亞馬遜通過紐約地鐵遞送包裹

Amazon has seen the future — and it is a pushcart on the New York subway. The online retail giant has started delivering parcels to its Manhattan customers using the city’s underground train network, having discovered what New Yorkers have known for years: it can be much quicker than driving.

亞馬遜(Amazon)從紐約地鐵上的手推車看到了未來。這家在線零售巨頭髮現了紐約人多年來就已熟知的一個道理：乘地鐵可能比開車快得多，已開始通過遍佈紐約地下的地鐵網絡向曼哈頓的客戶遞送包裹。

In December, Amazon started piloting an ultra-fast service, Prime Now, which promises to deliver popular items such as phone chargers, soap and pet food in as little as an hour for $7.99, or within two hours for free. The scheme was launched in New York, but has since been rolled out in a handful of other US cities, including Miami and Dallas.

去年12月，亞馬遜試行了一種超快捷服務Prime Now。這種服務承諾最快在1小時內，以7.99美元的價格遞送手機充電器、肥皂和寵物口糧之類急需用品，或在兩個小時內免費遞送這類商品。這項服務首先在紐約啓動，自那以來已在包括邁阿密和達拉斯在內的其他幾個美國城市推出。

Two delivery workers pushing large trolleys of Amazon parcels on the subway said the company was using underground trains for most Prime Now deliveries because traffic on Manhattan’s gridlocked streets made it impossible to honour a 60-minute guarantee. Both asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

在紐約地鐵上，兩名用手推車遞送大量亞馬遜包裹的員工表示，多數Prime Now貨物都用地鐵遞送，原因是曼哈頓擁堵的路面交通讓60分鐘送達的可能性幾乎爲零。由於公司未批准他們與媒體打交道，這兩名員工都要求不要公開他們的姓名。

Amazon confirmed it was using the subway for Prime Now orders: “In Manhattan, our folks bike, walk or use public transportation. They only drive if the item is large like a flat screen TV.”

亞馬遜確認了該公司正在使用地鐵投遞Prime Now訂單：“在曼哈頓，我們的員工會使用自行車、徒步或使用公共交通方式遞送包裹。他們只有在商品像平板電視那麼大的情況下，纔會採用駕車的方式送貨。”

Amazon’s Prime Now service is part of a push to capture the instantaneous purchases that have so far proven elusive to online retailers, according to Sucharita Mulpuru, an ecommerce analyst at Forrester Research.

福里斯特調查公司(Forrester Research)電子商務分析師蘇乍利達•墨普魯(Sucharita Mulpuru)表示，亞馬遜的Prime Now服務是該公司實現“即時購物”體驗舉措的一部分。迄今“即時購物”仍被證明是在線零售商的一大短板。

“With online retail, one of the fundamental weaknesses is that you cannot get products immediately. This is an attempt to address that,” said Ms Mulpuru.

墨普魯表示：“對在線零售而言，一個根本缺陷就是你無法在購物時立刻獲得商品。這項服務正是試圖解決這個問題。”

However, she warned the service could struggle to gain traction with customers, especially in New York where there are drug stores on nearly every street corner selling many of the same items as Amazon’s Prime Now service.

不過，她警告說該服務可能很難吸引客戶——尤其是在差不多每個街道拐角都設有便利店的紐約。這些便利店出售的許多商品都與亞馬遜Prime Now服務提供的商品雷同。

Ms Mulpuru also suggested some customers might feel uneasy about having their deliveries transported on a mass public transport system. “I wouldn’t want my packages sitting on the smelly New York subway for long,” she said.

墨普魯還暗示，對於通過人流密集的公共交通投遞他們的包裹，部分客戶可能會感到不適應。她說：“我不希望我的包裹長期停留在氣味難聞的紐約地鐵中。”