RML knows that we have these heavy loads, and that the routes are broken. They average between 80 to 100 drivers, driving a combination of the big Amazon vans and the normal Amazon vans. In my facility I believe there’s a total of six to eight DSPs. They are a transportation company, or a Delivery Service Provider, for Amazon. Labor Notes: Who do you work for and what their relationship is with Amazon?Ĭolin Shellard: Who I really work for is RML. The interview has been edited for length and clarity Joe DeManuelle-Hall interviewed that driver, Colin Shellard. While it’s unclear how many drivers ultimately participated, at least one driver in Rochester, New York, decided to take up the call and picket in front of his warehouse. Postal Service, though the company still relies on them to deliver many of its packages.Īfter Amazon announced that many delivery drivers would be required to work on Easter, drivers across the country began communicating with one another on the online message board Reddit about the idea of a walkout.
These DSPs operate out of delivery stations, a network of last-mile warehouses that Amazon has built up in competition with UPS and the U.S. But an increasing number of packages, particularly in large urban areas, are delivered in Amazon-branded vans by drivers in Amazon-branded uniforms who do not work for Amazon, but for a layer of subcontractors known as Delivery Service Providers.
Some of these drivers work for Amazon’s growing “gig” arm, Amazon Flex, where drivers deliver packages in their own cars and are classified as independent contractors. The company inadvertently drew attention to this problem in March by denying it after journalists chimed in with documentation, Amazon had to acknowledge the practice is widespread. The pressure to keep up with stringent delivery standards is so heavy that many drivers use “pee bottles” due to the lack of access to bathrooms. Working conditions at Amazon have been under a spotlight for months-not only for workers in the company’s warehouses but also for its delivery drivers, who face extreme quotas, long hours, and intense surveillance.
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