Okay, so we all probably would have thought that the health and safety of the delivery drivers who are doing Amazon’s dastardly dirty work would be more important than attempting to race the clock… but apparently not.
In the latest Vice-style move by Vice today, they’ve conducted an inquiry into the rabbit hole that is the ‘by any means’ mindset forced onto Amazon delivery drivers. And they’ve revealed some pretty horrifying stuff.
Let’s start with the statistics for the initiated among us. Let’s preface this by reiterating that Amazon delivery drivers are subject to extreme pressure to meet their quotas. And as per Vice, Amazon currently work with over 1300 delivery companies who themselves employ hundreds of thousands of delivery drivers.
Following reports, numerous drivers have been beaten, bitten, carjacked, robbed and shot while on the clock. And worse, drivers have even been in life threatening car accidents as well as tragically putting the lives of others in danger around them.
To further inquire into the horrible world of delivery driving, Vice discovered that delivery drivers are being requested to turn off an app called Mentor, an app which monitors the driving behaviour while en route. By disabling the app, Amazon is not privy to reckless driving that is allowing the drivers to smash their targets.
And some drivers have admitted to complying as to “not cause friction”.
An Amazon delivery driver who works from a delivery station in Nashville revealed, “Our dispatcher told us after three or four hours you can turn Mentor off, and sign off, because when the thing with Mentor is when it’s on, it’s regulating things. People are driving slower and following traffic laws and rules Amazon wants us to follow, turning off vans, putting on hazards, wearing seatbelts.”
Another driver added, “Once it’s turned off there’s no tracking of speed, how fast you’re taking corners. I turned off the app around lunch everyday. I would be constantly stressed, worried all the time about making my quotas.”
Text messages from dispatchers have also been obtained, revealing the direct orders to drivers to disable the app. “Starting tomorrow everyone needs to be logged into Mentor for at least 2 hours no more no less, so make sure that’s one of the first things we’re doing in the mornings.”
This doesn’t happen in Australia… does it? For more on this topic, follow the Tech Observer.
