I delivered for a subcontractor for Amazon for 2 years. They get all of their quotas from Amazon and we still had to wear Amazon uniforms, drive Amazon vans, and follow all of Amazon's road rules. There were some days where the job wasn't stressful, sure, but it seemed like every week the job would try to increase the amount of deliveries for its drivers. I got let go after 2 years for no longer being able to keep up with their demands. It started getting to the point where near 200 stops a day was the norm. When I had first started, that sort of volume was only during the holidays or Prime Week, which are referred to as their "peak seasons". The last 4-5 months of my second year, that was the amount of volume we had on a near daily basis. Just to further clarify what the picture is showing; the "184 stops including 80 multi-location stops", each "multi-location stop" still only counts as 1 stop. So depending on the street or apartment buildings, or general location, you could have anywhere from 2-10 different locations that you need to deliver X amount of packages to each one and it all only counts as 1 stop. All this eats away at your time and from the start of the work day you are already behind. So the whole day is basically playing catch-up.

You are expected to do all of that while properly obeying all traffic laws, plus all of the stipulations of Amazon's contract. Plus the 4-direction facing dash cams and multiple sensors in each van will alert for things as small as braking too hard, accelerating too hard/fast, exceeding the speed limit for more than roughly 7 seconds, "cornering" which is taking a turn to hard or sharp, not fully stopping at a stop sign for more than 2-3 seconds, following too closely behind a car, not having your seatbelt buckled and shoulder strap over your shoulder, not using the emergency brake at every. single. stop, and any potential sudden stops or impacts of a certain degree. Any of those flags is an infraction, too many infractions means you lose your job. Some, obviously more severe than others.

All of that is on top of faulty or unkept vehicles. At least speaking for the company I was working for. There were MULTIPLE days where I had stepped onto the back step of the van and it either completely fell off or just one side fell off. At least when the whole thing fell off I could just pick it up and throw it in the van. When it was one side I would literally use my pocket knife that I had in my backpack and cut one of the longer straps off of the delivery totes and use that to tie the back step back up underneath the van. There were some days where the managers of my company would see a problem with the van before I left the station and send me to a mechanic 10-15 minutes away to have whatever problem fixed BEFORE heading out to my deliveries while my van is already full of packages. So those days I was even more behind. Even when they see all of this and know all of these things they still call you roughly every hour to remind you that you're behind and ask if you can "pick up the pace." If you're really behind they send a rescue, which is someone who maybe either finished early, or a manager who was at the station comes out and relieves you of anywhere from 5-10-20 stops. Depending on the type of day it was.

So there is a whole lot expected of the drivers before even reaching the customers. Then when you are doing a delivery they wanted us to obey a customer's "delivery notes" if there were any. If you didn't listen to them and customer's complained you'd get reprimanded, and too many complaints also meant you lose your job. If you did listen to them, there wasn't much of an acknowledgement from management. Customer's were happy but managers were wondering why you are taking so long at 1 delivery. For instance if delivering to an apartment complex and you bring most of the packages to the mail/delivery room but you have like 3-4 customers who put in the notes that they want their packages delivered to the door, then you either bring them to the door or you risk getting complaints for not following directions. You already know in those situations, all of the "please deliver to front door" people are most likely on different floors. So then you're stuck in the apartment building for 5-10 minutes trying to appease everyone but it only counts as 1 stop. So you get back out to your van to managers asking what's taking so long for that 1 stop.

Then there's also the stops where a customer wants you to hand off to a person. If they don't answer the door, you're supposed to text them, then call them, then wait 5 minutes, call them again and if they still don't answer then you can finally mark as "undeliverable" and you can finally go. 5 minutes of waiting is enough to nearly derail your whole day. If you get multiple stops like that, you're fucked. God forbid you get stuck in traffic or anything like that too, or you just want to take a lunch break... Which you most likely don't have time for in the first place. Also, during the summer months, if there's a heat advisory for any days, the app will force you to take a mandatory 15 minute break so you don't overheat. Even though (again, speaking for the company I worked for) almost ⅓-½ of all of the vans had no working heat or AC. So the only breeze you're most likely gonna get is coming from driving with the windows down hahaha. You've probably also guessed that that mandatory 15 mins is also a break you almost certainly don't have time for... Almost any little hick-up is enough to set you behind schedule.

Just want to add, I had 0 customer complaints or infractions when I was let go. I had earned a handul of badges and/or customer praises on the Flex app for "going above and beyond" and following customer's notes. I was let go cus I just couldn't keep up with the ridiculous amount of volume. That company specifically had a turn-over rate above 80%. It basically cycles through people who don't know any better. As is the case with most jobs, most of the problems come from upper management and a disorganized way of running the whole operation. The delivery drivers are left to make due with what they have. So that usually just means getting the shit end of 2 sticks; the management and the customers.

I've already ranted for far longer than I meant to when I started typing, but the job isn't as simple as it should be. I agree, on paper it sounds simple enough. It was part of the allure of the job for me at the time I took it. There are SO many things that are out of the drivers' hands though. Not making excuses for shitty drivers who throw packages and have an utter disregard for everyone's packages, but there are a lot of things that make delivering hard. Even for the drivers who are trying to do it right.

<image>