Amazon Delivery Drivers Say They Sacrifice Their Safety to Meet Holiday Rush - Vice
Amazon delivery drivers are sacrificing their own safety and delivering packages later into the night, sometimes until 10 or 11 p.m., in order to meet a surge in demand around the holiday season.
Amazon’s peak season, the stretch between Black Friday and Christmas, exacerbates existing issues for delivery drivers by making workloads longer and later during the shortest days of the year. Multiple Amazon delivery drivers told Motherboard that they’d seen their route stops shoot up significantly since Black Friday and shifts now extend three to five hours later than usual.
“Normally before peak, you would get off at 6 p.m. and be home by 7 p.m.,” Fletcher, an Amazon delivery driver in Maryland, told Motherboard. Fletcher asked to be identified by his first name only because he feared retaliation from his employer. “After peak starts, sometimes you’re not getting off until 9 or 10 p.m., not getting home until 11 p.m.”
The increased quotas have pushed drivers to sacrifice their safety, multiple delivery drivers told Motherboard. “There are tons of things we do to avoid safety requirements [and increase efficiency during peak season]. I’d say that 80 to 90 percent of us don’t wear seatbelts,” Clinton Parker, an Amazon delivery driver in Georgia, said.
Amazon delivery drivers are sacrificing their own safety and delivering packages later into the night, sometimes until 10 or 11 p.m., in order to meet a surge in demand around the holiday season.
Amazon’s peak season, the stretch between Black Friday and Christmas, exacerbates existing issues for delivery drivers by making workloads longer and later during the shortest days of the year. Multiple Amazon delivery drivers told Motherboard that they’d seen their route stops shoot up significantly since Black Friday and shifts now extend three to five hours later than usual.
“Normally before peak, you would get off at 6 p.m. and be home by 7 p.m.,” Fletcher, an Amazon delivery driver in Maryland, told Motherboard. Fletcher asked to be identified by his first name only because he feared retaliation from his employer. “After peak starts, sometimes you’re not getting off until 9 or 10 p.m., not getting home until 11 p.m.”
The increased quotas have pushed drivers to sacrifice their safety, multiple delivery drivers told Motherboard. “There are tons of things we do to avoid safety requirements [and increase efficiency during peak season]. I’d say that 80 to 90 percent of us don’t wear seatbelts,” Clinton Parker, an Amazon delivery driver in Georgia, said.
