Everything is going direct from factory to door bypassing traditional retail. Railroads should be courting Bezos to located next to Intermodal hubs. Of course Bezo could just buy a railroad but highly unlikley
Here is a list of Amazon warehouses-
And just how would railroads help Amazon? Amazon is building their own airline (converting passenger planes to haul cargo), as current logistics flow isn’t fast enough for their dreamed-of less than an hour delivery time.
Can I order 10K tons of coal on Amazon Prime for delivery tomorrow?
I have a magazine article from about 2 years ago written by a clueless twit. It was in a quasi-professional trade magazine. The article said us traditional lumber dealers were going to be run out of business as soon as Amazon got their delivery drones in service. It seems that Amazon would be able to deliver an entire package for a house to the jobsite in 48 hours! Now that’s impressive! An average house probably tips the scales at about 250,000#. How big are the drones?
Apparently the writer of that article was unaware of the large number of people who depend upon such as you to supply them with the materials for their comparatively small projects. I wonder what proportion of your overall business such are responsible for.
I am one who, in years past, took on such projects as building bookcases and cabinets and paneling our living room.
Forget Amazon’s drone delivery fantasies, current FAA rules prohibit commercial drone operation out of sight of the operator and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
In fact, considering the sheer proliferation of drones and their irresponsible use by some I wouldn’t be surprised if the regs concerning same got tougher instead of easier.
Imagine Amazon delivering that material by drone within 48 hours.
Hey, you can only nail up one board at a time! With proper delivery schedules (ever heard of “Just In Time” delivery?), you could get the drones to place the boards where they go and you just wander around with a nail gun tacking them down… won’t need a crane to hoist stuff into position… let the drone hover where the rafter goes! Sounds ideal to me! [8-|]
Given the number of methods (both technological and brute force) for bringing down a drone, I’m not sure I want a package being delivered by drone.
I don’t let my delivery drivers operate outside of sight of their trucks either.[8-|]
The idea of the strategically located distribution centers, is to ensure every customer is one day away. I don’t see how the modern day railroad fits into this business model.
Lot of unresolved issues with commercial drones. I would expect self-driving cars becoming the norm, before we see mass use of drones.
As of now, drones have two practical applications: High dollar military types that only Uncle Sam can afford, that fly within restricted airspace. And at the other end of the cost spectrum as a high tech version of the radio control model airplane, limited in altitude and range with some commercial applications, but today largely in the hands of hobbyists.
Wrong again Chessie.
If Amazon is going directly from the factory to the consumer’s door then just why does Amazon need all those warehouses? The fact of the matter is that they just ain’t doin’ that.
The railroads can, and are, moving the merchandise to the warehouses for Amazon. That’s what the rails can do and, in fact, it’s all they’ve done for years. It is not possible to deliver a new toaster to a house by rail.
Get real or get gone.
Sometimes I think critical thinking is a dying art. The words “think it through” just don’t seem to resonate with some folks.
[quote user=“BaltACD”]
Can I order 10K tons of coal on Amazon Prime for delivery tomorrow?
[/https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Lump-Coal-Naughty-Gift/dp/B005NI79DK
The Sears catolog has been doing what Jeff Bezos and Amazon have been doing for years. Nothing new here and the railroads worked quite well delivering boxcars of new stoves and washing machines to the wareshouses. Matter of fact my family picked up our washing machine at the Sears Warehouse in Downtown Cleveland in the 1970s and it still works!
Don’t expect that. UAS ops are a procedural issue, not a technological one. Self-driving cars are still a technological issue. There’s no reason that right now today, beyond procedural issues, that UPS and FedEx (and DHL and Cargolux and so on) couldn’t be flying fully autonomous freighters. You’re also way underestimating the commercial applications in day to day use. No one is ever going to be delivering pizzas with them, but their applications for live news coverage, site surveying, quick turn mapping, earth sciences, and so on are huge and already in service.
The fire service is slowly starting to embrace their use for evaluating the fireground. One precept of incident command is an initial “360,” ie, a trip around the fire building to see what’s going on on all sides. This isn’t always possible from the ground - a UAV can easily pull it off with most buildings.
Ongoing assessment is much easier as well. Just have to dedicate someone to do the flying.
UAVs can also be useful in hazmat situations - equipped with both standard and IR cameras, a UAV can dart in and out in a fraction of the time it would take humans, and at less risk to the humans (think bomb squad robot).
One part of the fire service that has not embraced UAVs is forest fires - where private UAVs have interfered with air ops on several occasions. They can be useful for smaller wildfires, but once the big boys start flying, the UAVs should stay on the ground.
[quote user=“NittanyLion”]
BLS53
Firelock76
Forget Amazon’s drone delivery fantasies, current FAA rules prohibit commercial drone operation out of sight of the operator and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
In fact, considering the sheer proliferation of drones and their irresponsible use by some I wouldn’t be surprised if the regs concerning same got tougher instead of easier.
Lot of unresolved issues with commercial drones. I would expect self-driving cars becoming the norm, before we see mass use of drones.
As of now, drones have two practical applications: High dollar military types that only Uncle Sam can afford, that fly within restricted airspace. And at the other end of the cost spectrum as a high tech version of the radio control model airplane, limited in altitude and range with some commercial applications, but today largely in the hands of hobbyists.
Don’t expect that. UAS ops are a procedural issue, not a technological one. Self-driving cars are still a technological issue. There’s no reason that right now today, beyond procedural issues, that UPS and FedEx (and DHL and Cargolux and so on) couldn’t be flying fully autonomous freighters. You’re also way underestimating the commercial applications in day to day use. No one is ever going to be delivering pizzas with them, but their applications for live news coverage, site s
Well my boss was just given a choice he can keep serving Walmart which makes up about 10 percentage of all our backhaul loads or keep Amazon which is less than 1 percent. Walmart is banning carriers that serve both from having contracts with them at all.
Now if they apply this equally to all carriers then it is going to get interesting in a hurry. Your talking the 2 of the larger receivers in the nation for all types of goods. Wonder how this is going to play out with the big boys.