Dive Brief:
- Amazon Freight has grown its dry van trailer fleet to 80,000 units, the company announced on March 26.
- The added capacity provides shippers with greater flexibility during peak seasons and faster response times for urgent shipments, per the release. The company has grown its trailer fleet by 10,000 units since last June.
- “Every trailer Amazon adds to the fleet represents another opportunity for a business to move their freight reliably and efficiently,” Ari Silkey, general manager of Amazon Freight, said in the release.
Dive Insight:
The company said its fleet growth comes at a critical juncture as supply chains continue to brace against evolving consumer demand patterns and sustained resource shortages, and struggle to balance cost with service quality.
Besides added capacity, Amazon said its trailers are also equipped with technology that tracks shipments, resulting in more reliable load execution and reduced theft risk.
Amazon Freight’s scale of growth will likely benefit shippers as it provides more options and may lead to lower pricing, Scooter Sayers, an LTL trucking consultant with Sayers Logistics, said in an email to Trucking Dive.
“As Amazon’s capacity and capabilities increase, there are more opportunities to optimize that capacity and offer a below-market rate, as it makes sense for Amazon to fill that available capacity,” Sayers said.
Sayers added that the trucking industry had been heralding signs that the long-running freight recession was winding down and service demand normalizing. However, that optimism has been curtailed by rising diesel prices due to the conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
He also noted that since LTL capacity hasn’t recovered from the 2023 closure of Yellow Corp. and truckload capacity has shrunk, given the FMCSA’s English-language proficiency requirements, “we had the makings of an end to the current Freight Recession.”
“If we see these and other drivers on the supply and demand side align for capacity providers, that makes the Amazon announcement even more impactful,” Sayers said.
