Amazon Buys Thousands of Branded Trucks

The company said Friday morning it was adding thousands of trailers to its fleet, which is transported by third-party carriers.

Before Amazon made its announcement, Re/code’s Jason Del Rey reported the news, and notes that Amazon only bought the trailers, and not the actual tractors that will pull them.

Amazon has been slowly expanding its direct control of shipments with pilots such as the Amazon Flex service, which uses independent couriers to deliver items to customer homes.

Analyst Ben Thompson recently argued Amazon could be on its way to becoming a logistics giant, particularly given the potential of drones to handle package delivery in non-urban settings.

The company invested in the new trailers to help it keep pace with its ever growing order volumes, an Amazon spokeswoman said.

Amazon may have greater ambitions for the trucks than just inventory management. That network may one day rival those of UPS and FedEx, but for now Amazon continues to rely heavily on outside companies to help it deliver its millions of packages.

“I couldn’t be more pleased that our very first Amazon trailer headed out on the road carrying such special packages-thousands of boxes filled with beloved holiday items and Amazon Fire devices to support troops overseas this holiday season”, Amazon’s Vice President of North America Operations Mike Roth said in the release.

Among Amazon’s recent experiments was a brief trial using Chicago Tribune newspaper delivery trucks to get goods to customers.