Amazon delivery contractors operate with little oversight, report finds
Amazon has seemingly been bringing shipping services in-house as rapidly as it can as the company ramps up efforts to get packages to Prime members in just one day. But although those ubiquitous gray-blue vans and uniformed drivers all have Amazon branding on them, at least 250 subcontracted companies around the country actually do all the heavy liftinga-a system that allows Amazon to skirt liability when heavy pressure on drivers means disaster strikes, according to a new report.
The company has actively encouraged employees to quit their jobs and go start local delivery firms it can contract with. Operating under heavy pressure to make as many deliveries as possible, as quickly as possible, and with lax regulatory oversight, drivers delivering items for Amazon have been involved in "hundreds" of crashes and other incidents in the past five years, BuzzFeed News reports. At least six people have been killed in those incidents, including a 10-month-old baby.
Amazon-branded services now deliver about half of all the company's last-mile shipments, bringing goods from the local warehouse to your doorstep. The US Postal Service and UPS between them handle a large chunk of the other half. Professional commercial delivery businesses, such as UPS and FedEx, are subject to heavy federal regulation, and their commercial vehicles are subject to regular safety inspections. But the same is not true for Amazon.
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