If you have been following the news from the express and e-commerce industries lately, you could be forgiven for thinking that the big U.S. integrators are in serious trouble, trembling at the thought of Amazon not only pulling its business from UPS and FedEx, but also competing for their remaining business.
Last week, the U.S. Postal Service announced an increase on several shipping products used by online retailers, including Flat-Rate Priority boxes. On average, rates increased 9.5 percent in the first price hike on commercial Priority Mail in three years.
Hermes, operator of a business-to-consumer parcel shop network in Europe, has partnered with Dynamic Parcel Distribution (DPD) and General Logistics Systems (GLS) to form a new joint venture, ParcelLock GmbH.
California-based drone manufacturer, Matternet, plus DHL's "parcelcopter" prototype unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), both plan to begin testing their airworthiness with actual payloads in the next two months.
E-commerce giant Amazon handled the warehousing, packing and shipping of 1 billion items last year for merchants that are part of its fulfillment program.