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Amazon posts self-delivery record in July, consultancy says

Behemoth self-delivered two-thirds of U.S. parcels last month, ShipMatrix says

Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) self-delivered two-thirds of its U.S. parcels in July, nearly 12 full percentage points ahead of 2019 levels and an all-time monthly record for the e-tailing, shipping and logistics giant, according to data from consultancy ShipMatrix.

Amazon also surged past former partner FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) in total July volumes, according to ShipMatrix. Amazon handled 415 million shipments last month, while FedEx handled 311 million, ShipMatrix said. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) handled 701 million shipments, while UPS Inc. (NYSE:UPS) moved 481 million, according to the data.

Of Amazon’s July delivery total, 274 million parcels were self-delivered, ShipMatrix said.

In the second quarter, Amazon handled 1.167 billion shipments. Of those, 712 million, or 61%, were self-delivered, ShipMatrix said. That is up from 47.4% in the 2019 quarter.


Not surprisingly given the e-commerce ordering surge due to the coronavirus pandemic, all four carriers recorded strong double-digit volume increases in the second quarter, and extending into July. Amazon’s quarterly volumes grew 47.9% year-on-year, while its self-delivered volumes rose a whopping 90.4%. Its July volumes increased more than 45% year-on-year, while self-delivered volumes increased more than 75%, according to the data.

Of the other three carriers, USPS recorded by far the highest volume growth during both periods. UPS was a distant second, and FedEx was third. Amazon is UPS’ biggest customer, while FedEx and Amazon have no relationship in the U.S. after the companies terminated their domestic air and ground contracts in 2019.

Amazon has made no secret of self-delivering more of its traffic. However, the massive demand spike over the past four months gave the company little choice but to handle more of its own goods, especially since other carriers were equally swamped. 

Amazon also didn’t have FedEx to turn to as it has in years past. In turn, FedEx’s relative laggard status — its parcel volumes still rose 19.2% and 21.5% in the second quarter and in July, respectively — may have been due to the absence of Amazon business. Satish Jindel, ShipMatrix’s founder and CEO, was not immediately available to comment on the data.


Mark Solomon

Formerly the Executive Editor at DC Velocity, Mark Solomon joined FreightWaves as Managing Editor of Freight Markets. Solomon began his journalistic career in 1982 at Traffic World magazine, ran his own public relations firm (Media Based Solutions) from 1994 to 2008, and has been at DC Velocity since then. Over the course of his career, Solomon has covered nearly the whole gamut of the transportation and logistics industry, including trucking, railroads, maritime, 3PLs, and regulatory issues. Solomon witnessed and narrated the rise of Amazon and XPO Logistics and the shift of the U.S. Postal Service from a mail-focused service to parcel, as well as the exponential, e-commerce-driven growth of warehouse square footage and omnichannel fulfillment.