Casper and Gillette are the envy of the Cowboy State right now, each with a new Amazon facility that promises to speed package deliveries for those customers living within a 60-mile radius of the new centers.
Amazon’s Regional spokesman for Wyoming and Montana, Scott Seroka, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that he can’t say whether more distribution centers are coming to other Wyoming cities, like Cheyenne, Sheridan or Jackson anytime soon but said the decision to open a warehouse is always data-driven.
“Amazon follows the data on where our customers are,” he said. “It’s based on volume and demand.”
Weather-related delivery problems were not the reason for the new centers, Seroka added, although weather has contributed to some delivery issues in the past. Like the time more than 13,000 packages landed in Cheyenne in early January.
The U.S. Postal Service closed three postal facilities and reallocated staff to focus on sorting and delivering the huge influx of packages. Part of the reason for that, according to postal officials at the time, was lack of labor.
Amazon has also been adding secure lockers and drop-off points to the Cowboy State, so that customers can choose an alternative drop-off point if they won’t be home or if porch pirates have been a problem for them.
Secure lockers or drop-off points can be accessed when customers are making an order and appear as an alternative delivery point in the ordering screen, Seroka said.
Flex Drivers
Drivers for the two centers are part of the Amazon Flex system.
“The drivers operate independently much like an Uber driver might work,” Seroka said. “They use their own vehicle, and they have an app where they sign up for shifts and routes.”
Flex drivers cover their own costs, including fuel, car maintenance and tolls, if any, Seroka explained. Packages are loaded up into the Flex drivers’ personal vehicles, and they follow whatever route they are given by the app.
“You use the app to scan the package so we can track that it’s gone from the delivery station to the flex driver to the customer’s house,” Seroka said. “So, we will know that order (has arrived.)”
During holidays, Amazon sees a 30 to 40% increase in volume based on customer orders, Seroka said, and that has put deliveries at about 4,000 per day at each center right now.
That’s up dramatically from when these centers started.
“That’s about 100 flex delivery driver routes,” he said. “Casper on day one, which was Oct. 24, delivered 770 items with 25 drivers. And then, in Gillette, it was kind of the same. They delivered 600 items with 20 drivers on their first day, which was Oct. 3.”
Mixed Reviews
Gillette customers had mixed reports on the effectiveness of their center in the Facebook group Gillette, WY Rants and Raves uncensored!
A poster, Tayy Elks, reported proof of delivery photos that had the wrong house and number two days in a row, while another poster, Ruth Peltier, reported two Amazon packages delivered a quarter of a mile away from her house — despite delivery messages claiming these packages were left on her back deck.
Others, though, reported good experiences, like Laura Wilkinson. Her Amazon driver rang the doorbell when she was standing near the front door. She opened it and picked up the package before the driver even had a chance to photograph it.
“So I hold my package up like I just received ‘student of the month’ and smiled,” she said. “He giggled and said, ‘Thank you.’”
A Facebook group has already appeared for Casper residents, called Casper Package Recovery (Missing/Lost/Stolen/Found). It was founded Nov. 26.
Misty Mason Sulzman reported in a post dated Dec. 2 that that five of her packages were sent to the wrong address in the past month.
“The first time they sent a replacement,” she said. “Now I just get a refund. It’s been going to one street over, and now those neighbors are just plain annoyed with me.”
Sulzman said she’s called multiple times with the same issue.
“Not sure what I can do,” she wrote. “Dreading Christmas coming up and packages not being delivered to the right place.”
Kenyne Brown, meanwhile, said in a post dated Dec. 3 that he is “battling the new Amazon Hub delivery system” and hates it.
“Packages never delivered when they say they should be,” Brown said. “If anyone else is experiencing it, too, please reach out to Amazon and tell them. Maybe if enough complaints come in, they will fix it. Thanks!!”
Seroka said he feels the company’s track record is still great on deliveries even if it’s not perfect — though he had no specifics on how many packages were reported mis-delivered.
The Amazon Flex delivery warehouse in Casper is one of the state's first two hubs in Wyoming. The other is in Gillette. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Workers at the Casper Amazon Flex location sort packages for delivery. (Courtesy Amazon) 
The Amazon Flex delivery warehouse in Casper is one of the state's first two hubs in Wyoming. The other is in Gillette. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Rural Delivery Issues
One person in the Cheyenne area who is looking with some envy at the new centers in Casper and Gillette is John Ramer, executive director for the Kindness Ranch Animal Sanctuary.
Ramer has experienced a number of delivery problems in recent times, and said the problems have continued.
So far, he has no real solutions for better deliveries. Signs are pointing to potentially worse delivery issues in the future, with the USPS planning to move most of Wyoming’s large mail processing capabilities to Casper and Billings, putting lots of packages on the road between Wyoming and those cities.
“Just yesterday (Dec. 15) we placed an order for almost $4,000 worth of really heavy canvas tarps to cover some of our equipment for the winter,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “And even though we have Amazon Business Prime, where they supposedly promise us that it’s one- or two-days shipping on most items, and they still charged us $120 for shipping, those (packages) won’t get here until after the New Year.”
Ramer said delivery problems are just “brutal” for the ranch. Most of the time, the issues seem to be with UPS.
But Amazon Business Prime doesn’t work as advertised either in his experience, he added.
“I would love it if they would put one of these centers in Cheyenne,” he said. “Up until about two years ago, we could rely on overnight delivery out here regularly. But now it’s $800 a year for Business Prime with free overnight shipping, and it just never works for us.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
