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It's called "Amazon Flex". I have done this. You go to the Amazon warehouse, whichever one they direct you to, in your own car, you get your cart load of packages - and it's a LOT of packages....A. LOT!!!
They send you out in to the GD sticks, usually a good half an hour to an hour away, setting you off right at rush hour, you finally get there, and you spend hours dropping off packages to people who live way out there.
I have photos that I took one night of just how out into the damn sticks I was. It was nothing but me, the trees, and a ridiculous amount of deer, bouncing around all over the place.
Independent Contractors who pick up packages that I guess didn't fit in the van? I don't know why they don't just have more vans and hire more employees.
It does pay decently, unless you are sent out to be in the wilderness with nothing but trees and deer everywhere you look - and long, long, loooooooooong narrow gravel roads, filled with ruts, no lighting even though you're driving in the pitch black....then it takes longer than your schedule told you it would take. They do compensate for the extra time, but you're so pi$$ed at that point, wondering why the hell you ever signed up for this, that the extra money, while good, still doesn't make it worth it.
Or, you can get lucky and get a Whole Foods delivery block - then you actually make money and stay in civilization. But that isn't easy.
You can also get "Prime" orders - you know, the ones where you get the stuff the same day you ordered? Those are...ok.
But anyway, that's what they are.
Boy; that's like the proverbial pizza delivery guy having to provide his own car, insure and maintain the thing then virtually break every speed limit to deliver a pizza within the prescribed time or lose his pay.
You were being sent places where a strange vehicle might not be received with the "nary a glance" but rather the "who goes there" and a demand for a passsword response.
The scenario you describe is crying out for that much ballyhooed drone delivery feature that was featured in the news a year or so ago.
Boy; that's like the proverbial pizza delivery guy having to provide his own car, insure and maintain the thing then virtually break every speed limit to deliver a pizza within the prescribed time or lose his pay.
You were being sent places where a strange vehicle might not be received with the "nary a glance" but rather the "who goes there" and a demand for a passsword response.
The scenario you describe is crying out for that much ballyhooed drone delivery feature that was featured in the news a year or so ago.
Off topic to this discussion but I'm a drone enthusiast so I can't resist replying. There are technical issues that need to be solved, one of the biggest is power. Drones use a surprising large amount of electricity (think 20-30 amps, like a clothes dryer). New battery tech makes them possible but for short flights. If you just increase the battery size, you run into diminished returns. heavier drones take more energy so pretty soon you don't gain any range/time with a larger battery. Not to mention the thing has to be ale to carry a package. The biggest problem though, is political (surprise surprise). Above 400 feet the FAA gets involved. Amazon doesn't want to get into that airspace because of regulation and cost. Below 400" is where kites, balloons and recreational drone pilots fly. So the answer is to outlaw them. That is taking longer then they thought but they are using their influence to wipe us out.
Boy; that's like the proverbial pizza delivery guy having to provide his own car, insure and maintain the thing then virtually break every speed limit to deliver a pizza within the prescribed time or lose his pay.
You were being sent places where a strange vehicle might not be received with the "nary a glance" but rather the "who goes there" and a demand for a passsword response.
The scenario you describe is crying out for that much ballyhooed drone delivery feature that was featured in the news a year or so ago.
You are right. Most were uneventful, aside from the stress of all the dang deer, and the stupidly long, narrow, rut filled, unlit, gravel roads, but, I've definitely encountered hostility until I blurt out, "I'm delivering your order".
One guy definitely scared me. He flung his front door open very aggressively, and loomed over me with an "I will tear you in half" look on his face, until I shoved his order at him. Then he smiled and said 'thank you', but I'll be honest, I was about to pi$$ myself because he was so menacing.
In those types of deliveries, no, do not use humans.
Location: 23.7 million to 162 million miles North of Venus
23,610 posts, read 12,543,921 times
Reputation: 10479
Quote:
Originally Posted by elnina
If you demand your package in an hour or less
- that's a result of cheap and fast.
BTW: dumping Amazon packages (they weren't even stolen) seems to be quite frequent occurrence:
Package theft is at an all-time high, with 1.7 million packages stolen or lost every day in the U.S. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/10/pack...h-pirates.html
Hundreds of FedEx Packages Dumped in Alabama Ravine.
Former FedEx driver dumped packages because ‘he didn’t want to deliver them’
FedEx says the driver dumped packages into an Alabama ravine at least six times... https://www.abc4.com/news/national/f...-deliver-them/
The illegals that were busted weren't door-to-door delivery drivers.
They filled their big box trucks at the Amazon warehouse and were supposed to deliver the packages to the post office, UPS, etc., so that the packages could be sent to other Amazon warehouses across several states.
They didn't just dump the packages because they "didn't want to deliver them". They took the packages to their home, filling every nook and cranny in their home including the storm cellar, and opened them at their leisure. They took what they wanted and discarded the empty boxes and the stuff they didn't want out in the country.
This makes it very easy/convenient to hire the illegals, and it's like Amazon has *nothing to do with it.*
My take on it would be - if you've grown so damn big that you can't already handle your own deliveries, then you need to be broken apart.
Otherwise you already start promoting your own regulations as being a state within a state.
And this includes hiring illegals for convenience.
You can't handle your own deliveries ( where you can oversee the operations and follow the laws), then it's time to start downsizing.
Someone else needs to take share of the market.
Many companies from retail to restaurants, have peak seasons where they do much more business than normal. At Christmas, Amazon is flooded with orders. If Amazon hired enough drivers to handle the Christmas peak season, they would have an army of drivers sitting around picking their nose all summer.
Many companies hire temps or contract out to subcontractors to handle brief periods of high demand during peak seasons. It is not about mismanagement. It is about efficiency.
Location: 23.7 million to 162 million miles North of Venus
23,610 posts, read 12,543,921 times
Reputation: 10479
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin
Many companies from retail to restaurants, have peak seasons where they do much more business than normal. At Christmas, Amazon is flooded with orders. If Amazon hired enough drivers to handle the Christmas peak season, they would have an army of drivers sitting around picking their nose all summer.
Many companies hire temps or contract out to subcontractors to handle brief periods of high demand during peak seasons. It is not about mismanagement. It is about efficiency.
Apparently this group of illegals had been stealing from Amazon for many months, possibly for most of this year. Seems a third dump site was recently found.
Many companies from retail to restaurants, have peak seasons where they do much more business than normal. At Christmas, Amazon is flooded with orders. If Amazon hired enough drivers to handle the Christmas peak season, they would have an army of drivers sitting around picking their nose all summer.
Many companies hire temps or contract out to subcontractors to handle brief periods of high demand during peak seasons. It is not about mismanagement. It is about efficiency.
True, but many companies hire temporary employees that are better vetted through their own company, as they should.
I remember in 2016 when a bus driver in Chattanooga wrecked and killed six children. He was subcontracted through an agency. There had been several complaints about the driver but because he was not an employee of the school district, nothing could be done. I remember thinking then that this was not right. I dont know if sacrificing quality and control is the most efficient way to run a business.
Many companies from retail to restaurants, have peak seasons where they do much more business than normal. At Christmas, Amazon is flooded with orders. If Amazon hired enough drivers to handle the Christmas peak season, they would have an army of drivers sitting around picking their nose all summer.
Many companies hire temps or contract out to subcontractors to handle brief periods of high demand during peak seasons. It is not about mismanagement. It is about efficiency.
I understand it's about "efficiency," but keep in mind that hiring illegals is part of the *efficiency.*
So *efficiency* needs to have its limits.
And the Amazon became too much of a behemoth.
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