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But… what does it do?! I’m all about holding Amazon to the same standards, but what precisely does this accomplish? The subcontracting delivery companies alrea

by jtbayly 2mo ago

But… what does it do?! I’m all about holding Amazon to the same standards, but what precisely does this accomplish? The subcontracting delivery companies already have to follow the same laws as every other company, don’t they?

tptacek 2mo ago
It requires Amazon to directly employ delivery drivers in New York City and sets up a licensing scheme for last-mile delivery.
- dartharva 2mo ago
  Isn't that.. worse? Putting local businesses out of jobs and instead consolidating all of them directly under the company's umbrella?
  - dannyphantom 2mo ago
    It would probably make the most sense for Amazon to scale out their on-road infra as drone delivery capacity (and much more slowly, the regulatory environment) is hammered out but I’m personally leaning towards the org going for a more practical response that ends up routing most packages through USPS instead.
  - stvltvs 2mo ago
    Are these really local businesses or are they employees forced to take on liability as a condition of employment? Tech has been mislabeling employees as independent contractors for years.
stackskipton 2mo ago
The act basically makes Amazon responsible for these subcontractors. BTW, they are not only ones who do this, UPS and Fedex have similar setups. The problem here is Amazon farms out delivery to these companies, set impossible delivery standards that require these subcontractor employees to do things that break the law OR cause damage to their health. However, since Amazon is technically not employing them, they have no liability.
- spongebobstoes 2mo ago
  isn't this the fault of the subcontractor for agreeing to the impossible?
  - animal_spirits 2mo ago
    That's what i'm confused about, no one is holding a gun to the subcontractor's heads forcing them to do the impossible
- gruez 2mo ago
  >set impossible delivery standards that require these subcontractor employees to do things that break the law OR cause damage to their health Source? Is it actually physically "impossible", or simply a race to the bottom dynamic?
  - stackskipton 2mo ago
    Race to bottom dynamic
  - Anonbrit 1mo ago
    Search youtube for drivers talking about thus from their personal experiences. There are hundreds of horror stories there to get you started. There have been websites dedicated to collecting such stories, though several have been lawyered to death.
EugeneG 2mo ago
Agree. Unclear on what the actual specific harms are, whether they systemic, and how a new set of laws would help fix it. Also what are the harms that new rules introduce? Are you going to eliminate a bunch of new small businesses that do deliveries and replace them with everything being under one, giant, multi-trillion dollar company?
runako 2mo ago
The bill[1], which is named in the video, is available on the public Internet. 1 - https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7879110&GUID=BDDD32F1-1178-492D-80F2-205845356FD2 https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7...

by jtbayly 2mo ago

tptacek 2mo ago

It requires Amazon to directly employ delivery drivers in New York City and sets up a licensing scheme for last-mile delivery.

dartharva 2mo ago
Isn't that.. worse? Putting local businesses out of jobs and instead consolidating all of them directly under the company's umbrella?
- dannyphantom 2mo ago
  It would probably make the most sense for Amazon to scale out their on-road infra as drone delivery capacity (and much more slowly, the regulatory environment) is hammered out but I’m personally leaning towards the org going for a more practical response that ends up routing most packages through USPS instead.
- stvltvs 2mo ago
  Are these really local businesses or are they employees forced to take on liability as a condition of employment? Tech has been mislabeling employees as independent contractors for years.

stackskipton 2mo ago

The act basically makes Amazon responsible for these subcontractors. BTW, they are not only ones who do this, UPS and Fedex have similar setups. The problem here is Amazon farms out delivery to these companies, set impossible delivery standards that require these subcontractor employees to do things that break the law OR cause damage to their health. However, since Amazon is technically not employing them, they have no liability.

spongebobstoes 2mo ago
isn't this the fault of the subcontractor for agreeing to the impossible?
- animal_spirits 2mo ago
  That's what i'm confused about, no one is holding a gun to the subcontractor's heads forcing them to do the impossible
gruez 2mo ago
>set impossible delivery standards that require these subcontractor employees to do things that break the law OR cause damage to their health Source? Is it actually physically "impossible", or simply a race to the bottom dynamic?
- stackskipton 2mo ago
  Race to bottom dynamic
- Anonbrit 1mo ago
  Search youtube for drivers talking about thus from their personal experiences. There are hundreds of horror stories there to get you started. There have been websites dedicated to collecting such stories, though several have been lawyered to death.

EugeneG 2mo ago

Agree. Unclear on what the actual specific harms are, whether they systemic, and how a new set of laws would help fix it. Also what are the harms that new rules introduce? Are you going to eliminate a bunch of new small businesses that do deliveries and replace them with everything being under one, giant, multi-trillion dollar company?

runako 2mo ago

The bill[1], which is named in the video, is available on the public Internet. 1 - https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7879110&GUID=BDDD32F1-1178-492D-80F2-205845356FD2 https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7...