Amazon’s Next Potential Threat to UPS: Using Its Own Drivers for Returns

Over the past decade, Amazon has assembled a vast network of delivery drivers to reduce its reliance on shippers like United Parcel Service. Now, Amazon wants those drivers to start tackling another task that has become a major problem: returns.

In a new pilot program, Amazon drivers will pick up returns from customers’ houses and bring them to its facilities for processing, according to messages the company sent to drivers this month. The pilot is starting at several Amazon warehouses in states including Florida and Texas, and will rely on full-time drivers in Amazon-branded vans as well as Amazon Flex gig workers who use their own vehicles.