 per year. Must have very strong databasing and computer skills. I work with those databases. That whole system is a bear.

[Tomzstream]

I could have sworn this thread was created to discuss sprinters...

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

That was such a remarkable news release yesterday that I actually texted it to my husband.

Clearly, the Sprinter is here in America to stay (rumors of its imminent death have been greatly exaggerated).

What rumors? Daimler just spent over $500M to build the new Sprinter and Metris plant in Charleston, SC. They are committed to the North American market. The Amazon story yesterday was actually tied to the Daimler announcement of opening the South Carolina plant. But there still seems to be wide spread rumors of shortages of Sprinters here. Likely part of the transition to the new plant in USA.

[InterBlog]

There were rumors to that effect back when MB was reportedly declining to apply for new diesel engine certifications (following the VW emissions scandal).

[SouthForkAS]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

. . . and destroys more of America's brick and mortar retail industry.

Capitalism's brainwashing at its finest hour!

... but a godsend if you live in rural areas. hell, I don't even get (residential) postal service up here. To see FedEx, UPS and OnTrac is a good sign because the closest brick and mortar (WalMart and others) is 25 miles down the mountain and even they don't have what I need on the shelf - I do try to source local first, but... it's a catch 22.
Welcome to the Third Wave (Toffler).
Ive also ordered on the road and had goods delivered (including my special shampoo, coffee, auto parts...!) to my next stop!
Bezos filled a hole and yes, its a "customer first" service, so no wonder he's the richest man on the planet. There's gonna be a foundation soon if he don't have one already (ala Bill and Melinda).
In the meantime, Jeff, ya gotta pay your folks a decent wage, even if it costs me a buck or two more per order.
Oh, and delivery driving is still a losers game (how do I know this?)
Bring on the Sprinters!

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by Tomzstream

I could have sworn this thread was created to discuss sprinters...

Good point, but sometimes ya gotta talk about the cargo that comes with the vehicle.

Just another curve in the road IMO.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by SouthForkAS

... but a godsend if you live in rural areas. ...

It's a godsend everywhere because of the number of consumer trips that we are able to skip by having the goods come to us. UPS and FEDEX combined deliver about 20 million packages daily. For every X number of packages delivered by a *single* delivery van to houses in tight succession, Y number of *separate* widely-distributed car trips by multiple consumers are avoided.

For example, there are 6 houses on our cul-de-sac. Sometimes as many of 5 of us get Prime packages on a single day, and the incremental distance the FEDEX van has to travel to accomplish this delivery is 5*70 feet = 350 feet (we have 70-foot lots in this subdivision, although they are not as wide on the cul-de-sac frontage, so I'm being conservative). If all 5 households instead had to drive to our local Walmart to get those same goods, the total would be 5*4 miles = 20 miles.

350 feet of incremental Sprinter van travel vs. 20 miles of car travel (I'm omitting the distribution center logistics figuring that it roughly cancels out in both cases). Which option puts more CO2 into the atmosphere? Duh.

But nobody promotes that kind of mathematical awareness because the brick-and-mortar blubbering is the more politically correct option these days.

[pcskier]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

. . . while he fills Sam Walton's shoes, and destroys more of America's brick and mortar retail industry.

"Destroying," while accurate, might be a bit dramatic. More like "displacing." He has built a service that clearly, people want. So perhaps it's his customers (dare I guess, you included) who are destroying America's brick and mortar retail industry?
As an aside, I have a Delta shower handheld spray that bought the farm after five years. I bought it on Amazon. I was in Home Depot (hmmm...the 'destroyer' of the Mom and Pop corner hardware stores...) and looked in the bath section for a replacement. They didn't have it in the finish I needed, nor would I expect them to stock *everything* Delta carries. I thought to myself, "This is why Amazon is so successful." Went home and called up my previous order, clicked "Buy Again," and it'll be on my doorstep in a couple days (and that's without me having a "Prime" membership...I'm too cheap and am willing to wait 5-8 days for delivery rather than 2 days...though often it winds up being two anyway.)
Maybe Brick and Mortar needed to be destroyed or displaced, as there are now proven solutions that are simply better.