How Amazon controls delivery drivers without paying their wages

Thousands of full-time drivers outside Amazon's facilities deliver Amazon packages, meet daily with Amazon's heads and, in some cases, wear Amazon uniforms.

The routes and the daily delivery times are defined by Amazon. Amazon trains many drivers, provides support on the road and provides them with peripherals, called "rabbits", for scanning and shipping.

Amazon uses rabbits to track the movements of drivers and has the power to eliminate drivers who do not cut it, Business Insider told two former Amazon executives.

But Amazon does not pay the wages of these drivers.

He also does not offer them protections, benefits or other benefits – such as his new $ 15 minimum wage – offered to his own employees. Indeed, none of these drivers really works for Amazon.

The company instead employs these drivers indirectly through contracts with smaller third-party companies, called delivery service partners or DSPs. Amazon's DSP network is similar to its version of UPS and FedEx, carriers that Amazon also uses to deliver packages.

Amazon outsources to the delivery service providers the salaries of the drivers, the insurance, the health benefits and the maintenance of the vehicles.

Amazon, meanwhile, retains power over almost every other aspect of these drivers' work, according to legal filings and interviews with more than 40 deliverers, including drivers, supervisors, courier company owners, and managers. Amazon logistics.

For Amazon, this outsourcing system for delivery work is a cost-effective alternative to direct employment.

But this has created an extremely confusing chain of command for drivers, which, according to some, has resulted in chronic problems of missing wages, lack of overtime, intimidation, broken delivery trucks and strenuous shifts that lasted up to 15 hours without interruption. .

"The DSP work contract model is absolutely about reducing risk and avoiding the costs and the obligation to hire staff, so that Amazon can move and evolve quickly", said a former logistics manager of Amazon, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. . "DSPs are struggling with financial difficulties such that they do not always take care of their vans or do not make sure that they meet the standards."

Amazon is at the root of the problem, said this person.

"We are creating this pressure cooker," they said. "We are really turning the buttons on the DSPs and the drivers, and at the end of the day we can get rid of them and say," These are your employees. "

Amazon has stated that although it does not directly control wage setting and benefits, it regularly audits its delivery partners and obliges them to comply with labor laws.

"Amazon has long supported small businesses such as our delivery service partners, and they play an important role in the long-term success of the company," said the company. "We regularly receive feedback from our distribution partners to ensure that we provide them with the right tools and processes to help them run successful businesses."

In an email surveyed by Business Insider, Amazon told these courier companies this week that they should begin tracking and electronically recording employee hours using the "time tracking" software provided by the company. payroll company ADP. This requirement, which comes into effect on November 19, follows a previous Business Insider survey that detailed numerous reports of missing wages and lack of overtime payments.

Courier companies are "scared" of Amazon

Amazon can "turn the buttons" on delivery service partners because it totally controls the company's revenue, sources said. Amazon pays courier companies a set amount for each itinerary delivered each day. The number of routes allocated to a company may vary each week.

Amazon officials, who work on delivery sites with drivers and their supervisors, are free to allocate routes, sources said.

"We were walking on eggs," said one owner of a courier company. "You do not want to put the angry guy who gives the roads, because if you make him angry, he will not give you the number of roads you want."

In some cases, this power dynamics has led to free lunches, said this person.

"People were buying lunches at Amazon" to try to get more trips, they said. "If you're with Amazon, you can not do anything wrong, they'll give more roads to these people."

Amazon can also cut the routes of underperforming companies, according to Amazon's former executives and mail company owners. Companies were constantly worried about loosing routes or seeing their contracts completely cut off.

"Amazon has all the power and the delivery service providers are afraid to pull out," said the former logistics manager of Amazon. "I could decide that I wanted to replace a company on Friday and Monday, they would be away."

Another manager of a courier company however indicated that the process of removing a company could take up to two weeks.

Amazon's power extends to drivers

Drivers employed by third-party companies are also tightly controlled by Amazon, according to legal reports and interviews with Amazon employees and mail company workers.

Two Amazon officials said they had the power to fire drivers indirectly by barring them from access to their delivery points. These bans usually occur at weekly meetings between Amazon officials and mail company managers, depending on who attended these meetings.

"I had drivers, adult men, who would come crying to me, tears in their eyes, saying:" Help me keep my job, "said a former director of Amazon. "You have to tell them," You do not work for Amazon, you work for the DSP, so I really can not help you. "

"The next day, I could attend a meeting with this person's technical employer … saying that he can not work outside this station."

This does not equate to a live shot, he said, because drivers excluded from an Amazon delivery post could technically work for another client on another site. But this directive often ended in a shot, it does not matter, he said.

If Amazon outright dismissed a contract driver, the company could be considered legally as a common employer, which could be held liable in a court for workplace violations.

This distinction is important. Lawyers representing Amazon-affiliated drivers in the United States have stated in several lawsuits that Amazon should be considered a common employer and should therefore be held accountable for alleged work-related violations, such as missing wages, the absence of overtime pay or the absence of breaks.

Amazon has been named as the defendant in at least six legal actions against seven contract delivery companies affiliated with Amazon in Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, Arizona and Washington over the last three years. Three of the cases have been resolved. Amazon has admitted no fault in any of the cases.

"Amazon controls every step of the delivery process, with the exception of the workers' compensation mode," said Sarah Schalman-Bergen of Berger Montague, a Philadelphia-based company that represents drivers under the umbrella of the company. a lawsuit against Amazon and TL Transportation. "It's a huge injustice."

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