Amazon LCV fleet reaches 30,000 units as e-commerce booms

Light commercial vehicle brands Mercedes-Benz, Ford and FCA have had a fruitful year in North America, selling thousands of delivery vans to the nation’s leading online retailer.

Since developing its own delivery network in 2018, Amazon has built a growing fleet of 30,000 last-mile delivery vans, enough to handle about half of the e-commerce giant’s own deliveries.

The latest additions to the fleet will mainly be used to build on Amazon’s small-package delivery in metro areas, consultancy firm Armstrong & Associates told Bloomberg. “There’s going to be an opportunity because e-commerce is growing so fast, and these networks are growing as well.”

Like DHL, TNT, UPS and other major parcel delivery stakeholders, these vehicles come with telematics devices – either embedded or retrofit. Connected fleets like Amazon’s enable smart routing, parcel tracking, enhanced asset management and predictive maintenance. In the case of electric vans, connectivity and telematics allow to plan charging and optimise battery use.

To learn more about connected commercial fleets, parcel delivery and last mile solutions, why not attend the 2020 Connected Fleets Conference in Brussels on January 28 and 29.