Amazon Tells Drivers 'Endorphins Are Your Friend' On Amazon Prime Day

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Amazon's signature sales event has ended for customers, but Amazon drivers around the world are still working extended hours on routes with hundreds of stops to get those Amazon Prime Day packages delivered. In the United Kingdom, Amazon distributed a set of five tips to its drivers for "keep[ing] in top shape" during Amazon Prime Day: eat breakfast, drink water, take breaks, stay positive, and stop for lunch. But following these tips is impossible for many Amazon drivers who aren't even employed by the company. Amazon delivery drivers face extreme pressure from their contractors, known as Amazon Delivery Partners, who are in turn paid and evaluated by Amazon. In other words, they have to finish their routes as quickly as possible, often under pressure to circumvent safety rules, traffic laws, and skip legally mandated breaks in order to hit delivery targets.

"Keep it positive: Endorphins are your friend!" one of the tips on the flyer distributed to Amazon drivers reads. "Keep them flowing by staying on the move, and striking up a conversation." On Facebook forums, where surviving the Amazon sales event has been a frequent topic of conversation among drivers in recent days, drivers joked about Amazon's tips. "Take your lunch and breaks. Sure, if you want [your dispatcher] on your ass saying you're 20 or so stops behind," an Amazon delivery driver in Los Angeles wrote. "I don't take a break. I eat and drink as I go, as I like to get back to see my kids before they go to bed," an Amazon delivery driver in a suburb of London who received the flyer, told Motherboard. "As for striking up conversations, sometimes customers wanna chat, but we always kinda respond like, 'Haha that's great—anyway we gotta go,'" an Amazon delivery driver in Virginia told Motherboard.

Until Amazon can havea 100% robot delivery force

[alaskana98]

Coming soon: Amazon drivers will soon be wearing backpacks with bags of intravenous feeding solution delivered by IV lines straight into the stomach. No chewing necessary! Also, 'delivery diapers' - who needs to stop for a bathroom break when you can just go on the go!

Re:

[saloomy]

Jeff Bezos has enabled more people to have more things and at a lower cost than his competitors, while employing more people to make that happen. There are plenty of horrible things Amazon does, like rip off products or allow fake knock-offs on its site. Employing people, and delivering good value for what its customers pay for is not one of them. It does these things exceedingly well, which is why Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, and his positive impacts far, far outstrip the bad things Amazon d

Re:

[DarkRookie2]

Jeff Bezos has enabled more people to have more things and at a lower cost than his competitors, while employing more people to make that happen. There are plenty of horrible things Amazon does, like rip off products or allow fake knock-offs on its site. Employing people, and delivering good value for what its customers pay for is not one of them. It does these things exceedingly well, which is why Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, and his positive impacts far, far outstrip the bad things Amazon does.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Nope. Jeff Bezos is up there with Hitler on the evilness scale.

Re:

[LifesABeach]

agreed.
but at what cost.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

I used to work as a driver, although not for Amazon.

I kept a pee bottle under the seat and used it almost every day.

Driving 5 miles out of my way to find a toilet would have been a pointless waste of time.

If Amazon gives drivers extra time for toilet breaks, any driver with half a brain is going to continue to use the pee bottle and just pocket the extra money.

This all just silly manufactured outrage about nothing. There is nothing inhumane about peeing in a bottle, and yes, there are pee bottles for women

Re:

[rmdingler]

I've pissed in a bottle I was, fortunately, able to cap during the shift.

Perhaps this is over and above acceptable etiquette, foreign to the folks who think picking up the feces of their canine is their responsibility; yet, I'd be willing to go out on that thin ass limb and implore my piss=in=a=bottle brothers to uncap, and pour your urine into a grassy place instead of tossing the full, capped bottle side the road.

thank you, and tip your waitresses.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

I never tossed my pee bottle by the side of the road or anywhere else.

I rinsed it out at the end of the day and put it back under the seat.

Re:

[MancunianMaskMan]

i was going to mod this up but there is no "+1 Thank you!" on /.

So do truckers, while fighter pilots use bags

[couchslug]

It really ISN'T a big deal, but urine triggers silly emotional trifling autspergtards.

I carry a piss jug in my personal truck for long drives. It's a fine way to reuse milk or bottled water jugs and no one is harmed thereby.

