UPS is testing electric cargo bikes in Seattle as part of a program to reduce the impact that deliveries have on cities. | UPS

A chilling Amazon investigation shows the importance of ?rightsizing? vehicles on our streets In January, Ellen Kennedy?s 9-month-old daughter Gabrielle was killed by an Amazon delivery driver. He had rented a 25-foot box truck to make deliveries and was driving on a street with a 35 mph speed limit when he rear-ended Kennedy?s Jeep. According to a ProPublica story, the force of the crash was so strong that the baby died even though she was properly secured in a car seat.
Amazon?s relentless quest to deliver packages by the next day?and now, the same day?has caused 60 crashes and at least 10 deaths since 2015, including the death of Gabrielle Kennedy, according to two separate investigations published last week by BuzzFeed and ProPublica. The deaths were a result of Amazon?s Last Mile program, where the company contracts with third-party services to move orders from its extensive network of warehouses to customers?s doorsteps. About half of Amazon?s packages reach their destination this way, helping the company avoid legal repercussions when untrained drivers are forced to rent large vehicles that are not designed for busy urban streets to dispatch packages as quickly as possible.
Last year, truck-related fatalities like the one that killed Gabrielle went up 9 percent nationwide, according to a 2018 report by the National Association of Cit...