Company can’t deliver for online giant

As Amazon confirms a new distribution center in Irving, Texas, an Illinois company that rapidly expanded over the past two years to deliver packages for the digital retail giant is shuttering operations in five states and letting go hundreds of drivers after failing to meet the e-commerce giant’s standards.

The shuttering of Bear Down Logistics underscores the challenges Amazon faces outsourcing deliveries to new, untested companies instead of traditional partners such as United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. It also serves as a warning to Amazon delivery partners that the company is an exacting client willing to cut them off.

Bear Down Logistics will close facilities in Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Minnesota and Illinois, resulting in the loss of up to 400 jobs.

Meanwhile, Amazon will create 1,000 jobs with its

just-completed 1 million square-foot warehouse near the south end of DFW International Airport.

The new distribution deal is just one of several recent Amazon moves to significantly increase its distribution footprint in North Texas.

Amazon is leasing another 465,450 square feet of space in the Interstate Crossing building at 1511 NE Loop 820 in North Fort Worth. And Amazon late last year opened the 419,626-square-foot Eastpoint Distribution Center at 8901 Forney Road south of U.S. 80 in far east Dallas.

Amazon said that it has 16 Texas fulfillment and sorting centers in Coppell, Dallas, Fort Worth, Grapevine, Houston, Irving, Katy, San Antonio, San Marcos and Schertz.