Report: Amazon Purchasing Class 8 Day Cab Tractors

A report in Business Insider seems to confirm speculation that Amazon is currently building up its long- and regional-haul capabilities in preparation for launching a proprietary logistics division in the near future.

The rumors about Amazon setting up a Class 8 fleet and eventually going head to head with global logistics companies like UPS and FedEx appear to be true.

A report from Business Insider – primarily citing field observations from alert truckers – confirms that the ecommerce behemoth is acquiring a fleet of day cab tractors and trailers. The story seems to confirm speculation that Amazon sees establishing its own global logistics division as a key enabler of long-term growth. Amazon declined to comment directly on the Business Insider story, but did point to a recent video posted online by Dave Clark, the company’s senior vice president of operations, which showcases Kenworth and Freightliner tractor-trailers pulling up to a modern jet cargo plane. (The Business Insider story incorrectly identifies one of the tractors as a Volvo.)

The story reports that the Amazon fleet is comprised of Kenworth and Volvo day cab tractors. A spy photo, used in the story and taken by Brad Phipps, shows a lot of Amazon-branded Kenworth day cabs apparently waiting to be assigned to Amazon freight depots. Kenworth declined to comment on the Business Insider story, while Volvo simply confirmed that Amazon “is a customer.”

For now, there is still no official comment from Amazon concerning its intentions to enter the regional- or long-haul trucking markets – nor any indication as to the size or scope of any logistics operations it is planning.

However, the evidence at hand paints a picture of a retail giant actively working to place some, or even a high percentage of its global parcel shipments under its own control.