Amazon, which is racing to deliver packages faster, seeking to speed up its shipping time from two days to one for its Prime members, is turning to its employees with a proposition: Quit your job and we’ll help you start a business delivering Amazon packages.
It gives Amazon a way to grow its delivery network without spending the money needed to buy vehicles or hire workers. It also means they will effectively control their own delivery system without being responsible for operating costs, wages, wages, trucks, fuel and other expenses. Of course it also gives Amazon total control over the price they pay for deliveries, a control they don’t have with UPS, FedEx etc.
This is interesting because on the other hand Amazon is working on robotic and drone delivery of its packages and also planning for autonomous delivery trucks which are much closer than people realize. They are also implementing robots into every facet of their business to reduce human labor. Perhaps this offer is designed, at least in part to reducing the cost and negative publicity of terminating workers. They are having a bet each way. Currently, Amazon has 245,000 workers and operates over 100,000 robots, up from 45,000 just 2 years ago.
The company sees the new incentive as a way to get more packages delivered to shoppers’ doorsteps faster. Amazon says it will cover up to $10,000 in startup costs for employees who are accepted into the program and leave their jobs. The company says it will also pay them three months’ worth of their salary. The offer is open to most part-time and full-time Amazon employees, including warehouse workers who pack and ship orders.
The new employee incentive is part of a program Amazon started a year ago that lets anyone apply to launch an independent Amazon delivery business. It is part of the company’s plan to control more of its deliveries on its own, rather than rely on UPS, the post office and other carriers. Startup costs start at $10,000 and contractors that participate are able to lease blue vans with the Amazon smile logo stamped on the side. Overall, more than 200 Amazon delivery businesses have been created since it launched the program last June.
One of them is run by Milton Collier who started his business in Atlanta about eight months ago. Since then, it has grown to 120 employees with a fleet of 50 vans that can handle up to 200 delivery stops in a day. It has already been preparing for the one-day shipping switch by hiring more people.
Workers delivering Amazon packages are not eligible for the $15 entry-level wage. They are not classified as Amazon employees, but wear Amazon hats, shirts and jackets. Delivery vans had “Amazon” emblazoned on the side, and workers also used an Amazon proprietary device called a “Rabbit” to track routes and scan packages.
Drivers complain it has created a massively confusing chain of command for drivers, which has led to chronic problems with missing wages, lack of overtime, intimidation, broken delivery trucks, and grueling shifts that have lasted as long as 15 hours without time for breaks. Drivers are required to deliver 200 packages in an eight-hour shift, requiring drivers to deliver one package every two minutes and 24 seconds.
Other complaints include drivers injured on the job being told to continue to deliver packages rather than seek immediate medical attention, drivers having to break the speed limit in order to deliver packages by the end of each shift, women keeping buckets and baby wipes in vans to go to the bathroom, Men urinating in bottles or alongside the road and workers unable to fit in lunch or rest breaks in order to keep up with the demanding schedules.
How much of Jeff Bezos $165,000,000,000 net worth comes at the expense of hard working average people.
“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of success, to deceive and overawe the people.”