Dive Brief:
- Publicly, Amazon.com is putting out the word that it may have flying delivery drones within the next five years, but its new Amazon Fresh trucks are already rolling out in some cities, and they may provide a secret weapon for reducing dependence on UPS and FedEx.
- Ajay Agarwal, a managing director at Bain Capital Ventures, told Wired that he foresees a day when Amazon and shipping companies become direct competitors, and Amazon's vehicle-oriented aspirations could be signs of things to come as the e-retail giant prepares for such a future.
- Agarwal suspects that "Amazon is going to cherry pick the best routes" in "the most dense communities with their trucks and Amazon Fresh," operating on routes where they could potentially begin making non-grocery deliveries or picking up returns.
Dive Insight:
Agarwal's predictions here may not be based on inside knowledge of Amazon's plans, but his theories make a lot of sense. Also, he isn't the first person to call the feasibility and sincerity behind Amazon's drone announcement into question. News that UPS could release it's own drones quickly followed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' announcement on "60 Minutes," and it's hard to imagine that the company isn't watching its delivery client very carefully to see what it will do next.
