AMAZON drivers forced to deliver 200 parcels a day -- with no toilet breaks!

Whether it is the chocolate we eat, the sweater we just have to have or that little toy that is a must have, the more I look into products the more I am beginning to see a trend. If it is soooo cheap it more than likely means there is suffering in the supply chain, and it isn't at the top.


Drivers that are under horrendous pressure to get the products we all buy to the customer. And some claim they are using "poo bags" and piss bottles to try to get the impossible jobs done. Also working past the 11 hour regulated day is also common. Pooing in a bag is very very dirty and dangerous from a cleanliness point of view. Great way to spread nasty sicknesses and disease.

Drivers are being asked to deliver up to 200 parcels a day for Amazon while earning less than the minimum wage, a Sunday Mirror investigation reveals today.

I hopped in a white van to spend a day with one driver and experience first-hand the intolerable pressures they face from “impossible” schedules.

Many routinely exceed the legal maximum shift of 11 hours and finish their days dead on their feet.

Yet they have so little time for food or toilet stops they snatch hurried meals on the run and urinate into plastic bottles they keep in their vans.

www.mirror.co.uk...

Never fear, the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency is looking into this unsafe and unfair business practice.

Our expose comes three weeks after a Sunday Mirror undercover probe highlighted life inside Amazon’s biggest European packing plant.

Now the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency has vowed to investigate after drivers contacted them to complain about conditions.

Well at least Amazon's hands are clean.
This is all contracted third party non sense that I am 100% sure Amazon would never ever ever be in favor of.

The delivery giant, which makes £7.3billion a year, does not employ them directly but uses an army of agencies instead. These agencies recruit drivers who work via an Amazon app and follow a delivery route set by the company.

Yet many of those carrying out the deliveries are so concerned by the job they are asked to do that they are blowing the whistle on standards.

Very very poor pay, and illegal long hours are claimed by drivers.

A number of drivers from Prospect Commercial Ltd, a Kent-based company which operates across the UK, raised concerns about the work they do from Amazon’s Sheffield depot.

They say they earn a fixed rate of £103 a route each day, while being offered van hire and insurance costing £200 a week.

They claim they are working as long as 12 hours each day, sometimes as much as 14 – despite UK law dictating that drivers must not be on duty for more than 11 hours in any working day. One 50-year-old worker told us he took home just £160 after forking out for van costs plus £140-worth of fuel, reimbursed later at 16p per mile

Amazon spokes person says they are committed to "fair pay" and cast all blame on the third party or independent contractors. This allows a nice clean and easy way to say Amazon did indeed do everything they could.

An Amazon spokesman told the Sunday Mirror: “Over 100 businesses across the UK are providing work opportunities to thousands of people delivering parcels to customers. We are committed to ensuring that the people contracted by our independent delivery providers are fairly compensated, treated with respect, follow all applicable laws and driving regulations and drive safely.

“Our delivery providers are expected to ensure drivers receive a minimum £12 per hour before deductions and excluding bonuses, incentives and fuel reimbursements."

An Amazon spokesman added: “As independent contractors of our delivery providers, drivers deliver at their own pace, take breaks at their discretion, and are able to choose the suggested route or develop their own.”

Not just Amazon, DPD, Hermes, all the big carriers who enforce slef employment on drivers do the same.
One big con job.

a reply to: SprocketUK

Is it a coincidence that record profits can also mean, in some cases, record low pay?

a reply to: seasonal

i dont know man. its hard for me to feel bad for them cause there are a lot of people on the grind.

the 11 hour a day max thing is probably cause they are driving. aside from that what is wrong with 11 hours?
it sucks and is not ideal but there are operators at my place that have been on 12's for a year.

pissing in bags?
trying to shave time?

not trying to crap on your thread but 11 hour days, impossible work loads....
welcome to the #in club

I believe it. One day the UPS guy for my amazon order had the brown van in my driveway which was weird and I was like...... okay.... as I was driving down the road torward my house. Then I waited for him to back out of my driveway because I live in a cul de sac- and I realized no one was in the driver seat. I started to worry like okay... is he in my house?! WTH Where is this guy?!


3 minutes went by- and he pops out the other side and throws a styrofoam like speedway drink out into my neighbors yard...... just the liquid. I was like OKAY THIS IS SO WEIRD. He sees me and his face goes red and he quickly backs out and leaves....

I thought about it and was like I think he was in the back of the UPS van and just pissed in that cup and dumped it in my neighbors yard.

Then I felt bad cos like when you gotta go you gotta go so I just went on about my day after that.

That's awful that they are subjected to that. Too bad I wasn't home a few minutes earlier I would have let him use our bathroom.

-Alee

a reply to: TinySickTears

You are right, 11 is a long day but not un-doable. But driving means different concerns. I imagine for good reason. And then you get to the pay that is below minwage.
All the time the few are making more off the many.

If it is cheap there is a reason and it usually means suffering in the 3rd world (where consumer goods are made) and suffering in service jobs where they have to still employ your neighbors (unless illegals can be used).

And, if I am reading your post correctly, the "I'm getting boned so it's no big deal" is not a viable reason to excuse this.



.

Semi drivers aren't any different lots of plastic bottles along the road full of p iss..

