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We had a driver pour out a bottle of pee directly onto the street in front of our place from his open driver’s side van window on Saturday afternoon. My wife g

We had a driver pour out a bottle of pee directly onto the street in front of our place from his open driver’s side van window on Saturday afternoon. My wife got a photo and then immediately after they delivered packages and left I went and took a photo because I couldn’t believe it. I had not heard about the controversy until then, but my wife had been following it. I read these tweets and I also didn’t believe they were real, they were far too aggressive. It was strange because I felt like I needed to know if it was in fact pee or not, but I also was not willing to bend over and smell it. It had all of the appearances of pee, yet the disposal was so obviously careless and conspicuous it was as though the person wanted to be caught. The up close photo I took shows two foamy sections. We discussed ethical issues of the potential for the worker being fired over this. And whether it ever okay to pour a bottle of pee out in front of some homes on a bike way. We also consulted a USPS mail carrier friend about what he has dealt with and USPS’ procedure for bio breaks. Gathering all that, I still chose to email the photos and ask Amazon how they intended to handle this. Waiting on a reply. Edit: This was a tough call, I added some additional details below. If the driver had knocked on our door and asked to use our bathroom, I'd have absolutely invited him in. This happened with a Fedex driver once before. That person ended up leaving pee on the seat, which was pretty gross.