It's so convenient there's no reason NOT to do it if you drive a box truck or van which offers room to stand. I'd not use the "piddle pack" sponge in a bag fighter pilot method in a terrestrial vehicle because it's much less convenient, but fighter cockpits lack room for piss jugs.

The ol

Amazon loses 2% of workforce per week

[Maxo-Texas]

Yup.. that's right -- over 100% losses per year.

Don't know what the attrition rates are for drivers but it's not a career- Amazon is burning up your body like a battery.
And will dump you once the robots are finished.

Re:Amazon loses 2% of workforce per week

[quonset]

LOL that's not how percentages work ... SMH

Amazon has a 150% turnover rate for its warehouses. The churn is so high, Amazon executives are afraid of running out of workers [nytimes.com] to fill spots.

Many people only last hours or days.

As always, if you don't like how Amazon treats its employees (and this article is another such example) the solution is simple and free. Stop buying from them.

Now carry on acting like a Pavlovian dog waiting for your Prime delivery to arrive.

Re:

[Kyogreex]

The end of your comment:

But the Amazon workers rejected the Unions. It isn't happening.

The end of koxabon707’s comment below, posted 37 minutes earlier:

Amazon workers soundly rejected union leeches. It isn't happening.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but it seems an awful like you either lifted your talking points from another user or you both got your talking points from the same place. Or perhaps you’re an alt account.

All of these possibilities beg the question: why?

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

if you don't like how Amazon treats its employees ... the solution is simple and free. Stop buying from them.

An even simpler and more obvious solution is to stop working there.

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

Yes it's simple: you are free to work for a company that will destroy you (and thereby your means of future employment) or your are free to choose to starve now. Why are you complaining, you have freedom.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

If only it was simple. In the UK you can lose your benefits if you refuse to take a job, or if you voluntarily quit or get fired for not showing up etc.

Re:

[cayenne8]

If only it was simple. In the UK you can lose your benefits if you refuse to take a job, or if you voluntarily quit or get fired for not showing up etc.

Are you saying in the UK that you cannot change jobs?

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Only if you can find another one. If you quit because the conditions are really bad you don't get any support, except maybe retroactively if you manage to take them to an employment tribunal and win.

Re:

[cayenne8]

Only if you can find another one. If you quit because the conditions are really bad you don't get any support, except maybe retroactively if you manage to take them to an employment tribunal and win.

Well, most people wait till they have a new job before quitting the old one, that's just common practices.

It is difficult to get a job over there for some reason?

I mean, especially an Amazon level job that is just manual labor or driving a truck etc....I should think there would be PLENTY of other jobs you co

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

At the moment it's not too bad. Because of brexit there is a massive labour shortage. Then again because if COVID there is a lot of risk taking some jobs.

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

I haven't bought from Amazon for years, and they still treat employees like shit and I still don't like it. Me not shopping there has done Jack squat.

So I will not for someone who has in favor of regulation.

Re:

[mrclevesque]

"Thats nothing. Turnover in the hospitality industry is around 300%."

Gotta be making that stuff up to push an agenda:

"The turnover rate in the restaurants-and-accommodations sector rose to a post-recession high of 74.9 percent in 2018."

https://restaurant.org/article... [restaurant.org]

2020 was higher with COVID and all, but that's not unexpected and it was still only about 130%.

"Amazon workers soundly rejected union ... It isn't happening."

So knowing your track record with truth, I guess you're really scared it *will* happe

Re:

[ravenshrike]

That's total turnover rate including all management and every rinky dink hotel/restaurant run by a single family. In which the turnover rate is comparatively low. However, turnover at the large chains for lower end positions is easily well over 100% and anecdotally as high as the earlier claim of 300%.

Re:

[Maxo-Texas]

There was a time when you tipped because you were building a relationship with the staff.

These days, it's a new staff every month. You just tip out of basic human kindness.

Re:

[mrclevesque]

I shouldn't have implied koxabon707 was lying or not telling the truth on purpose.

"anecdotally as high as the earlier claim of 300%."

Yes, that's more what I should have said, anecdotally you can claim any number, higher or lower, what suits the argument.

Re:

[Maxo-Texas]

You know.. it's funny but restaurants are the ones complaining they can't get any employees.
I guess the turnover caught up with them.

