Conference Agenda

In the Amazon linehaul transportation marketplace, Amazon acquires capacity to ship truckloads in its middle mile network, and provides capacity to external shippers. Because of Amazon’s high shipment volumes and commitment to rapid delivery of goods to customers, some capacity is most efficiently acquired long before it is utilized, while some capacity is best acquired immediately preceding its use. Amazon’s large internal demand for linehaul shipping means that Amazon is well-positioned to do this, acquiring a portion of capacity through medium and long-term contracts before specific demand for that capacity is identified, while delaying the acquisition of dynamically priced spot capacity for highly uncertain demand. At Amazon, we have developed a transportation marketplace, and a series of models and tools, that allow Amazon to use pricing levers to optimize its transportation capacity portfolio. This approach enables Amazon to effectively align capacity risk, supply risk and price, and to provide carriers and shippers with tools to effectively manage their operations. We give an overview of this marketplace and survey some of the models that we have built to balance and price our capacity portfolio.

Joint work with: Idil Arsik, Timothy Jacobs, Goutam Kumar, Roger Lederman, Priyanka Mhatre, Mohsen Moarefdoost, Jacob Tutmaher