
Amazon drivers pushed to the limit as holiday deliveries reach a frenzy - mbgaxyz
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amazon-drivers-20161218-story.html
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mbgaxyz
Delivery rate ~ one box every 2 or 3 minutes

> He starts each day with about 260 boxes, which he has to drop off at maybe
> 200 addresses across up to 80 miles in Southern California. Factoring in the
> time needed to load and gas up his white van, which sometimes sports a
> magnetized Amazon logo on the back door, Echeverria has to hit one home
> every two minutes, on average.

> Prime Now orders — an Amazon service launched in 2014 that allows customers
> to get a product within hours of clicking on it. She says Amazon gave her up
> to 72 packages to deliver in four hours, meaning she had to deposit one
> package roughly every three minutes.

Remote tracking via Android app:

> Amazon gives him an Android phone with an app that scans packages and
> determines his route. He says it is also used to track how much of a dent
> he’s made in his delivery load that day. He has learned not to stop for
> lunch because, he said, Amazon employees will call his dispatcher at any
> point in the day if they notice that he’s behind schedule.

Complaint threshold of 0.2%:

> Amazon does not want any individual driver to exceed a ratio of two
> complaints for every 1,000 packages they’re tasked with delivering. But he
> said that Amazon does not instruct LMS to fire drivers who have had a trend
> of high complaints. LMS independently starts a disciplinary process, he
> said, starting with retraining, if a driver has a high number of citations
> for two consecutive weeks.

~~~
kqr
> But he said that Amazon does not instruct LMS to fire drivers who have had a
> trend of high complaints. LMS independently starts a disciplinary process,
> he said, starting with retraining, if a driver has a high number of
> citations for two consecutive weeks.

Of course they don't get fired. But after several months of "disciplinary
process starting with retraining" they quit voluntarily, perhaps...

~~~
jpatokal
You missed the key here. Amazon does not instruct LMS to fire people, because
coemployment. But it will inform LMS that they're failing to meet their
contractual obligation to hit the complaints target, and in completely
unrelated news, here's a list of driver IDs and their complaint rates.

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ryao
Anyone upset with this could just cancel their prime membership and stop doing
business with Amazon. It is easier now than ever because they no longer
compete on price. It is almost always the case that I find the same things
cheaper on eBay, Newegg or jet.com. Their decision to drop price zombie from
their affiliate program would seem to confirm that they no longer intend to
compete on price. I assume that is how they fund Prime Video.

~~~
quadrangle
I don't know why people still believe that boycotts and individual consumer
decisions are effective strategy for such things. All the evidence is against
this. I suppose it's the propaganda of the "free market" and such.

If a market were as the simplistic theory describes, all the drivers would be
completely independent, set their own terms, and all product manufacturers
would negotiate with all the drivers and all the consumers would negotiate
etc. It would be totally inefficient and impractical, but we'd have actual
competition and supply/demand etc.

Reality is Amazon is a massive organization with a top-down power structure
and massive power inequities. Consumers are individual people with no
comparable organizational power. The idea that each individual consumer should
make decisions that mediate the power of the massive corporation is a farce.

~~~
ryao
Buying things from Amazon no longer makes economic sense for most people.
Buying from other stores because they are cheaper has nothing to do with the
idea of a boycott. If you dislike how they conduct their business, then you
have another reason to re-evaluate your expenditures with them.

~~~
justicezyx
> Buying things from Amazon no longer makes economic sense for most people.

I open browser, type amazon.com, search stuff, click 'buy with one-click'. I
do not worry about delivery time, and I can just return without any hustle.

Compare with what you suggested, let's say we choose ebay (probably the 2nd-
best online retailer): I open browser, search, found item, click through, buy
the item, probably need to pay shipping, but the overall price is cheaper. I
might get the item in time, or not. When I want to return, I might get a
smooth transaction, or not. The customer service is guaranteed to be inferior
to Amazon's.

In the process, I probably can save a few percentage on item price. But does
it really make economic sense at all? If I buy one item on ebay, and for some
reason I dont like it and could not return it; while with Amazon I am sure
that I can always avoid this. Does the a few percentage saving actually save
me? I don't believe that.

The plain trend of Amazon eating the retail market lends little credit to your
claim "Buying things from Amazon no longer makes economic sense for most
people".

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mgiannopoulos
Seems like "it sucks to works for Amazon" has been added in a permanent spot
on journalist's radars for "HR stuff to write about". I'm not saying these
lawsuits mentioned in the article do not exist, but is it any better for
drivers in DHL or UPS?

