Much of Europe is connected by sea and, at Amazon, we are taking advantage of this unique geography to leverage waterborne transportation. We are moving inventory and customer packages by sea as it provides a more efficient, lower emission and faster mode of freight transport.
“We are always looking for innovative ways to transport packages for customers through less carbon intensive methods. In a water-surrounded country like Sweden, we are excited to announce our most recent transportation mode – Amazon Sea – that enables next day delivery to Swedish customers while avoiding roughly a quarter of the carbon emissions”, says Gulfem Toygar, Country Manager, Amazon Sweden.
This is achieved through partnerships with sea carriers, like Stena Line, that operate more than 25 different sea routes that link buildings in Germany and Poland to the ports of Helsingborg, Nynasham and Trelleborg in Sweden.
"At Stena Line we are proud to partner with Amazon as we work together in developing a robust maritime network that allows faster and more sustainable deliveries to Sweden", says Stena Line Head of Freight, Jacob Koch-Nielsen.
When a Swedish customer clicks “buy,” we locate the product within one of our European fulfillment centers and then pick it, pack it, and ship it to one of our sortation centers in Germany or Poland to consolidate orders. From there, it is routed to one of the ports where a truck rolls on board one of the Stena Line ferries to cover the sea route.
Once the truck arrives at a Swedish port, it rolls off the ferry and goes to one of our partners’ hubs in Sweden, like Airmee, prior to final delivery to the customer. Airmee is an innovative Swedish logistics company founded in 2018, also a signatory of The Climate Pledge, that focuses on fast and net-zero carbon deliveries via bike.
"As a technological logistics platform powering environmentally sustainable delivery solutions, we are happy to be working side by side with Amazon. We aim to lead the shift in logistics sustainability in Sweden and already now we provide 100 percent carbon neutral deliveries by using a combination of technology and electrical vehicles”, says Julian Lee, Founder and CEO of Airmee.
As part of our constant effort to offer broader selection and faster delivery to customers across Europe, we are increasing the use of short trips by sea, taking advantage of Europe’s geographic peculiarities. We are currently operating more than 170 sea routes across Europe and this year alone we added over 60 short sea and waterways routes. We will continue innovating and using various transport modes to enable fast, efficient, and reliable deliveries to customers.
