20架波音767——亞馬遜的大手筆

20架波音767——亞馬遜的大手筆

這家世界最大的電商公司宣布，將向航空運(yùn)輸服務(wù)集團(tuán)(Air Transport Services)租賃20架波音767貨運(yùn)飛機(jī)，建設(shè)自己的空中物流網(wǎng)絡(luò)。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

bold 大膽的[b??ld]

freight 貨運(yùn)[fre?t]

disruptive 分裂性的；制造混亂的[d?s'r?pt?v]

capability 能力;容量[?ke?p??b?l?ti]

閱讀即將開始，建議您計(jì)算一下閱讀整篇文章所用時(shí)間，并對照我們在文章最后給出的參考值來估算您的閱讀速度。

Amazon leases 20 Boeing 767 freight jets for air cargo programme （551 words）

By Leslie Hook in San Francisco and Robert Wright in New York

* * *

Amazon is taking its ambitions to the skies with a new agreement to lease 20 cargo jets in its boldest step yet to control its own logistics operations.

Amazon has been expanding its reach into logistics operations over the past year, with truck trailers, shipping licences, new delivery fleets and now aircraft.

The company will lease 20 Boeing 767 jets from Air Transportation Services Group, an air cargo company based in Wilmington, Ohio, that is the world’s largest owner of converted Boeing 767 freight aircraft.

The new deal, under which the jets will be leased for five to seven years, marks the first time Amazon has publicly confirmed its secretive air cargo programme. The company reported $1.8bn in shipping losses last year, its worst shipping losses ever, and analysts said the move could help cut costs.

The agreement raises the question of how Amazon’s move will affect other logistics providers such as FedEx and UPS, which have generally avoided commenting on Amazon’s moves towards handling its own goods. Amazon is a large client of both companies, and about 4 per cent of UPS’s volume is tied to Amazon.

Amazon discovered the potential downside of relying on other companies’ delivery networks over the 2013 Christmas season in North America. UPS’s network became severely congested in December, meaning that many customers received Christmas deliveries only after December 25.

Amazon has been expanding not only its cargo networks but also its last-mile delivery services, which could also prove disruptive to other logistics companies. With the introduction of Prime Now, Amazon’s two-hour delivery service, the company has started using fleets of its own drivers to take packages directly to the customer’s door.

The ecommerce company has also obtained a freight forwarding licence in China, a potential step toward providing large-scale shipping services to companies that sell on Amazon.com.

An Amazon spokeswoman said that the planes would be used in the US and would support growth rather than replacing existing logistics partners. “These planes provide critical capacity expansion to support the growth of Prime in the US,” spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman said. “At our scale, supporting growth requires adding some of our own logistics capabilities.”

However, a spokesman for ATSG said the leased jets had the ability to fly internationally as well. “It’s up to them how they want to use it,” he said.

Colin Sebastian, analyst at RW Baird, said the jets would initially be used to move goods between Amazon warehouses, and between suppliers and warehouses. But he expected Amazon might eventually offer cargo services to other companies, capturing a share of the $400bn global logistics market.

Amazon started testing the possibility of freight operations last autumn, leasing two planes from ATSG in September, and expanding its fleet to five planes in November.

Amazon’s move into air cargo comes at a time when global air cargo growth has slowed, as market uncertainty has pushed shippers towards a cheaper alternative: shipping by sea. Prices for cargo aircraft have plummeted since the 2008 financial crisis, which will have sharply cut the cost of undertaking this change.

In addition to leasing the jets, Amazon also has the option to buy one-fifth of the shares in ATSG over the next five years, at a price of $9.73 per share. Shares in ATSG jumped 19 per cent on the news.

請根據(jù)您所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1. Which one is not mentioned as Amazon’s expanding logistics operations in 2015?

a. truck trailers

b. shipping licences

c. robot delivery systems

d. new delivery fleets

2. How many years will the jets be leased from Air Transportation Services?

a. 3-5

b. 10

c. indefinitely

d. 5-7

3. When the delivery network is really busy in North America as Amazon said?

a. December

b. January

c. April

d. June

4. Which will Amazon do for ATSG over the next five years?

a. manage team

b. develop products

c. buy one-fifth of jets

d. buy shares

[1] 答案c. robot delivery systems

解釋：亞馬遜過去一直在加快建設(shè)自己的物流系統(tǒng)，但并沒有提到機(jī)器人配送系統(tǒng)。

[2] 答案d. 5-7

解釋：Air Transport 表示,亞馬遜去年已租用5架貨機(jī),作為試行業(yè)務(wù)之用,今年底將再向后者提供15架貨機(jī)。有關(guān)租用期為5-7年。

[3] 答案a. December

解釋：亞馬遜發(fā)現(xiàn)圣誕節(jié)前夕物流會非常忙碌，依賴于物流公司可能導(dǎo)致客戶收貨延期。

[4] 答案d. buy shares

解釋： 根據(jù)雙方簽署的租賃合約，亞馬遜公司可在未來5年，以每股9.73美元的價(jià)格購買ATSG19.9%的股份。