Amazon

The COVID-19 pandemic-fueled surge in ecommerce creates a growing challenge related to the age-old issue of returns.

The primary goal of the Last Mile Routing Research Challenge is to encourage participants to develop innovative approaches leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and other non-conventional methods to produce solutions to the route sequencing problem.

This independently produced brief offers an overview of Amazon Air’s evolving orientation between September 2020 and February 2021.

Amazon said Jeff Bezos will transition to the role of Executive Chair in the third quarter of 2021 and Andy Jassy will become Chief Executive Officer at that time.

Seattle-based global e-commerce titan Amazon is taking significant steps to expand its growing transportation fleet, purchasing 11 Boeing 767-300 aircraft. This marks the first time the company has purchased aircraft, as it has traditionally procured airfreight capacity through leases.

Amazon purchases eleven aircraft from Delta Air Lines and WestJet Airlines to join the Amazon Air cargo network in 2021 and 2022, the expanded fleet supports Amazon’s growing customer base during a time when people continue to rely on receiving items they need quickly.

Battling the impacts of the global pandemic and handling a massive surge in e-commerce orders, North American third-party logistics providers saw their business remain fairly even in 2020 while the e-commerce portion grew by 28% over 2019.

The report, entitled “Rising Tide: The Rapid Growth of E-Commerce Logistics, 3PL Solutions, Last-Mile Delivery, and the Dominance of Amazon,” addresses United States e-commerce logistics growth, including e-commerce fulfillment and last-mile delivery, third-party logistics provider alternatives to Amazon, and Amazon’s leading market position, among other related topics.

LM Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Drew McElroy, Co-Founder and Chairman of New York-based Transfix, a logistics technology services provider that streamlines shipment data to better help shippers make informed decisions to optimize time and revenues. McElroy offered up insight on various topics, including the impact of COVID-19 on the e-commerce supply chain, market conditions, inventory, management, capacity, and the spot market, among others.

Armstrong & Associates publishes new report that looks at ecommerce impact on 3PL market, logistics costs, and Amazon's dominance.

Amazon continues to expand its workforce as the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in ecommerce activities.

Amazon seeks to add another 100,000 operations jobs, cites opening of 100 new operations buildings in September alone including fulfillment centers, delivery stations, sortation centers and other sites.

This marks a shift from Amazon’s longstanding tradition of leasing aircraft from Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), to operate its air cargo network to serve United States-based customers, and Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, whom provides air cargo services to support Amazon’s package deliveries to its customers.

Retail behemoth Amazon.com took a big leap toward delivering goods from the sky by becoming one of only a handful of companies certified by the U.S. government to operate as a drone airline.