notJim 6y ago
A bit surprised you sent the photos to Amazon. That person is likely to be fired. A bit of pee on the street is not going to harm anything or anyone (otherwise the streets around bars would be an enormous biohazard), although it's obviously gross.
- Judgmentality 6y ago
  Is human pee any more gross than dog pee? This isn't a rhetorical question - I'm genuinely asking.
  - lostlogin 6y ago
    I’m unsure, but cat pee is in a class of its own. That stuff is evil.
  - neartheplain 6y ago
    Human pee transmits human diseases.
    - Taylor_OD 6y ago
      As does dog pee. Which covers every sidewalk and corner you've ever stepped on.
    - jfengel 6y ago
      It generally does not. Most human urine is fairly sterile. And even if you've got a bladder or kidney infection, it's the same bacteria that you have on your own skin already -- it infects the urinary tract when forced inside (most often by sex). Human feces, on the other hand, is quite dangerous. Generally you have to touch it or ingest it to get sick from it, but there are lots of ways for the bacteria to spread. So the urine isn't dangerous, but if people are urinating in public, there's a risk that they're also defecating in public. And that's more serious.
    - adolph 6y ago
      Human urine very rarely transmits human diseases, unlike feces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine
- bredren 6y ago
  Another option was sending it to media, which I presumed would have gotten attention. I thought the person had a better chance of holding on to the job if it was handled without publicity. I don't have a lab, so I can't determine if it was pee. And I can't imagine you'd get to hold on to a job at Target if you poured pee out in the parking lot in front of customers. Our friend with the USPS said "[at USPS] we’re allowed to travel as far as we need to find a restroom so no need to do it." If this is the case at Amazon, then there shouldn't be a need to pee in bottles. However, if this is not the case at Amazon, then what was apparently Bezos' tweet [1] was not reflective of the situation on the ground. I've written him directly before, and depending on the response, I may do it in this instance because he's not seeing what I'm seeing. [1] https://twitter.com/amazonnews/status/1374911222361956359 https://twitter.com/amazonnews/status/1374911222361956359
  - chaps 6y ago
    Can you share the email you sent them? Almost certain you got them fired in a pandemic.
  - Rule35 6y ago
    Amazon's drivers are contractors if anyone is pushing them to pee in bottles, it's themselves. So there's no actual answer to this issue. Are they not being paid enough, such that they can't pee, or are they making an reasonable decision to pee in a bottle in order to save 15 minutes and make more money. Considering they keep taking the contracts one has to assume that they're profitable, at least usually. > I can't imagine you'd get to hold on to a job at Target if you poured pee out in the parking lot in front of customers. No, nor should anyone want you to. Even beyond any hygiene and smell issues, it's bad PR and that's not what you're paid for. There's a rash of blaming companies for being reasonable. Including one of a CVS manager being threatened with doxxing for calling the police on a thief. This concern for the driver seems more like a larger narrative of pro-unionism. Most people in this thread are intentionally misrepresenting the issue, using the words 'job', and 'living wage'. These are contractors and if they don't make money today they can courier for another company tomorrow. If they don't it's because they voted with their wallets.
- foobiekr 6y ago
  So Amazon is blackmailing us with the delivery people as hostage? Well, that basically describes the gig economy across the board, I guess.
- Rule35 6y ago
  > That person is likely to be fired. Umm, yeah. They dumped a bottle of piss outside a customers house. That's bad advertising. Or, possibly, it's intended to be good union advertising. But either way, that person has got to go. So many dishonest people downvoting. Probably unionists. We know that this case hangs on the difference between contractors and employees, and that even if employees unionize the contractors will choose to keep peeing in bottles.
  - eggsmediumrare 6y ago
    Or maybe that person and all his colleagues should have enough flexibility that they don't have to do this.
    - Rule35 6y ago
      This is driver flexibility. They choose the amount of deliveries they take. The drivers do this because they want more money. People generally courier as an in-between job, like construction laborer, and they appreciate the ability to earn more, quickly. As a laborer I used to put in 14h days with cleanup. But that kept me from losing income during a career switch so it was a choice I was happy to make.
  - ziddoap 6y ago
    Finding your viewpoint disagreeable does not make one dishonest or a "unionist".
    - Rule35 6y ago
      But downvoting me because I'm not wrong, but "disagreeable" (read, correct) is dishonest. And no, causation seems to run the other way, apparently being a unionist makes you dishonest.
      - ziddoap 6y ago
        I didn't say your comment "wasn't wrong, but disagreeable", I said your viewpoint was simply disagreeable (read, not necessarily correct and people obviously disagree with what you have stated (read, they think your incorrect)).
codezero 6y ago
I 100% believe that drivers pee in containers - heck, my grandfather and I used to do the same when fishing - they make containers with handles specifically made for this. That said, given that the firestorm has become very public, I would expect disgruntled (or any driver, they are wage slaves) drivers to be acting more conspicuous to draw more attention to the problem, which may temporarily inflate its visibility, but hopefully it also leads to change. I'd talk about it (spread the word like here), but avoid being specific enough to affect the worker unless it looks like they were endangering someone - but that's just me.
