What happened in 2025 and 2026
| Published | Source | What it reported |
|---|---|---|
| September 4, 2025 | Transport Topics | DSPs reported repair bills of $20,000 or more per van when vans were redeployed, one DSP was told repairs on several vans would cost more than $100,000, and some manual inspections came in at more than ten times the estimate from the Pave photo-based estimate app Amazon used. Amazon said DSPs could always review and contest repair invoices, acknowledged some underestimated costs and some costs passed along in error, paused the redeployment program, and set a deadline to contest charges from April onward. |
| May 1, 2026 | Tullis Consulting | Described repair bills above $50,000 per van during redeployments after what it called the van transfer crisis of late 2025, and advised time-stamped photos of every van before and after every shift. |
| June 4, 2026 | DEFT | Reported that over 90 percent of DSPs it heard from saw significant spikes in fleet costs, and that departing owners faced surprise repair bills sometimes above $20,000 per vehicle. |
Read the sources yourself; the links are at the bottom. What they agree on: the final bill for a van leaving a DSP can be far larger than anyone expected, and the DSP that can show the van's condition, with dates, has the stronger hand when it contests one.
Before a van leaves: the condition record
The bill you will be asked to pay describes the van's condition on the day it was inspected. Your defense is a record of its condition on the day it left you. Make one for every van that is going back, being turned in or moving to another DSP.
- Photos from the same fixed angles every time: four corners, each side, the front and rear, the roof if you can reach it, the cargo area, the cab, the tires and the dashboard with the odometer.
- The odometer reading, fuel or charge level, and the number of keys.
- A list of known damage, each item matched to the photo that shows it, and whether a repair order already exists for it.
- The date, the time, who took the photos, and where.
Keep the original photo files, not only screenshots, because the files carry their own timestamps. Store them by van and date so you can find them in six months when the bill arrives.
The same habit helps day to day. A pre-trip inspection with photos at the start of each shift gives you a running condition history for every van, which is what Tullis recommends.
Estimates, approvals and the final bill
For repairs you authorize while the van is yours, keep three numbers on every repair: the estimate you approved, the labor rate on it, and the final cost. Compare the labor rate with the rate you agreed with that shop before you approve, and write down who approved anything above it.
When the final bill comes in, put it next to the estimate. A bill more than 10 percent and at least $25 above the approved estimate deserves a question, because shops need your approval to go over. The approval may have been given by phone, so check with whoever handles repairs before you dispute.
For a bill on a van that has left, ask for the inspection it rests on: the date, who inspected the van, the photos and the line-by-line estimate. Compare every damage item with your condition record. Damage that isn't in your photos from the day the van left is the strongest thing to contest.
Charges to question
- Repairs above the approved estimate, as above.
- Repairs covered by AMP, Amazon's maintenance program, that still appear on a fleet invoice as a charge to you. This only works if your team recorded coverage when the repair was approved.
- Duplicates: the same repair, or the same fee, billed on two invoices or twice on one.
- Damage your condition record shows was already there and already repaired, or wasn't there at all on the day the van left.
Follow the contest process in your agreements and keep the deadline in front of you. Transport Topics reported that in 2025 Amazon set a specific date by which DSPs had to contest redeployment charges.
Keeping the paper trail per van
One folder per van, by unit number and VIN, holding: the condition records with dates, every repair order with estimate, approval and final cost, AMP coverage for each repair, the inspections, and every bill and dispute. When a bill arrives for a van that left eight months ago, everything you need is in one place.
The fleet invoice audit guide covers the monthly checks that use the same records.
How SXT Ops handles this
On the Station plan ($399 per station per month), every repair order runs from estimate to back in service with the estimate, labor rate and final cost, the estimate's labor rate is checked against the vendor's approved rate, and a repair can't be approved until your team records whether AMP covers it. Drivers' pre and post-trip inspections in the driver app carry photos, with location and device data removed. On the Station + Back office plan, fleet invoice checks flag AMP-covered repairs billed to you, repairs finished above the estimate, and duplicate charges, each with its evidence and a dispute draft. SXT Ops never files a dispute.
More on fleet and repair orders, or bring one station to the pilot.