Amazon achieved an important delivery speed milestone in 2023: we delivered to Prime members at the fastest speeds ever globally, with more than 7 billion units arriving the same or next day, including more than 4 billion in the U.S. and more than 2 billion in Europe. Within our operations network, we work with partners to deliver packages to our customers safely and efficiently. We are committed to helping them keep their employees safe, and we offer them access to safety resources, training, and technologies.
How we support the safety of our Delivers Service Partners (DSPs)
As we work to better serve our customers, our vision is to ensure our delivery partners operate the safest transportation fleet in the world, and we work backwards from that vision to find new and innovative ways to get there. Amazon spent over €180 million on safety technologies across our transportation network in 2023 globally, and one of the examples of this investment is in-vehicle camera-based safety technology. Following the introduction of the technology, in March 2024 DSPs in the UK that are using it saw a 27% reduction in collisions detected by this technology compared to March 2023. The same UK DSPs have also seen a reduction in unsafe driving behaviors, including: 73% reduction in Insufficient Following Distance rate, 57% reduction in Speeding rate and 57% reduction in Sign/Signal Violation rate.
We have also recently introduced AI-based Automated Vehicle Inspection (AVI) in Europe, a system that inspects vans when they return to their delivery station at the end of a route, to improve fleet maintenance for DSPs. Drivers simply drive through an AVI archway and over a series of plates equipped with sensors and cameras. With the vehicle still moving at less than 10 kilometres per hour, the AI-based system performs a full-vehicle scan in just a few seconds, identifies if there are any issues, classifies them based on severity, and immediately sends those results to a computer, simplifying inspections and vehicle maintenance for DSPs. We currently have five such systems operating in the UK and Germany and plan to install further this year.
AI is helping to optimise the delivery experience for drivers of our DSPs and we’ve recently introduced improvements to our routing and mapping technology. For instance, we have introduced weather patterns into our routing that we are able to adjust on a local level so that we can build better routes. The routing technology now also highlights the outline of the next delivery building, so that drivers know exactly which property to pull up to as they arrive. To make drivers delivering a package aware of the presence of someone’s pet, the Delivery App also indicates the presence of a dog at a customer address through a paw print icon.
How we engage DSPs into decarbonisation efforts
In support of The Climate Pledge, we’re committed to support our partners in creating a delivery fleet that helps reach our goal to be net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040. To achieve that, we’re transforming our transportation network around the world by inventing new electrification solutions and using alternative delivery methods. DSPs currently operate thousands of electric vehicles worldwide and we have invested in electric vehicle charging stations for our partners to use, with plans to expand this infrastructure.
In 2022, Amazon announced plans to invest more than €1 billion over the next five years to further electrify and decarbonise our transportation network across Europe which is expected to grow to more than 10,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2025. Alternate delivery methods, such as e-cargo bikes and on-foot deliveries, take traditional vans off the road, alleviating traffic congestion in city centers and improving air quality. Now, in Paris two thirds of Amazon orders are achieved with zero-emission last mile deliveries. In addition, we leverage AI to provide safe and efficient delivery routes and reduce delivery times by placing delivery stations and lockers close to the largest Amazon customer populations. This allows Amazon to work smarter based on decades of process improvement and innovation, and to deliver orders both faster and more efficiently.
In Europe, we completely re-wired our approach to operations, inventory placement, and delivery, shortening the average distance each package traveled within our middle mile network by 25 kilometres in 2023 compared to 2022. This has resulted in significant improvements not only to delivery speed, but also to reducing costs and carbon emissions.