- bluedino 6y ago
  Why wouldn't you just pee into the water into which you are fishing?
  - faeyanpiraat 6y ago
    Are you serious?
    - AlexandrB 6y ago
      Where do you think the fish pee?
      - whatshisface 6y ago
        You're in a boat in the middle of a flat lake. Picture it.
      - idlewords 6y ago
        In tiny bottles.
      - faeyanpiraat 6y ago
        Do you happen to “move your bowels” into the lake aswell?
  - foobiekr 6y ago
specialp 6y ago
Amazon will tell you that it is a completely separate subsidiary and act like they have no control over it. I called them about a driver who blew through a stop sign and furthermore did a hasty 3 point turn in a driveway almost hitting my car. I had to blow the horn the truck was inches away. They too are at the mercy of whatever algorithm tells them they should deliver and are punished otherwise. Customer service could not do anything they directed me to the delivery subsidiary who stonewalled me as well.
weaksauce 6y ago
I watched my ikea delivery driver pee on the hill across from my place right before delivering the package to me. it's probably not a solely amazon thing even though they are well known for it.
- InitialLastName 6y ago
  There are certain places near my house where some rideshare drivers like to idle, where the gutter always has soda bottles full of urine in it. I don't want to disparage the people doing those jobs, but the rideshare companies have pretty clearly added quite a lot of oversupply relative to what the infrastructure can handle; cab companies have facilities and cab stands etc where drivers can relieve themselves, where rideshare drivers are left on their own to leave their fluids in litter in the street.
  - munk-a 6y ago
    Not paying for proper facilities for maintenance and breaks is just what we in the biz call "disrupting". You might be able to undercut an entrenched business a bit by using fancy tech stuff - but using fancy tech stuff and ignoring the laws everyone else has to follow? That's where the money is. Also, that isn't to say that cab companies are a great example here - that industry was ripe for a good shaking up and had a lot of really weird entrenched components, but, at the end of the day, neither side is good - we only get labour rights with laws and enforcement that actually has teeth.
    - InitialLastName 6y ago
      To bring it back to Amazon, it's even better if you can plausibly deny breaking the rules by orchestrating your system such that the people you're heavily incentivizing to break the rules and generally behave antisocially are non-employee business associates who you very clearly told (in very fine print) not to break the rules.
ahelwer 6y ago
You... ratted out the guy who delivers your packages to his corporate masters for doing the very human homeostatic requirement of urination? Seriously?
- alistairSH 6y ago
  Peeing in a bottle wasn't the thing that was reported. Emptying a bottle of urine in front of the customer's home was the problem. The driver should have emptied the bottle into a toilet on his next break (or after his shift). Or, failing that, dump it in the woods out of the way.
  - ahelwer 6y ago
    Perhaps he had to urinate again, and did not have an additional bottle? What then should he have done? If you'll notice, we're now heading down the path of playing out ever-more-elaborate strategies for individual delivery drivers to maintain homeostasis without offending the delicate sensibilities of the people they serve, instead of questioning why this is a problem in the first place.
    - SR2Z 6y ago
      The solution to this problem is not "dump a bottle of piss out on someone's lawn," it's "expand labor laws to cover this very obvious human rights issue and then hammer Amazon with it until they shape up." Workers need bathrooms, and employers have to pay for them.
      - ahelwer 6y ago
        We agree on the best outcome. What should workers do in the meantime?
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - whimsicalism 6y ago
icpmacdo 6y ago
It is enervating hearing anecdotes like these from wealthy people who seemingly believe the same necessary excretions they have aren't a privilege lower classes deserve
- 1-more 6y ago
  it's especially shit because the whole goddamned economy runs on whiz-in-bottles. It's not an amazon problem (to be clear: I hate amazon for perpetuating it); it's the whole goddamned ball of wax. If no one whizzed in bottles, parked in the bike lane, double parked in a one lane road, then the economy would grind to a goddamned halt. So we have to admit that we want the rules and norms of good taste flouted when it's to our benefit, or we have to admit that we've built an unjust world.
whimsicalism 6y ago
You might not realize that this was an asshole move, but it was absolutely an asshole move. Really, really not cool and really out of touch.
tmpz22 6y ago
What were the biggest factors in reporting them? The average delivery driver works way harder and probably commits way fewer immoral actions then the average HN user for a fraction of the salary.
- vineyardmike 6y ago
  > probably commits way fewer immoral actions Wow. This seems loaded, unmeasurable, and very unrelated to anyones job.
Jiejeing 6y ago
And what do you expect them to do with their piss? Drink it? How jaded to human suffering must one be to report something as minor as this to a company known for having awful labor practices…
- alistairSH 6y ago
  Keep it in the bottle until the shift ends? Dump it in the woods? Lots of choices that don't include dumping directly in front of a customer's home.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - munk-a 6y ago
