Amazon is reuniting its air, ground transportation and sort center teams under one connected network for middle mile operations, Raoul Sreenivasan, VP of Amazon Transportation Services, announced in a LinkedIn post last week.
"When packages leave a fulfillment center and make their way to a delivery station, on the ground or in the skies, that’s the Middle Mile," Sreenivasan said. "Bringing these operations together as one team means faster decisions, sharper planning, and a more seamless journey for every package we move."
The organizational combination, which occurred Monday, doesn't involve any direct changes for how packages flow within Amazon's fulfillment network, according to Amazon. However, having Sreenivasan spearhead the group will enable employees to more easily work across teams and benefit from improved visibility, per the company.
Sreenivasan took on the leadership role for Amazon Transportation Services – the "middle mile" organization for the e-commerce giant – in August after nearly three years as VP of Amazon Global Air, per his LinkedIn profile.
“Raoul’s been an exceptional leader for Amazon Air, driving impact across the company and building a world class team," an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Supply Chain Dive. "Our senior executive team trusts in him and believes now’s the right time to bring our air and ground operations together so he can continue doing really cool things for our customers.”
Amazon Air, ground transportation and sort center operations had been combined in the past, according to Amazon. The company did not provide further information on when that was the case previously, or why it shifted to a separate reporting structure.
The return to a single leader overseeing middle-mile operations will reduce friction between teams, Derek Lossing, founder of Cirrus Global Advisors and a former logistics leader at Amazon, said in an email. The air team plays a critical role in fulfillment and delivery speed for a portion of packages, but it "can’t operate without solid execution by linehaul or sort centers," he added.
The organizational change comes as Amazon pushes for faster delivery speeds while navigating heightened transportation costs tied to escalating fuel prices. In Q2, the company's fulfillment network "made progress optimizing inventory placement, shortening shipping distances, reducing touches per package and improving consolidation rates," SVP and CFO Brian Olsavsky said on a July 30 earnings call.