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: TinySickTears

You are right, 11 is a long day but not un-doable. But driving means different concerns. I imagine for good reason. And then you get to the pay that is below minwage.
All the time the few are making more off the many.

If it is cheap there is a reason and it usually means suffering in the 3rd world (where consumer goods are made) and suffering in service jobs where they have to still employ your neighbors (unless illegals can be used).

i get the 11 hour concern when behind the wheel. that is a safety thing and if that is some sort of mandate then that # needs to be enforced. for sure.
i was just focusing on the OMG working 11 hours point of view that some of these articles have.
i dont get the below minimum wage thing unless they are paid by the piece.

no sick time.
again with welcome to the club. it sucks. we get no personal or sick time. there was a meeting and this was addressed and i am pretty sure it will be officially changed at the 1st of the year but in all the years they have operated they offer no personal or sick time to hourly.

i am curious about the wages and the safety mandate needs to be enforced but welcome to the world of long hours and not much in the way of personal benefits.
they are not alone.

I worked one season for a third party carrier contracted through DHL.

The cargo vans were horrible, no heat, no radio, p.o.s. vehicles.

No overtime was ever paid and hours were shaved from our pay.

None of the benefits/protections that were enjoyed by drivers working directly for DHL applied to us.

The people that own these third party companies tend to be in it for the short haul just looking to make a quick buck and have no interest in the employees as they are just going to fire them all in 6-12 weeks anyway.

I believe large carriers tend to sub contract to third parties in good faith, yet third party owners are trying to make a

quick buck and if they can screw over their temporary workers for a few extra pennies so be it.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: TinySickTears
And, if I am reading your post correctly, the "I'm getting boned so it's no big deal" is not a viable reason to excuse this.
).

youre not reading it correctly because i never excused it. i said i have a hard time feeling bad for them and what they are dealing with. that does not make it ok

originally posted by: TinySickTears

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: TinySickTears

You are right, 11 is a long day but not un-doable. But driving means different concerns. I imagine for good reason. And then you get to the pay that is below minwage.
All the time the few are making more off the many.

If it is cheap there is a reason and it usually means suffering in the 3rd world (where consumer goods are made) and suffering in service jobs where they have to still employ your neighbors (unless illegals can be used).

i get the 11 hour concern when behind the wheel. that is a safety thing and if that is some sort of mandate then that # needs to be enforced. for sure.
i was just focusing on the OMG working 11 hours point of view that some of these articles have.
i dont get the below minimum wage thing unless they are paid by the piece.

no sick time.
again with welcome to the club. it sucks. we get no personal or sick time. there was a meeting and this was addressed and i am pretty sure it will be officially changed at the 1st of the year but in all the years they have operated they offer no personal or sick time to hourly.

i am curious about the wages and the safety mandate needs to be enforced but welcome to the world of long hours and not much in the way of personal benefits.
they are not alone.

One word-unions.

originally posted by: TinySickTears

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: TinySickTears
And, if I am reading your post correctly, the "I'm getting boned so it's no big deal" is not a viable reason to excuse this.
).

youre not reading it correctly because i never excused it. i said i have a hard time feeling bad for them and what they are dealing with. that does not make it ok

Agreed.

a reply to: seasonal

I lived in Europe for a good chunck of my life and they had a much better system. The people held the power, if they didn't like something, they would protest. I'm not talking about protesting like Americans, I'm talking about really protesting. They would block the streets for days on end. The govenment/corporations were scared of the people not the other way around. Things might be different now but at least it was like that 20 years ago.

I think about the delivery drivers, I think about the NFL. Just imagine if they all just said no, and just stopped. Then there would be real change. The problem in the US is that were are made up of so many people and different opinions that it will never happen. There is true power in numbers. 70-80% of the NFL is made up of people of color. If they want change they shouldn't kneel they should all just not show up. It's like the movie Ants, the grasshoppers make the ants think they are powerful, but it is really the ants that have the power, but they don't know it.

If UPS an Fed ex drivers all just stopped, what would happen??

First problem amazon isn't a delivery service.

Second off delivery services pay a hell of a lot more than mimum wage. They are union jobs.

UPS for example is full time employment for delivery drives with double time, and holiday pay, and other benefits.

Sure Fedex and others pay is comensurate.

a reply to: neo96

These are third party vendors, not the major carriers.

Amazon has extensively washed their hands of this-according tot he story.

a reply to: seasonal

I wake up at 02:40 every morning and I'm back at home about 18:15. I barely take a 2 day vacations, never a whole week. Using most of my personal days and vacations when I get sick or have something to do. I've been doing this for last 13 years.

Those drivers wouldn't last a week in my job.

a reply to: seasonal

Those third parties pay well.

Hell even the post office doesn't pay minimum wage.

a reply to: abe froman


We had a DHL van delivering to our building and a Security guy happened to see his tires were bare and told him not to come on the property again without new tires. The next day he showed up and a state highway guy was waiting. I heard the meeting didn't go well and the state guy had the van impounded.

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: seasonal

Those third parties pay well.

Hell even the post office doesn't pay minimum wage.

According to the story there is problems with pay.

Unless self imposed, some would say you work life balance may be out of wack. Again, unless your work schedule is self imposed.

I've never seen an Amazon driver.
My Amazon orders arrive by UPS, fed ex or usps.

Do they have paid drivers in the cities?