(UPDATED with analyst reactions and Amazon statements)
Amazon introduced on Wednesday the enlargement of its less-than-truckload service past its present inbound-only mannequin to all locations, together with third-party warehouses, distribution facilities and retail shops, including one other piece to a brand new initiative providing end-to-end logistics providers to all companies.
Precisely how the community will function stays unclear as Amazon has a restricted variety of cross-dock terminals for transferring heavy freight. Business analysts mentioned the dimensions of Amazon’s community will initially be restricted, however that Amazon possible will proceed rising its terminal and supply footprint to serve extra prospects.
The information about externalizing Amazon’s partial-load service for transporting Amazon and market sellers’ stock follows final month’s opening of freight, distribution, achievement, and parcel transport to non-Amazon sellers, below the umbrella of the brand new Amazon Provide Chain Companies.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) launched an LTL providing in April 2025 for shippers that don’t require a full trailer, however it was solely accessible for inbound supply to Amazon services, the place items have been saved after breaking up giant pallets and later individually shipped by means of the corporate’s common package deal supply community. Amazon has supplied different restricted LTL capability since 2019.
The retail large says it’s now providing a extra conventional hub-and-spoke LTL community wherein palletized shipments are picked up, transferred at a close-by terminal and delivered to a ultimate vacation spot nonetheless on a pallet at a decrease price than accessible from legacy LTL carriers. It touts a fleet of 80,000 trailers and 24,000 intermodal containers.
“For years, prospects instructed us their LTL freight by no means matched the reliability and visibility of their full-truckload shipments. We constructed an asset-backed LTL service that closes that hole—versatile same-day and next-day pickup, real-time cargo monitoring from dock to door, and devoted LTL-trained drivers. Tens of hundreds of promoting companions have used this service since 2019. Now it’s open for all companies,” mentioned Amazon Freight Director Jim Ruiz, in a press release.
Some analysts beforehand mentioned that Amazon’s full-scale entry into the LTL enterprise may considerably disrupt enterprise for incumbent trucking corporations, comparable to FedEx Freight, Previous Dominion, Saia and Estes. How Amazon’s LTL community is configured is unclear.
However Satish Jindel, the president of ShipMatrix and an skilled trade advisor, mentioned Amazon seems to be working extra like a freight dealer, not an asset-based LTL service. Meaning their competitors could be with corporations like C.H. Robinson and Echo World Logistics.
“They’re attempting to supply a brokerage service. They don’t have drivers. They don’t have vans. They don’t have terminals to kind and cargo and ship and pickup,” Jindel instructed BigRig. “They wish to leverage their relationship as a big LTL inbound buyer to supply decrease charges for pickup and supply of shipments that don’t contact an Amazon facility.”
Amazon’s place is that it owns a community with greater than 100,000 items of kit. That wording, nonetheless, doesn’t essentially imply Amazon owns the property. Many firm’s function own-controlled networks wherein they market the capability, designate routes and set the supply frequency whereas utilizing associate carriers to bodily transport items.
The service seems extra skewed to economic system lanes with three-to-four-day supply home windows, closely counting on intermodal for middle-mile transport and with a smaller protection footprint, mentioned TD Cowen analyst Jason Seidl, in a analysis be aware. Amazon accepts inbound freight at about 115 services, however many of those are merely achievement facilities with no full truck-to-truck switch design. As of the primary quarter of 2025, Amazon had about 74 cross-dock services, he mentioned.
“We proceed to consider Amazon’s expansions may take share from LTLs on the margins with out driving en-masse share exodus. Amazon’s emphasis on using the intermodal container pool for the service suggests the providing will primarily compete with the economic system sub-segment of the LTL market, which is predominantly the turf of ArcBest, TFII and FedEx Freight.,” Seidl wrote.
Amazon mentioned the enlargement of LTL service is a response to market demand and buyer suggestions for a broader rollout.
“The suggestions from Amazon promoting companions utilizing our LTL service was clear: the know-how, visibility, and reliability have been precisely what they wanted — and so they needed to make use of it extra broadly,” mentioned Jim Ruiz, director of Amazon Freight, mentioned in a information launch. “Now Amazon LTL can transfer your freight wherever it must go, servicing locations nationwide for companies of all sizes.”
Companies can ship one to 6 pallets, or between 150 to fifteen,000 kilos, into their warehouses, between their very own services or to their retail companions and distributors, in keeping with Amazon.
Options of the brand new service embody ;next-day reside pickup for orders positioned by 5 p.m., same-day pickup utilizing a drop-trailer technique and standing every day pickups for high-volume shippers. The drop-trailer service includes a unified pool of trailers for LTL and truckload shipments which are dropped at buyer services as a substitute of being unloaded upon arrival.
LTL shippers obtain real-time GPS monitoring, automated appointment scheduling at receiving services, digital proof-of-delivery and a sensor-equipped fleet for cargo safety.
“Whereas LTL possible represents solely a small element of Amazon’s total logistics footprint, we reiterate that Amazon has repeatedly demonstrated a capability to achieve traction in transportation markets by means of a versatile and iterative working mannequin. Consequently, we consider the corporate could possibly seize significant market share even when they’re unable to supply best-in class service ranges instantly,” mentioned Morgan Stanley fairness analyst Ravi Shanker in a shopper be aware.
Amazon Freight, a part of Amazon Provide Chain Companies, spans full truckload, less-than-truckload, and rail providers.
Hypothesis about an expanded Amazon LTL providing has been brewing after Morgan Stanley reported in a analysis be aware early this yr that Amazon was approaching shippers to gauge their curiosity within the service.
Click on right here for extra BigRig/American Shipper tales by Eric Kulisch.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Robots drive $10B Amazon funding for European achievement facilities
Amazon exams e-cargo bikes in Washington, D.C.
Amazon cranks up 30-minute supply in main cities
The put up Amazon opens full-scale, less-than-truckload transport to all companies appeared first on BigRig.