I know some in my area are only open for pickup because they can't find anyone willing to work under the conditions they offer.

Nothing about Amazon suprises me any more

[Dusanyu]

Not since the 2016 "wage cage" patent https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?... [uspto.gov]

No, actually, money is your friend

[50000BTU_barbecue]

Do you think the execs or management vermin would be paid in endorphins??

Words are cheap

[Alain Williams]

making changes to allow drivers to actually do what they say would cost Amazon a tiny percentage of its earnings. A tiny percentage that they do not want to lose.

Re:

[quonset]

There was an Amazon van making a delivery at 9:15 PM last night across the street from me. Completely and utterly ridiculous. Disgraceful even.

Re:

[sarren1901]

They must of took their breaks and lunch(s).

Re:

[ghoul]

That guy/gal is getting overtime. The bad employers insist routes are done in 8 hours even though Amazon pays for 10 hrs.

Re:

[DarkRookie2]

Yeah, but the best and easiest way to get Endorphins is illegal drugs.

A reminder for those using the service industry

[bobstreo]

If you're in a country that tips:

Don't tip as part of the ordering process.

Do tip in cash when your order is received.

Oh, and thank them.

Re:

[rmdingler]

If you're in a country that tips:

Don't tip as part of the ordering process.

Do tip in cash when your order is received.

Oh, and thank them.

We've started tipping folks at fast food restaurants. It's super cool because they deserve that 3 or 4 bucks way more than intersection beggars... and, they don't expect it. They're often blown away that they're being tipped.

In the grand scheme of things, tipping folks trying to make it on the bottom of the earning spectrum, is somehow, incredibly, more rewarding.

Amazon is toxic and cancerous

[Rick Schumann]

Clearly and objectively true.

time for an DOT crack down how drives

[Joe_Dragon]

time for an DOT crack down. Some overtime DOT Violation can add up fast.

Why?

[Jodka]

Amazon delivery drivers face extreme pressure from their contractors, known as Amazon Delivery Partners, who are in turn paid and evaluated by Amazon. In other words, they have to finish their routes as quickly as possible, often under pressure to circumvent safety rules, traffic laws, and skip legally mandated breaks in order to hit delivery targets.

Ok. Why? What are the logistics and economics of delivery service which reward high-pressure employment? An equation explaining the economic motivation for overworking employees would tell us the values of which terms to adjust to remedy the problem of overwork.

What are the costs of parallelizing the solution by using more drivers and a lower average rate of compensation per driver, with less pressure per driver? That seems like a good solution, yet we do not understand the problem well enough to explai

Or ..

[PPH]

.. meth.

"Endorphins? You mean like Flipper?"

[magusxxx]

- Susan Sugarbaker (Designing Women)

Good gravy

[cascadingstylesheet]

Apparently "work for Amazon" = "license to bitch".

Companies all over are begging for workers now, mainly (you can tell by all the lame efforts to deny it) because we're paying so many people not to work.

So if you don't want to work for Amazon, get a different freaking job. There's never been a better time. Sheesh.

New employment law

[VeryFluffyBunny]

All executives have to work under the same conditions as their lowest paid workers, e.g. no pee breaks, bathrooms the same distance from where they work, same time for lunch breaks, same shitty facilities for changing & eating. Whatever lowest paid workers have to endure, so do the executives. The only difference is that executives have the power to change those working conditions. Does that sound fair?

Re:

[inode_buddha]

Yes, I like that. It sounds fair -- which is why it'll never happen. People don't get to the top by playing fair, they get to the top by doing whatever it takes. Or by inducing others to do whatever it takes. Morals don't enter into the picture for the winners.

And USPS Drivers are refusing to deliver

[TEG24601]

In a lot of communities in the US, there are no Amazon delivery drivers, just the US Postal Service. In my local community, the Postal Service is actually refusing to deliver a large percentage of Amazon Packages. They claim it is because they don't get paid overtime for the deliveries, which sounds like a union problem more than anything. It is really starting to have an impact, as the community is predominantly older people, who either can't drive or can't lift the packages into their vehicles, or peop

Two deliveries make a wrong?

[AndyKron]

Cliff Clavin didn't like the Spiegal catalogs. It's funny that I get a small package from Amazon in my mailbox on the same day I get a small package on my doorstep from an Amazon carrier.