Amazon's Next-Day Delivery System Has Brought Chaos And Carnage To America's Streets -- But The [View all]

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World’s Biggest Retailer Has A System To Escape The Blame

Deaths and devastating injuries. A litany of labor violations. Drivers forced to urinate in their vans. Here is how Amazon’s gigantic, decentralized, next-day delivery network brought chaos, exploitation, and danger to communities across America.

Picture of Caroline O'Donovan Caroline O'Donovan BuzzFeed News Reporter
Picture of Ken Bensinger Ken Bensinger BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on August 31, 2019, at 4:31 a.m. ET


Valdimar Gray was delivering packages for Amazon at the height of the pre-Christmas rush when his three-ton van barreled into an 84-year-old grandmother, crushing her diaphragm, shattering several ribs, and fracturing her skull.

“Oh my God!” screamed Gray as he leaped out of his van. It was a bright, clear afternoon on December 22, 2016, and the 29-year-old had been at the wheel of the white Nissan since early that morning, racing to drop Amazon packages on doorsteps throughout Chicago. He stood in anguish next to Telesfora Escamilla as she lay dying, her blood pooling on the pavement just three blocks from her home. After the police arrived, Gray submitted to drug and alcohol tests, which came up clean. He would later be charged with reckless homicide.

The officers who investigated the crash didn’t ask Gray about the constant pressure for speed he faced as a driver for Inpax Shipping Solutions — one of hundreds of small companies that make up Amazon’s gigantic delivery network across America. If they had, they would have discovered that the company’s drivers worked under relentless demands to deliver hundreds of packages each shift — for a flat rate of around $160 a day — at the direction of dispatchers who often compel them to skip meals, bathroom breaks, and any other form of rest, discouraging them from going home until the very last box is delivered.

Amazon issued Inpax hand scanners that could monitor the progress of its drivers as they delivered their packages and dictated the routes they drove. It had sent Gray’s bosses at Inpax a memo just days before the accident, criticizing lackluster delivery rates in the area and instituting a “no package left behind” policy during the critical holiday week. The number of deliveries drivers were expected to make each day was way up, and dispatchers were urged to keep as many of their vans on the road for as long as possible — even if it meant driving long into the bitter winter night.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/amazon-next-day-delivery-deaths?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Bottom line in this piece is that Jeff Bezo's and Amazon are basically POS and nothing more than predatory capitalist...........who basically exploits rules...............and deflect responsibility to safety.................