Amazon Prime adds extra delivery charges for some customers

Ecommerce giant Amazon is shaking up its delivery costs for Prime customers in postcodes eligible for same-day delivery.

As of September 18, Prime same-day or overnight deliveries for orders worth more than £20 will automatically be delivered via the fastest available option, without any extra charges.

This means orders will be delivered for free on the same day or by 1pm the following day depending on when the order was placed.

However, those worth less than £20 will be shipped on Amazon's one-day service, or can be upgraded for £1.99 at the checkout. The fee for non-Prime customers will remain £5.99.

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Currently, after a 30-day free trial, Amazon Prime costs £8.99 a month, or £95 a year. Students can expect a discount with fees totalling £4.49 per month or £47.49 per year.

The news comes as Amazon notched what it called its “fastest Prime speeds ever” in the US last quarter. It said earlier this month that it delivered more than 1.8 billion units to US Prime members so far this year, nearly four times what it delivered at those speeds by this point in 2019.

Amazon noted that the average time from picking a customer’s items to positioning the customer’s package on the outbound dock is 11 minutes in same-day facilities in the US, more than an hour faster than its traditional fulfilment centres.

In July, Amazon workers staged their first strike in the UK. The walkout by members of the GMB union coincided with a Prime Day sale. Workers were calling for an hourly pay rise from £11 to £15 following a 50p per hour pay increase offer from Amazon for Coventry staff.

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