4 ms·
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 i
by mbgaxyz 10y ago
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 10y ago> 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 10y agoYou 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.
- hobarrera 10y agoWhy would this retraining be such a pain? I mean, they're already in a job they pretty much hate, how much worse can the retraining be?
- coldcode 10y agoThis is not sustainable. This is why pizza delivery no longer advertises specific delivery guarantees; all it does is create inattentive drivers who cause accidents.
- Blackthorn 10y agoAlso, I expect those packages to be thrown onto porches without a care in the world.
- kahrkunne 10y agoThis is (barely) sustainable for the short time each year that is holiday season
- oliv__ 10y agoI think it's kind of sick when you start optimizing on people like you do on software.
- danblick 10y agoStart? This is a skill they've developed for years and years. The company that inspired "I was a warehouse wage slave" no doubt can transfer a few lessons to delivery...
- jdietrich 10y agoThis kind of "optimisation" has been around for over a century, starting with Frederick Taylor. Dehumanising, mechanistic management is not new, nor is the backlash against it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)