Amazon’s trial of faster deliveries using Kia Souls involved deploying drivers in four- to five-hour shifts in several U.S. states.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has ended its same-day delivery experiment using Kia Souls, nearly two years after kicking it off in 2023.
Amazon’s trial of faster deliveries using Kia Souls involved deploying drivers in four- to five-hour shifts in several U.S. states. This allowed Amazon to have finer control over deliveries, as smaller vehicles and shorter shifts could be distributed more widely.
However, a Bloomberg report stated that Amazon began contacting Delivery Service Partners to inform them that it will be winding down this particular same-day delivery program over the next few months.
“After more than a year of gathering feedback from customers, DSPs, and teams at Same-Day Delivery facilities, we’ve determined that the DSP model isn’t currently the right fit for Same-Day Delivery and we’ll be moving away from it,” said Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly.
Amazon’s shares were down 1.17% at the time of writing. Stocktwits data showed that the sentiment around Amazon stock was ‘bullish’ over a one-week period.
The company had deployed its Kia Soul-powered delivery program in Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, and Washington. The vehicles used were rentals, and the company said they would be returned to the vendor.
As for the affected Delivery Service Partners, Amazon said they can operate other routes for the company.
The e-commerce giant will also lean on its network of gig workers as part of the Amazon Flex program. These workers use their cars to deliver orders to customers. They can opt in using an app on their phones and pick up orders from Amazon’s same-day delivery depots.
Amazon’s stock has declined more than 4% year-to-date, but it is up nearly 13% over the past 12 months.
For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.<