    If they take a detour maybe they'll end up with a demerit for deviating from the optimal driving route and be docked pay - if they come back to distribution with a bottle of pee the company may also dock them for something like... I dunno "storing human waste in a vehicle used for transporting food stuffs" then dock their pay or fire them. Amazon is strongly motivated to discourage drivers from coming back to their shipping centers with bottles full of pee since either labour organizers or reporters might jump on that to use against the corporation. All this could just be communicated through pretty innocuous sounding employee guidelines (maybe, "there can be no open bottles of liquid of any kind when a vehicle is in motion") or just word of mouth. A manager mentions to a senior driver that there will be some bonuses if nobody gets caught with a bottle of pee and that causes the initiative to disseminate through all the drivers. There may be far fewer choices here than it appears and the best choice is probably to get OSHA involved and maybe get some new worker safety and rights legislation through congress.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- Rule35 6y ago
  That driver was a contractor, deciding to pee in his own bottle. He chose to take more packages than he could deliver and is rushing to cut corners. As well as conspicuously dumping piss outside customer houses he probably speeds through school zones. Contractors don't get a wage, that's key to this whole discussion. And if contractors don't make a profit they shouldn't take the contract. This kerfuffle is in the middle of big cities, not some tiny company town in the outback. They have all the same options anyone else does, it's not like they're forced to drive for Amazon.
tehjoker 6y ago
Why would you send the photo to Amazon? You send that to a labor reporter or social media. Are you trying to get this guy fired??
libria 6y ago
Off topic, but I'm curious. Say a human empties a pee bottle on a public sewer drain and a dog pees on that same drain. I don't see much difference except one of them urinated in public. Chemically they're the same, but I'm more repulsed by the human waste, why is that?
- munk-a 6y ago
  Probably because we hold humans to a higher standard than animals - we've all been raised to hold it until it's appropriate which is when we're inside and on a toilet. Some animals can be potty trained, it's a bit weird but good for them - most animals are just trained to not wee on the couch and outdoors is left wide open for them as they need. It's pretty socially acceptable for dogs to pee in public and, if you found it offensive, I am afraid I have some bad news for you about the miniature public outhouses they build for squirrels.
  - qotgalaxy 6y ago
    Oh, you weren't supposed to know about the squirrel gloryholes.
- anticristi 6y ago
  Interesting though experiment. Similarly, why do humans sometimes need to pay for urinating (I'm looking at you German SaniUnfair), but animals don't?
tanderson11 6y ago
You are a sick and fucked up person
dyeje 6y ago
> If the driver had knocked on our door and asked to use our bathroom, I'd have absolutely invited him in. This happened with a Fedex driver once before. They don't have time to use a proper restroom. That's why they're peeing in bottles.
munk-a 6y ago
> If the driver had knocked on our door and asked to use our bathroom, I'd have absolutely invited him in. This happened with a Fedex driver once before. That person ended up leaving pee on the seat, which was pretty gross. What with all the sorts of people in the world, how many folks would've invited them in vs. thinking the driver was weird and potentially reporting the action? Asking to use your restroom (during pandemic times) seems pretty likely to trigger a customer complaint possibly even one as pleasant as "They were courteous and didn't leave a mess, but why are they being forced to use residential bathrooms, don't they have time off to pee?" - that's a complaint that doesn't reflect poorly on the driver at all but may still end up getting the driver fired if it causes a PR stink. Without stronger labour laws and without a union drivers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
eecks 6y ago
You couldn't have asked him in during covid and they couldn't have asked. Unless this was really close to your front door you should have let it go.
DarkByte8 6y ago
Can you please not snitch on people like that and instead talk to them? There are dogs that piss on the street and nothing bad happens. If this becomes regular then yes, talk to them and if they don't stop report them. But seeing 1 indiscretion and pulling the trigger on the guy is not ok.
- kingTug 6y ago
  Blows me away that he/she would even consider trying to get the driver fired over this. That individual works for a poverty wage and clearly isn’t given time to use the restroom by their employer. And your first instinct is to get them fired. Disgusting.
colineartheta 6y ago
The fact that you reported it is far more disgusting and petty than a driver dumping it out.
8note 6y ago
Lack of available bathrooms across cities is a big problem in and of itself. Especially with covid, where are you supposed to pee if you're spending all day driving around doing deliveries or as a taxi driver?
misterkrabs 6y ago
> This was a tough call Dude...
mdni007 6y ago
> If the driver had knocked on our door and asked to use our bathroom, I'd have absolutely invited him in. This happened with a Fedex driver once before. That person ended up leaving pee on the seat, which was pretty gross. Not sure where you live but where I'm from, letting a stranger into your home is the same as giving them permission to rob you
mplewis 6y ago
Next time, mind your own business.
refurb 6y ago
Ever heard of "trucker bombs"? There is nothing stopping a truck driver from stopping for pee breaks. They choose not to to save time.

