The online retailer plans to expand its logistics business to cut costs for its own retail business and potentially provide third-party logistics services to other industries, Reuters reports. Its new status as a freight forwarder, or non-vessel operating common carrier means the Amazon unit can subcontract carriage of cargoes to a ship operator while it takes on legal liability and takes care of customs documentation.
Amazon is already negotiating a deal to lease 20 jets to start its own air-delivery service in the US, the Seattle Times reported in 2015, the source cites. The retailer has also introduced its own truck trailers and started a program in 2015 that uses a fleet of on-demand drivers to deliver packages.
The Federal Maritime Commission, a US government agency that regulates the US-international ocean transportation system, said that a business named Beijing Century Joyo Courier Service Co Ltd, with the trade names Amazon China, Amazon.CN and Amazon Global Logistics China, was registered in its database to provide ocean freight services.
Amazon China submitted its registration request on 9 November 2015, submitting various documents and posting a bond, the commission said on 14 January 2016. The request was reviewed and registered on 13 November 2015. It is the entitys first registration, the commission said.
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