Amazon to Help Employees Launch Delivery Startups
In a separate move, the online retail giant may turn to machines—not people—to pack orders.
May 14, 2019
SEATTLE—Amazon is racing to deliver packages faster and it’s inviting its own employees to quit their jobs and let Amazon set them up in the delivery business, reports U.S. News.
The offer was announced yesterday as the online retail giant tries to increase its shipping time from two days to one for Prime members. According to Amazon, the company will cover up to $10,000 in startup costs for employees who are accepted into the program. The offer is open to most part-time and full-time Amazon employees, including warehouse workers who pack and ship orders. Whole Foods employees are not eligible.
Amazon won’t say how many employees it anticipates will take advantage of the offer. The new incentive is part of a program Amazon started a year ago that lets anyone apply to launch an independent Amazon delivery business. The expansion is an effort by Amazon to control more of its deliveries, rather than rely on UPS, the post office or other carriers.
At the same time, Amazon is rolling out machines to automate a job held by thousands of its workers: boxing up customer orders, according to Reuters.
In recent years, the company has added technology that scans goods coming down a conveyor belt and envelopes them seconds later in boxes custom-built for each item. Now Amazon is considering putting two machines at more fulfillment centers, which would eliminate approximately 24 roles at each one, the report said. Amazon typically employs more than 2,000 people at single facility, and that would amount to more than 1,300 cuts across 55 U.S. fulfillment centers for standard-size inventory.
Amazon expects to recover the investment costs of the machines in less than two years. The unannounced plan shows how Amazon is pushing to reduce labor costs and boost profits as it automates one of the most common warehouse tasks—picking up an item.
The new machines, known as the CartonWrap from Italian firm CMC Srl, can pack boxes much faster than humans. They crank out 600 to 700 boxes per hour, or four to five times the rate of a human packer, sources said. A machine requires one person to load customer orders, another to stock cardboard and glue and a technician to fix jams on occasion.
Amazon is not alone in testing CMC's packing technology. JD.com Inc. and Shutterfly Inc. have used the machines, as has Walmart Inc., according to a person familiar with its pilot.