~~~
komali2
UPS drivers drive a UPS truck. UPS pays for the gas and maintenance. That's a
pretty big difference.

~~~
chrismealy
UPS also has a union.

~~~
komodo
Yeah UPS is probably one of the better ones. If you want a comparison to
Amazon maybe try FedEx

~~~
burger_moon
I don't believe all FedEx drivers have to supply their own trucks but most
freight oth drivers do. They also work pretty strict and tight deadlines.

Most delivery services in general work their employees hard. An ex of mine
drove for different food and drink vendors driving truck doing ltl to grocery
stores and gas stations and they would consistently exceed maximum hours cdl
drivers are allowed to work.

~~~
tombrossman
> and they would consistently exceed maximum hours cdl drivers are allowed to
> work

Just a reminder, there exists no maximum number of hours CDL holders may
_work_ , they just can't _drive_ after a certain number of hours without a
sleep break. Many truckers will operate in such a manner that they drive to
the destination legally, reach their max allowable hours driving upon arrival,
and then continue working several more hours unloading. Grocery warehouses are
notorious for this.

It's an important distinction because if you are a local driver with a 'day
cab', you can't exactly take your sleep break in the truck and would be more
likely to break the law to drive the truck back home (or the company yard). An
'over the road' driver has a sleeper berth and can take a proper break most
anywhere they can legally park.

I did many FedEx loads as an over the road driver and I found them to be good
runs. Many were overnight runs from one airport to another and I definitely
had enough time, it wasn't as if I had to skip breaks or hurry. And the FedEx
staff and load/unload procedures were very organised and easy. FedEx loads
were seen as desirable and hassle-free.

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aero142
I only know one Amazon driver in Austin, so it's just an anecdote. He is a
student and likes it better than driving for Uber. He makes $18/hr plus tips
and can just pick up hour shifts whenever they are available. He makes good
money and it fits perfectly with his school schedule. He avoids telling people
about it because he doesn't want the competition for shifts.

~~~
mmastrac
People are tipping Amazon drivers? Or is this just for food delivery?

~~~
chrisper
I am guessing he is referring to Amazon Prime Now where you are expected to
tip. But generally I do not tip because I think Amazon should pay their
drivers. And most of the time they didn't even come to my door, so they don't
deserve any tip. Though, I don't use that service as much.

Though thinking back, I did leave $1 or $2 tips here and there, depending on
their service.

~~~
sfeng
If you think Amazon doesn't pay well, I think it's a better practice to just
mentally add $1 or $2 to the price of what your ordering and call it the tip,
rather than stiffing the drivers. If you can't afford it with tip, you can't
afford it.

~~~
chrisper
I think I'd be less annoyed if Amazon wouldn't just fill out the tip field
automatically. I ordered a GPU last time for $400 and they wanted me to
provide $30 tip. I changed it to $2 or $3.

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chrismealy
In Seattle the people driving Amazon trucks are maniacs, way worse than UPS
and FedEx. OnTrac is pretty bad too.

------
maxxxxx
Do they pay more for crunch times like this? Paying more often does wonders
for motivation.

------
bsder
If only there were a way to bring multiple employees together to overcome the
power imbalance between them and an employer. /s

~~~
unclebucknasty
It's amazing how much of the labor force itself is anti-union.

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fsaneq2
Not sure why this type of thing keeps on popping up as "news". The fact that
jobs requiring no skill will be driven down to bad conditions/pay/whatever is
sort of axiomatically obvious and inevitable given how capitalism and a more-
or-less free labor market works.

Having held one of these shit jobs in the past to get myself through college,
I understand how much it sucks, but complaining/negotiating when you have zero
leverage simply does not work (in the sense it is very likely not the highest
expected value use of your time -- IMO a good way is education, get yourself
ready for a slightly better job, repeat until happy).

------
massysett
Amazon is the new Walmart.

~~~
unclebucknasty
There will always be a new Walmart as long as most of us are primarily
concerned about price and/or convenience above all else.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
There will always be a new Walmart as long as labor law is not enforced and
union-busting is not punished.

