Originally Posted by
tdracer
Amazon primarily uses their freighters to move relatively large shipments between their distribution centers, then sends the stuff out from their distribution centers via local services do the deliveries.
Amazon sells a lot of personal electronics (think Li batteries) hence my initial thought of maybe a cargo fire - but as I noted that's not likely given how suddenly what ever happened must have happened.
Actually, it works this way: (1) customer places order; (2) algorithm determines which DC(s) are going to contribute product to the order, based on a number of factors; (3) box containing material for a specific customer is prepared at each necessary DC; (4) an algorithm determines, for that day, what the best way to send it to that specific customer is (organic Amazon, FedEx, UPS, Ontract, Lasership, etc.); (5) package leaves DC. If it's going to be riding Amazon Air, it goes to the departure airport, where it is built into a mil-style pallet with a cargo net over it (if the flight is not going through CVG) or put into a can (if the flight is going through CVG, where the cans will be unloaded, the packages sorted, and the packages placed in cans for the flight to the destination airport); this may have changed by now as Amazon cans proliferate. The cans or pallets are loaded on the aircraft. At the destination airport, the packages are trucked to an Amazon "sort center" (formerly called an Amazon "postal sort center", PSC), such as Avenel, NJ. There, the air shipments are run through the center along with ground shipments that have been truck line-hauled by Amazon contractors from closer DCs than this package's DC was. The packages are sorted at the SC for last-mile delivery either by the USPS (biggest provider of last-mile for Amazon-organically-line-hauled packages), by a local carrier like Lasership/Ontrack, or more recently by Amazon-hired local delivery contractors or even by AmazonFresh when those trucks are first moving into an area. If it's going to USPS, Amazon-contracted delivery takes it to the injection point, which is usually the DDU (Destination Delivery Unit, meaning the local post office), and the local mailman takes it from there. The USPS doesn't usually touch it until it is dropped by Amazon at the DDU, although in some places with lighter volume it might get injected at the three-digit-zip destination regional center, called the SCF (sectional center facility), with USPS handling it from there.
So what goes on the planes is thousands of to-the-consumer Amazon packages for which Amazon Air is just one of several potential shipment options. At the other end, they get delivered by USPS or Amazon-contracted delivery.
If I didn't say it earlier, it's Amazon's dry-leased plane. Nobody but Amazon gets to put anything on it. Atlas doesn't get to use it for anything other than Amazon Air flights without express permission from Amazon, which as a practical matter they're not going to receive.
If it's going to go by UPS or FedEx, those guys put it into their own network near the origin DC and keep it on their network all the way until they hand it to the consumer (except to the extent Amazon ever uses FedEx SmartPost (a horrible service that I think they avoid) or UPS Surepost (which is a better service that plans for the package to be delivered by UPS to the local destination post office for last mile, adding a day, but which often ends up with the package staying on the UPS network all the way to the consumer if they're going to be delivering nearby that day).