How many Amazon vans does it take….

Often see quite a lot of Amazon vans on the Edinburgh bypass so today I counted them. In a ten minute journey from Gilmerton to Baberton I counted 25 Amazon delivery vans. No wonder JB is a billionaire.

Aye, plenty of them…and they all seem to want to remain in a line together. Fine when the road isn’t busy but a headache when th traffic starts being squeezed and they all decide to try and change lane.

My son did a few weeks working for a delivery partner when he was ‘in between jobs’. The van’s generally don’t go that far – they usually spend a whole day delivering in one small area. Van picked up from delivery centre, driven out to a specific town/village, then literally from street to street making deliveries, then back to the depot.

Whatever you think morally of Amazon as a business, their delivery logistics and planning is quite remarkable.

I’ve never seen one of these Amazon wagon trains.

See the grey vans all the time individually obvs.

I don’t recall seeing any articulated lorries with Amazon branding though, which is surprising when I think about it.

Often see quite a lot of Amazon vans on the Edinburgh bypass

And that’s only part of the picture – for every branded van, there will probably be ten unmarked vans and beaten-up old VW Golf’s. Last Christmas I took a delivery from an old guy (almost pensioner age) in an Audi Q4 eTron (or something like that)

If you time it wrong you can sometimes get stuck at the A195/A194 roundabout at Follingsby Park while they all stream out of the industrial estate. Sat there once while what seemed like 20 vans went past in a row.

Last Christmas I took a delivery from an old guy (almost pensioner age) in an Audi Q4 eTron (or something like that)

Was he wearing red and white, and had a bushy white beard?

The big Amazon Shed is just north of the Queensferry crossing , I’ve seen this convoy a while back but how do they time it for everyone to be loaded and head out at the same time ? Maybe just had a meeting over strike action as they are meant to be tough with conditions and pay as well as how much time you spend in the bog

Guessing the vans are all loaded up overnight, or there’s hundreds of people loading dozens of vans at a time.