When Amazon Relay goes down

 

Yesterday, Amazon Relay experienced system issues that limited load visibility and booking access for a large number of carriers. If you run Relay freight, you already know how disruptive that was.

Carriers were calling, frustrated and understandably stressed, trying to figure out what was happening.

From what we can gather, there was a system glitch that did something with the phone numbers listed in the portal. The primary phone numbers were somehow switched to secondary which messed up the GPS tracking.  So it looked like loads were not being picked up. This led Amazon to (reportedly) accusing carriers of double brokering loads.  And good luck getting someone on the phone at Amazon, especially if your contract info is off in the system - AI call routing becomes a nightmare as well.

That reaction says something bigger about the pressure carriers are under right now (and probably AI systems). A single platform interruption can derail an entire day of revenue when already running on razor thin margins.  Fixed costs do not pause because the portal is down.

We understand the stress. We work inside this industry every day. From our side of the desk, we see how operational stress turns into underwriting concerns later. Rushed miles, tightened schedules, reactive dispatch decisions. Those patterns show up in loss runs over time.

There is also a larger business takeaway here. When carriers depend heavily on one digital freight source, an outage becomes a revenue event, not just a tech inconvenience. That kind of concentration risk is an operational hazard and a reminder that building resilience into your operation matters. Diversified freight sources, realistic scheduling, and disciplined risk management protect you when the tech does not cooperate.

We also want to say this clearly, we know yesterday cost carriers money. Trucks were parked and loads were delayed. Some drivers lost an entire day of revenue. That is not small. In this market, one lost day matters.

We understand the frustration. We hate that anyone lost money over a system failure they could not control.

Call us at 254-294-7798 or email info@trucku.biz. We quote trucking insurance every day and understand how these operational realities affect underwriting.

Disclosure:

This post is for educational purposes only. It is not legal advice, insurance advice, or a substitute for calling your agent. Truck U is good, but we are not psychic. Policies vary, laws change, and courtrooms get weird. Do not make decisions based solely on something you read on the internet unless it is from us, in writing, with your name on it.