Amazon.com may be thinking of upending the archaic ways of the trucking business and, in the process, could be getting into a head-to-head race with a prominent local startup where Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is an investor.By 
 
 and 
 
Seattle Times business reporters
Business Insider is reporting, citing a confidential source, that Amazon is working on a service that would connect truck drivers with shippers, a move that would highlight the company’s multipronged foray in the world of logistics.
Such a service would make quite a splash in a world where brokers usually make these connections using old-fashioned phones and email, for a fee. Amazon declined to comment on the report.
If true, Amazon’s move could deliver a huge dose of competition to a small flurry of startups that have started to modernize the massive but relatively staid trucking industry.

Seattle’s Convoy, run by former Amazon employee Dan Lewis, has gained significant ground in the business since it was founded last year. The company has raised more than $18 million from a roster of big-name investors, including Bezos, through his personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions.
The startup declined to comment.
Convoy, based in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, develops software that matches trucking companies that have empty vehicles with companies that need to ship freight.
Convoy aims to replace the traditional practice of using third-party brokers to match trucks and shippers. Instead, with Convoy’s app or website, a shipper enters details of what needs to be moved and where it needs to go, and the software spits out a price for the job. Qualified drivers are then alerted to accept the job. Convoy takes a percentage of the sale of each delivery. It does not disclose its cut but says it is less than 20 percent.
At this point, it’s unclear what shape the Amazon service will take. It could be similar to Convoy’s, or it could be aimed at tapping independent truckers to handle long-haul transportation for Amazon. Or it could be like AmazonFlex, an Uber-like app where drivers sign up to deliver packages for Amazon on customers’ doorsteps.
Another possibility — if far-fetched, because of the enormous size of Amazon’s needs — could be that the company could enable shippers to use space in the fleets of trucks Amazon itself operates.At Amazon, the trucking work seems to be taking place within an organization dubbed “Middle Mile Transportation Technology.” A job posting highlighted by Business Insider mentioned “an exciting and confidential initiative” within that unit, which the posting described as focused on building software to speed up and lower the cost of deliveries. The same group developed AmazonFlex.
Rachel Lerman: rlerman@seattletime