notJim 6y ago

A bit surprised you sent the photos to Amazon. That person is likely to be fired. A bit of pee on the street is not going to harm anything or anyone (otherwise the streets around bars would be an enormous biohazard), although it's obviously gross.

Judgmentality 6y ago
Is human pee any more gross than dog pee? This isn't a rhetorical question - I'm genuinely asking.
- lostlogin 6y ago
  I’m unsure, but cat pee is in a class of its own. That stuff is evil.
- neartheplain 6y ago
  Human pee transmits human diseases.
  - Taylor_OD 6y ago
    As does dog pee. Which covers every sidewalk and corner you've ever stepped on.
  - jfengel 6y ago
    It generally does not. Most human urine is fairly sterile. And even if you've got a bladder or kidney infection, it's the same bacteria that you have on your own skin already -- it infects the urinary tract when forced inside (most often by sex). Human feces, on the other hand, is quite dangerous. Generally you have to touch it or ingest it to get sick from it, but there are lots of ways for the bacteria to spread. So the urine isn't dangerous, but if people are urinating in public, there's a risk that they're also defecating in public. And that's more serious.
  - adolph 6y ago
    Human urine very rarely transmits human diseases, unlike feces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine
bredren 6y ago
Another option was sending it to media, which I presumed would have gotten attention. I thought the person had a better chance of holding on to the job if it was handled without publicity. I don't have a lab, so I can't determine if it was pee. And I can't imagine you'd get to hold on to a job at Target if you poured pee out in the parking lot in front of customers. Our friend with the USPS said "[at USPS] we’re allowed to travel as far as we need to find a restroom so no need to do it." If this is the case at Amazon, then there shouldn't be a need to pee in bottles. However, if this is not the case at Amazon, then what was apparently Bezos' tweet [1] was not reflective of the situation on the ground. I've written him directly before, and depending on the response, I may do it in this instance because he's not seeing what I'm seeing. [1] https://twitter.com/amazonnews/status/1374911222361956359 https://twitter.com/amazonnews/status/1374911222361956359
- chaps 6y ago
  Can you share the email you sent them? Almost certain you got them fired in a pandemic.
- Rule35 6y ago
  Amazon's drivers are contractors if anyone is pushing them to pee in bottles, it's themselves. So there's no actual answer to this issue. Are they not being paid enough, such that they can't pee, or are they making an reasonable decision to pee in a bottle in order to save 15 minutes and make more money. Considering they keep taking the contracts one has to assume that they're profitable, at least usually. > I can't imagine you'd get to hold on to a job at Target if you poured pee out in the parking lot in front of customers. No, nor should anyone want you to. Even beyond any hygiene and smell issues, it's bad PR and that's not what you're paid for. There's a rash of blaming companies for being reasonable. Including one of a CVS manager being threatened with doxxing for calling the police on a thief. This concern for the driver seems more like a larger narrative of pro-unionism. Most people in this thread are intentionally misrepresenting the issue, using the words 'job', and 'living wage'. These are contractors and if they don't make money today they can courier for another company tomorrow. If they don't it's because they voted with their wallets.
foobiekr 6y ago
So Amazon is blackmailing us with the delivery people as hostage? Well, that basically describes the gig economy across the board, I guess.
Rule35 6y ago
> That person is likely to be fired. Umm, yeah. They dumped a bottle of piss outside a customers house. That's bad advertising. Or, possibly, it's intended to be good union advertising. But either way, that person has got to go. So many dishonest people downvoting. Probably unionists. We know that this case hangs on the difference between contractors and employees, and that even if employees unionize the contractors will choose to keep peeing in bottles.
- eggsmediumrare 6y ago
  Or maybe that person and all his colleagues should have enough flexibility that they don't have to do this.
  - Rule35 6y ago
    This is driver flexibility. They choose the amount of deliveries they take. The drivers do this because they want more money. People generally courier as an in-between job, like construction laborer, and they appreciate the ability to earn more, quickly. As a laborer I used to put in 14h days with cleanup. But that kept me from losing income during a career switch so it was a choice I was happy to make.
- ziddoap 6y ago
  Finding your viewpoint disagreeable does not make one dishonest or a "unionist".
  - Rule35 6y ago
    But downvoting me because I'm not wrong, but "disagreeable" (read, correct) is dishonest. And no, causation seems to run the other way, apparently being a unionist makes you dishonest.
    - ziddoap 6y ago
      I didn't say your comment "wasn't wrong, but disagreeable", I said your viewpoint was simply disagreeable (read, not necessarily correct and people obviously disagree with what you have stated (read, they think your incorrect)).

codezero 6y ago

I 100% believe that drivers pee in containers - heck, my grandfather and I used to do the same when fishing - they make containers with handles specifically made for this. That said, given that the firestorm has become very public, I would expect disgruntled (or any driver, they are wage slaves) drivers to be acting more conspicuous to draw more attention to the problem, which may temporarily inflate its visibility, but hopefully it also leads to change. I'd talk about it (spread the word like here), but avoid being specific enough to affect the worker unless it looks like they were endangering someone - but that's just me.

bluedino 6y ago
Why wouldn't you just pee into the water into which you are fishing?
- faeyanpiraat 6y ago
  Are you serious?
  - AlexandrB 6y ago
    Where do you think the fish pee?
    - whatshisface 6y ago
      You're in a boat in the middle of a flat lake. Picture it.
    - idlewords 6y ago
      In tiny bottles.
    - faeyanpiraat 6y ago
      Do you happen to “move your bowels” into the lake aswell?
- foobiekr 6y ago

specialp 6y ago

Amazon will tell you that it is a completely separate subsidiary and act like they have no control over it. I called them about a driver who blew through a stop sign and furthermore did a hasty 3 point turn in a driveway almost hitting my car. I had to blow the horn the truck was inches away. They too are at the mercy of whatever algorithm tells them they should deliver and are punished otherwise. Customer service could not do anything they directed me to the delivery subsidiary who stonewalled me as well.

weaksauce 6y ago

I watched my ikea delivery driver pee on the hill across from my place right before delivering the package to me. it's probably not a solely amazon thing even though they are well known for it.

