There are many chapters that could fill the book of what is becoming a most remarkable American business story. Yet a chapter that some might skim over is the one describing how Jeff Bezos came to transportation and logistics — and may end up dominating it — from behind.

What emerged from the combination of vision, resources and execution was lightning in a bottle: the ability of a retailer to sell in-house and third-party goods from one website, and then fulfill and ship those orders, measured in the billions of packages, to consumers using its own transport and logistics network. In 2020, Amazon shipped 6 billion parcels, about 4 billion of them in its own network, according to data from The Colography Group Inc., a consultancy.

Today, Amazon operates 815 U.S. facilities, with 262 additional planned, according to MWPVL International, a consultancy that follows Amazon's distribution network strategy.

Bezos also steps away before the launch of what could be Amazon's most ambitious and disruptive program ever: a stand-alone transport and distribution network to pursue shippers of all sizes that don't sell on Amazon's website. This puts Amazon directly into FedEx's and UPS' kitchens, not to mention the many companies in other modes with customers that don't currently sell on Amazon. 

The tactic, at least to the extent that it has been reported, is to soak up off-peak shipping capacity. The long game is to take customers from UPS and FedEx, and co-opt them into the broad Amazon network. That has been happening for years. Merchants who sell on Amazon's site use Amazon Logistics for distribution and deliveries. At one point, a good chunk of those merchants were FedEx or UPS shipping customers.

The program, which was in the pilot stage until it was tabled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will likely be revived in full force once the virus fades from the scene. It has already put Amazon in the crosshairs of FedEx's Smith, who at 76 is determined to blast Amazon out of the water and has assembled an anti-Amazon coalition from multiple slices of the supply chain to do it. 

"I think Fred believes that they can take down Amazon," said Mark S. Schoeman, The Colography Group's president. However, Amazon has the wherewithal to withstand the onslaught, Schoeman said. "Amazon isn't worried about FedEx," Schoeman added. "If it thinks it will be beneficial to build out its network, it will do it."

UPS, meanwhile, has a delicate tightrope to walk. Amazon is its largest customer, accounting for 13.3% of UPS' $84 billion in 2020 annual revenue. UPS CEO Carol Tomé has served notice on large customers that the days of receiving low rates in exchange for high volumes are over. That could hasten what had been expected to be a gradual, multiyear dissolution of the relationship, as Amazon gets as good a deal as any UPS customer.

Multiple people interviewed for this and other stories about Amazon in recent years said the company will accomplish whatever it sets out to do, and that it has well-laid plans that will survive even the most historic personnel changes. Marc Wulfraat, who runs MWPVL International, said there's no chance the shift at the top will alter the company's well-entrenched delivery and distribution strategy. "That train has left the station," he said.

James Thomson, chief strategy officer at Buy Box Experts, a consultancy that helps clients do business with Amazon, said the company should run like clockwork in a post-Bezos era. Not that Bezos is leaving the scene of his $1.6 trillion company.

"Amazon is a long-term-focused firm, and the board is supposed to work on the long-term focus for the firm," Thompson said. As the executive chair, Bezos will "still have his fingers very much on long-term strategy," he said.