Amazon is known for being an online store with affordable prices, but deep below that facade is a huge evil corporation. No matter what Amazon claims, and despite that they treat their drivers like shit, they rely heavily on delivery drivers the most. Problem is, all drivers for Amazon are not classified as an actual employee of Amazon, but as an “independent contractor”, which is another word for an employee without the benefits of being an employee.
Because of all of this, drivers have a hard time taking Amazon to court, and any action against drivers (say a driver runs someone over), Amazon is completely protected against such action, at least so they claim. Instead of a company that’s named after the world’s largest rain forest putting its money to good use, they would rather to everything to prevent legal action against themselves and force drivers to work in shit conditions, be it van drivers or drivers utilizing their own vehicles.
If this rings a bell, that’s because this paradigm affects Uber and Lyft drivers as well (among god knows how many “gig” companies there are), but at least Uber/Lyft drivers are actually more flexible and shall I say, laid back than with Amazon. As a former Amazon driver, I had 99 problems and only one good thing that came out of it. For one of the largest tech companies in the world, the app and technology involved in Amazon deliveries felt like a startup tech company ran the operation.
Though drivers are a big part of what keeps Amazon floating, so are the buildings; warehouses and the employees within. Amazon doesn’t even treat its own warehouse employees right either, as California passed legislation in 2021 giving protections to warehouse workers. Maybe some huge strides can come along for drivers. Oh and, California is suing Amazon over artificially high prices that Amazon pass on to consumers. Yikes.