Shares of delivery companies FedEx and UPS are falling in Friday premarket trading following a report that powerhouse Amazon is readying its own delivery service for businesses.
Rumors have swirled for a while that Amazon.com Inc. was looking to bring some of its delivery services in house as the company looks to have more control over the increasing number of packages that it ships. On Friday The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, said that Amazon is planning a new service called "Shipping With Amazon" that will allow it to pick up packages from businesses and deliver them to consumers. The service is expected to start in Los Angeles and then expand further.
The report comes one day after Seattle-based Amazon announced that it's launching a two-hour delivery at Whole Foods this year to those who pay for its $99-a-year Prime membership. Amazon has been pushing more aggressively into delivery for a while. In August 2016 the company unveiling its first branded cargo plane, one of 40 jetliners that were expected to make up its own air transportation network.
Shares of United Parcel Service Inc. declined more than 5 percent before the market open, while FedEx Corp.'s stock dropped 4.5 percent. Amazon's shares rose slightly.
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