DELIVERED — BY YOU

Amazon may soon enlist citizen couriers,

Giant online retailer Amazon, which is flirting with the idea of drone deliveries, is also looking at getting ordinary folks to ferry around the parcels.

Modelled after ride-hailing company Uber’s technology, Amazon is working on a mobile application to turn regular people into couriers, instead of relying on traditional shippers such as United Parcel Service or the post office, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The report, quoting unnamed sources, said Amazon would enlist retailers in cities to store the packages, for a fee, where drivers would pick up the items.

Requests for comment from the Seattlebased retailer were not returned.

“It makes a lot of sense to do it economically,” said Marc Wulfraat, president of a Montreal-based logistics consulting firm.

“It makes perfect sense to have John Q Public do this because we won’t have the labour pool.”

MARC WULFRAAT LOGISTICS CONSULTING FIRM PRESIDENT

With the surge in e-commerce sales, not just Amazon, Wulfraat said trucking companies will run out of people to do the work in the next decade.

“It makes perfect sense to have John Q Public do this because we won’t have the labour pool,” said the head of MWPVL International Inc.

However, Wulfraat said he has mixed feelings, citing potential problems including not getting the package delivered, delivered late, or having it left on the doorstep and then stolen.

Or worse, what if an individual, not a uniformed driver employed by a company, forces his way into a home? Those are all considerations to take into account, he said.

Amazon has introduced same-day delivery in certain parts of Toronto and Vancouver, where if an order is placed before noon, the parcel will arrive later that day.

It may not be realistic for most companies to move to “a fluid army of people dropping off packages in their free time,” said Sunil Johal, policy director at the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto.

But for Amazon, just shaving a few percentage points on its shipping bill — more than $8 billion (U.S.) last year — could translate into hundreds of millions in cost savings.

“It’s a cost-cutting opportunity,” Johal said. “For a company like Amazon they expect things to be delivered on time, if it is not getting there on time, it may not be worth the reputational risk.”

Uber has launched a lunchtime meal delivery service in Toronto, tested bike courier service in New York, and delivered sundry items such as toothpaste and allergy medication in Washington, D.C.

Johal said technology applications may give companies more flexible options such as access to a limitless pool of people for deliveries.

The potential downside is for cab drivers and couriers who have some level of income security today. They would see it eroded. “What would happen to people in those jobs as these technology applications put more pressure on their positions?” Johal said.

Elkafi Hassini, an associate profes- sor of operations management at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University is skeptical that a crowdsourced delivery system would work.

“The biggest problem is dealing with the risk — that the person will deliver late, or deliver the wrong item, or deliver to the wrong house, or damaged,” Hassini said.

If it’s delivered by UPS or Canada Post, the customer can always complain about the service directly. “If I see a stranger come to my door, who would I complain to?” he asked.

Unlike traditional retailers, Amazon does not have actual stores, so it has set up lockers in some cities, where customers are given a code to access their item, or actual pickup locations.