San Francisco, Feb 15 (IANS): Hundreds of people in the US face job losses as Amazon is severing relationships with several small delivery contractors across the US apparently due to "safety" concerns, the media reported.

While Amazon delivery partner Bear Down Logistics was cutting 400 jobs, Seattle-based Delivery Force was laying off 272 workers, according to the reports.

According to a report in GeekWire, Amazon said these firms were found short of meeting the safety or performance requirements.

In a bid to help entrepreneurs start delivery businesses, Amazon launched an initiative called Delivery Service Partners in 2018. Although they operate independently, the DSPs receive support and training from the e-commerce giant.

"Prior to launching the DSP programme to empower entrepreneurs to build their businesses with Amazon, we contracted with a number of small logistics companies," Amazon was quoted as saying in a statement.

"Some of these companies have not met our bar for safety, performance or working conditions, and we're in the process of exiting them from the programme. We are planning for there to be zero or very little net job loss in these communities because nearly all impacted employees of these companies will have an opportunity to move into other delivery driver roles with Amazon partners," the statement added.

Amazon is now delivering 50 per cent of packages itself, according to recent Morgan Stanley estimates reported by CNBC.

Global courier company FedEx last year decided not to renew its air shipping contract with Amazon.