
The Human Cost of Amazon’s Fast, Free Shipping - elorant
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/us/amazon-delivery-drivers-accidents.html
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jrockway
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20889204](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20889204)

(The link is different, but it's the ProPublica version of the same article,
so the commentary is very relevant.)

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quinndupont
Seems to me that the real story here isn’t Amazon but the heartbreaking
frequency of vehicular crashes. Always fun to pick on Amazon though.

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x0x0
The article pointed out -- at some length -- ways that the brave new gig job
world is different: less training, more inexperienced drivers, more layers of
contractors and subcontractors, drivers under very aggressive time pressure,
drivers in vehicles with which they are unfamiliar, and drivers on routes with
which they are unfamiliar. And for the coup de grâce, Amazon -- unlike Fedex,
DHS, UPS, or the USPS -- worms out of liability for any of these accidents,
eliminating pressure to reduce them.

Agree or disagree, but it's hard to see how you read the article and didn't
see the extensive discussion of ways Amazon is more dangerous.

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tomxor
> the brave new gig job world is different: less training, more inexperienced
> drivers, more layers of contractors and subcontractors, drivers under very
> aggressive time pressure, drivers in vehicles with which they are
> unfamiliar, and drivers on routes with which they are unfamiliar.

This seems to apply to Uber drivers in the UK - I've never been in one, but as
a pedestrian they are terrible drivers compared to taxis, I frequently witness
them driving through zebra crossings and red lights while pedestrians are
using them... taxis are the complete opposite, they go out of their way to be
nice to pedestrians, after all they are potential customers.

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cucumberfanatic
> taxis are the complete opposite, they go out of their way to be nice to
> pedestrians

You must be living in a different UK to me (and everyone else based on the
general consensus of taxis)!

Uber drivers have to drive well else they'll be reviewed poorly. If someone
leaves a 1* review for their Uber driver saying that they drove through a red,
there will be serious repercussions. Try complaining about a similar thing to
a taxi company and see how that works out for you.

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Tade0
_Uber drivers have to drive well else they 'll be reviewed poorly._

Are they though? I took a good few Ubers who had great ratings but were
terrible drivers.

The incentive is to get as fast from point A to B and it's having an effect.

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cucumberfanatic
> The incentive is to get as fast from point A to B and it's having an effect.

That's the same for both Uber and taxi drivers.

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Tade0
Taxis usually don't have surge pricing which can end at any moment.

Also they usually charge you based on the distance actually travelled, not a
predetermined price so they can afford to make detours.

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flywithdolp
Ofcourse Amazon will try to protect them selfs against lawsuits

I do think that Amazon have some moral issues, Since I came across Amazon M
turk.

They basically have army of over 500,000 registered workers Those people make
few cents per micro tasks while amazon make x10 that amount of each task and
leave tiny slice of the cake for its core users.

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ralusek
I highly doubt Amazon makes 10x profit over what they pay their workers. My
guess would be that they have very thin margins per worker, and just have a
lot of workers.

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wongarsu
M'turk doesn't seem that hard too replicate, yet I am not aware of notable
competitors (outside of specialized niches like design or captcha solving). If
there were massive margins surely there would be highly advertised competitors
trying to get in on these massive profits.

