Amazon delivery driver in Pittsburgh reached out World Socialist website Talk about situations workers face. To unite drivers and warehouse workers from various contractors and combat terrible working conditions, long hours, and constant pressure by Amazon to make workers more and more productive, the General We want to start building a committee. cost.
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by Amazon delivery driver
I am an Amazon delivery person and I work for a contractor called a DSP (Delivery Service Partner). One of the ways Amazon keeps us divided is by making us work with thousands of different DSPs. So it’s hard to tell who is responsible for what we do, the DSP or Amazon. In this way, Amazon can deny that they are the cause of our working conditions. We also work for thousands of different contractors, which makes it difficult to stay organized.
The day starts around 9:30 and takes a 50 minute drive to Amazon’s warehouse. There you will receive your truck, phone, charger and other equipment for the day. Each DSP has a specific load time.
You have 20 minutes to load the truck and exit the dock. Often we don’t even know that. There will be a manager yelling at us with a loudspeaker to hurry up. Sometimes they try to force us to load up and leave in 6 minutes.
We plan to deliver about 200 units per day. But during Prime Day, that number goes up to 250 packages. Amazon has Prime Day on October 12th and he’s on the 13th. For them he is a day, but for those of us with the extra load he is two weeks. Normally, we would have him work 10 hours four times a day, but for a few weeks after each Prime Day, he would end up working five days.
We’re just running all the time. On the Amazon app, he only has two minutes between delivering a package and going to the next delivery. You can never make it, so you never take a break or lunch to catch up.
We work 10 hours a day, but often work 11 or 12 hours to complete a run. That is 20 or 25 packages per hour.
The package comes in a tote bag. Originally, it should have been put together in the order of the route, but the warehouse workers got in a hurry and made a mistake in the order.
They rushed us off the dock so I had to spend my first break unpacking the truck and packing up.
If you are late, you are expected to continue working until you complete your route. I work for one of the great DSPs. Not all DSPs are the same, but they will pay you overtime if you don’t complete a route. Others do not. Otherwise you will be fired.
Amazon says you work for the DSP, not for them. But if they don’t like you, they put you on a “do not hire” list and no contractor can hire you. Amazon puts her DSP on a “do not hire” list and everyone who works for that contractor loses their job.
That’s what I mean. Amazon claims to take no responsibility for the conditions in which we work, but puts pressure on DSPs. That’s why whenever I post about Amazon online, people always say, “That’s not how I work.”
As soon as I start working, I get in and out of the truck. Very bad for safety. I’m sure you’ve heard of people dying from the heat during the summer. Around February, Amazon said the truck had to be turned off at every stop. First, it takes extra time to shut off and start the engine, but this also means the truck is never kept warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Most of the time my route is in the surrounding area. They try to group your drops so you’re not too far from the next drop. is far away and you are rushing to make up.
It’s very hard inside the city of Pittsburgh. There are many one-way streets, and I have to drive here and there to my house. Most of the houses are built on hills and require climbing up and down stairs. You are told to be careful, but you are constantly pressured to meet your quota.
It’s up to the specific DSP to set the policy if it doesn’t feel right. Like I said, mine is better than most. The manager was a driver so knows what you are going through. They will come back to you and tell you to finish your route the next day. Jobs are tight right now, so it may not be as hard on you as it would be if there were a lot of people looking for work.
They also try to split their employees. I used to work for another of his DSPs. If someone fails to complete the route, they blame the driver and look bad. When I finish the route and call and the truck comes back, they might say to me, “Go and help someone complete his route.” Then they will try to tell you that he is lazy.
200 packages have now been delivered. We look forward to returning and need to do more work. This is a tactic to make other drivers hate, not his DSP or Amazon behind this crazy push.
One day last summer, I passed a parked truck and stopped to check. It was 9:30 at night for him. The woman cried and said she couldn’t do it anymore. She hadn’t finished her route and she called to ask if she could come in. She told me she had children at home and she couldn’t see them. I was. For months she had 90 and even 100 degree days.
I think she quit or got fired. I never saw her again.
They always say you don’t work for Amazon. They did it over and over again during training. But Amazon can fire you. They record your time in an app, and if you drive for a long time, the DSP will tell you to log out of the app, so your time won’t be shown.
They also tell you that you are not a commercial driver. Commercial drivers are protected by laws that determine when they can drive and when they can rest. Amazon ensures that our trucks are not classified as commercial. They want us to always deliver.
I don’t know exactly who owns the truck. To start a business, a DSP must buy, or even agree to lease, a great many blue trucks. But they can buy broken vans whatever they want. Amazon is set to fix its own trucks, which is another way to put pressure on DSPs. They don’t repair trucks, set a time and then do it, or let the DPS return the truck without repairing it properly.
Amazon also announced a heavy truck that they want us to learn how to drive. They said they would form a team of two. One driver and his one person do the drops. Amazon wants these trucks to drop 300 drops a day. My friend said don’t sign up for the training, they drop the second one. They just wanted one person to do more.
You’re not driving like a normal person, but you’re always hopping in and out. You are supposed to wear your seatbelt, but that takes time. Many times it’s just a click under the seat, other times it’s just a tug over your shoulder, so you can’t get a ticket even if the cops see you.
I work 10 hours four times a day. I like it, three days off is nice. But often you end up working 11 or 12 hours to complete a route. My girlfriend’s DSP pays us an hour and a half after 40 hours, but not everyone does. During Prime Day, we work 5 days, often 12 hour shifts. It takes hours. Just drop it when the day is done.
I have a teenage daughter who lives with my ex. We can’t see each other except on holidays. Usually on the first day I just sleep and try to recover. Maybe we can meet on the second day of vacation. They have friends whose parents are divorced and they don’t even want to see their children. I understand the desire to see my children as they grow older, but at this rate I won’t be able to see them as much as I would like due to my work schedule.
All this for Bazos to get rich. All they care about is the profit of the company. He doesn’t care about the people who work for him. We are the ones who run the company, but we are treated like crap.
Now is the time for all of us to come together and stand up against these companies. That is why I have formed a General Committee to unite all workers and fight for better working conditions. Please fill out this form, tell us about the situation you are facing, and join us in our fight.