InitialLastName 6y ago
There are certain places near my house where some rideshare drivers like to idle, where the gutter always has soda bottles full of urine in it. I don't want to disparage the people doing those jobs, but the rideshare companies have pretty clearly added quite a lot of oversupply relative to what the infrastructure can handle; cab companies have facilities and cab stands etc where drivers can relieve themselves, where rideshare drivers are left on their own to leave their fluids in litter in the street.
- munk-a 6y ago
  Not paying for proper facilities for maintenance and breaks is just what we in the biz call "disrupting". You might be able to undercut an entrenched business a bit by using fancy tech stuff - but using fancy tech stuff and ignoring the laws everyone else has to follow? That's where the money is. Also, that isn't to say that cab companies are a great example here - that industry was ripe for a good shaking up and had a lot of really weird entrenched components, but, at the end of the day, neither side is good - we only get labour rights with laws and enforcement that actually has teeth.
  - InitialLastName 6y ago
    To bring it back to Amazon, it's even better if you can plausibly deny breaking the rules by orchestrating your system such that the people you're heavily incentivizing to break the rules and generally behave antisocially are non-employee business associates who you very clearly told (in very fine print) not to break the rules.

ahelwer 6y ago

You... ratted out the guy who delivers your packages to his corporate masters for doing the very human homeostatic requirement of urination? Seriously?

alistairSH 6y ago
Peeing in a bottle wasn't the thing that was reported. Emptying a bottle of urine in front of the customer's home was the problem. The driver should have emptied the bottle into a toilet on his next break (or after his shift). Or, failing that, dump it in the woods out of the way.
- ahelwer 6y ago
  Perhaps he had to urinate again, and did not have an additional bottle? What then should he have done? If you'll notice, we're now heading down the path of playing out ever-more-elaborate strategies for individual delivery drivers to maintain homeostasis without offending the delicate sensibilities of the people they serve, instead of questioning why this is a problem in the first place.
  - SR2Z 6y ago
    The solution to this problem is not "dump a bottle of piss out on someone's lawn," it's "expand labor laws to cover this very obvious human rights issue and then hammer Amazon with it until they shape up." Workers need bathrooms, and employers have to pay for them.
    - ahelwer 6y ago
      We agree on the best outcome. What should workers do in the meantime?
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    - whimsicalism 6y ago

icpmacdo 6y ago

It is enervating hearing anecdotes like these from wealthy people who seemingly believe the same necessary excretions they have aren't a privilege lower classes deserve

1-more 6y ago
it's especially shit because the whole goddamned economy runs on whiz-in-bottles. It's not an amazon problem (to be clear: I hate amazon for perpetuating it); it's the whole goddamned ball of wax. If no one whizzed in bottles, parked in the bike lane, double parked in a one lane road, then the economy would grind to a goddamned halt. So we have to admit that we want the rules and norms of good taste flouted when it's to our benefit, or we have to admit that we've built an unjust world.

whimsicalism 6y ago

You might not realize that this was an asshole move, but it was absolutely an asshole move. Really, really not cool and really out of touch.

tmpz22 6y ago

What were the biggest factors in reporting them? The average delivery driver works way harder and probably commits way fewer immoral actions then the average HN user for a fraction of the salary.

vineyardmike 6y ago
> probably commits way fewer immoral actions Wow. This seems loaded, unmeasurable, and very unrelated to anyones job.

Jiejeing 6y ago

And what do you expect them to do with their piss? Drink it? How jaded to human suffering must one be to report something as minor as this to a company known for having awful labor practices…

