It seems Amazon wants people to take on their deliveries as independent contractors by investing $10,000 in buying their delivery vans.
Amazon wants you to start a business to deliver its packages
My first thought was why not use bikes for the deliveries?
Then my critical mind went to work questioning the viability of using bikes: won't it delay deliveries? what about rain? will the delivery addresses be dense enough to make it efficient to carry several packages into the same neighborhood on a bike?
Here is the solution I came up with: One van can act as a 'mother-ship' for a large load of packages. Then, cyclists make deliveries and return to the mothership as it moves through a general route central to the deliveries. This way, one van could potentially suffice where multiple vans would be needed in the absence of cyclists.
Obstacles to achieving this idea: 1) will you have to hire the cyclists and pay personnel costs for them, which will make it too expensive to run the business? 2) will Amazon say no because what this deal is really about is selling the vans, so doing the job of multiple vans with one van and multiple helper-cyclists would mean lower van sales?
What do you think? Is there a way for Amazon to use cyclists as part of their delivery system? Why or why not? If they did, do you think many people would want to pick up a few packages and deliver them if they could choose a time that fits into their schedule and allows them to make a few dollars while biking for exercise?