alistairSH 6y ago
Keep it in the bottle until the shift ends? Dump it in the woods? Lots of choices that don't include dumping directly in front of a customer's home.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- munk-a 6y ago
  If they take a detour maybe they'll end up with a demerit for deviating from the optimal driving route and be docked pay - if they come back to distribution with a bottle of pee the company may also dock them for something like... I dunno "storing human waste in a vehicle used for transporting food stuffs" then dock their pay or fire them. Amazon is strongly motivated to discourage drivers from coming back to their shipping centers with bottles full of pee since either labour organizers or reporters might jump on that to use against the corporation. All this could just be communicated through pretty innocuous sounding employee guidelines (maybe, "there can be no open bottles of liquid of any kind when a vehicle is in motion") or just word of mouth. A manager mentions to a senior driver that there will be some bonuses if nobody gets caught with a bottle of pee and that causes the initiative to disseminate through all the drivers. There may be far fewer choices here than it appears and the best choice is probably to get OSHA involved and maybe get some new worker safety and rights legislation through congress.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
Rule35 6y ago
That driver was a contractor, deciding to pee in his own bottle. He chose to take more packages than he could deliver and is rushing to cut corners. As well as conspicuously dumping piss outside customer houses he probably speeds through school zones. Contractors don't get a wage, that's key to this whole discussion. And if contractors don't make a profit they shouldn't take the contract. This kerfuffle is in the middle of big cities, not some tiny company town in the outback. They have all the same options anyone else does, it's not like they're forced to drive for Amazon.

tehjoker 6y ago

Why would you send the photo to Amazon? You send that to a labor reporter or social media. Are you trying to get this guy fired??

libria 6y ago

Off topic, but I'm curious. Say a human empties a pee bottle on a public sewer drain and a dog pees on that same drain. I don't see much difference except one of them urinated in public. Chemically they're the same, but I'm more repulsed by the human waste, why is that?

munk-a 6y ago
Probably because we hold humans to a higher standard than animals - we've all been raised to hold it until it's appropriate which is when we're inside and on a toilet. Some animals can be potty trained, it's a bit weird but good for them - most animals are just trained to not wee on the couch and outdoors is left wide open for them as they need. It's pretty socially acceptable for dogs to pee in public and, if you found it offensive, I am afraid I have some bad news for you about the miniature public outhouses they build for squirrels.
- qotgalaxy 6y ago
  Oh, you weren't supposed to know about the squirrel gloryholes.
anticristi 6y ago
Interesting though experiment. Similarly, why do humans sometimes need to pay for urinating (I'm looking at you German SaniUnfair), but animals don't?

tanderson11 6y ago

You are a sick and fucked up person

dyeje 6y ago

> If the driver had knocked on our door and asked to use our bathroom, I'd have absolutely invited him in. This happened with a Fedex driver once before. They don't have time to use a proper restroom. That's why they're peeing in bottles.

munk-a 6y ago

> If the driver had knocked on our door and asked to use our bathroom, I'd have absolutely invited him in. This happened with a Fedex driver once before. That person ended up leaving pee on the seat, which was pretty gross. What with all the sorts of people in the world, how many folks would've invited them in vs. thinking the driver was weird and potentially reporting the action? Asking to use your restroom (during pandemic times) seems pretty likely to trigger a customer complaint possibly even one as pleasant as "They were courteous and didn't leave a mess, but why are they being forced to use residential bathrooms, don't they have time off to pee?" - that's a complaint that doesn't reflect poorly on the driver at all but may still end up getting the driver fired if it causes a PR stink. Without stronger labour laws and without a union drivers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

eecks 6y ago

You couldn't have asked him in during covid and they couldn't have asked. Unless this was really close to your front door you should have let it go.

DarkByte8 6y ago

Can you please not snitch on people like that and instead talk to them? There are dogs that piss on the street and nothing bad happens. If this becomes regular then yes, talk to them and if they don't stop report them. But seeing 1 indiscretion and pulling the trigger on the guy is not ok.

kingTug 6y ago
Blows me away that he/she would even consider trying to get the driver fired over this. That individual works for a poverty wage and clearly isn’t given time to use the restroom by their employer. And your first instinct is to get them fired. Disgusting.

colineartheta 6y ago

The fact that you reported it is far more disgusting and petty than a driver dumping it out.

8note 6y ago

Lack of available bathrooms across cities is a big problem in and of itself. Especially with covid, where are you supposed to pee if you're spending all day driving around doing deliveries or as a taxi driver?

misterkrabs 6y ago

> This was a tough call Dude...

mdni007 6y ago

> If the driver had knocked on our door and asked to use our bathroom, I'd have absolutely invited him in. This happened with a Fedex driver once before. That person ended up leaving pee on the seat, which was pretty gross. Not sure where you live but where I'm from, letting a stranger into your home is the same as giving them permission to rob you

mplewis 6y ago

Next time, mind your own business.

refurb 6y ago

Ever heard of "trucker bombs"? There is nothing stopping a truck driver from stopping for pee breaks. They choose not to to save time.