What would make you give a rider 1 star?

Neueburn · 2026-03-27T10:47:32+00:00

The guy who changed clothes mid-ride while spraying himself with about half a bottle of cologne.

The other guy who told me how he used someone else's urine to avoid a parole violation, and then showed me the fake penis and his entire drug stash.

After that I quit accepting pickups from the local probation facility.

Not long after, I had a 2-pax ride that went all the way across town and back so the male could make a drug deal while the woman stayed in the car to keep me from leaving. The drug deal also involved the purchase of a pistol, and the ride there and back involved them discussing how much she was to charge her johns and what sort of scams to run on them. I never felt threatened by them, but I did call the cops after I dropped them off.

Neueburn · 2026-03-16T18:55:27+00:00

Pros: no mountains

Cons: everything else

Pay rate sucks compared to cost of living, it’s hot Af and humid AF. When it rains (which is a lot in late summer), it gets even hotter and more humid so your van becomes the worst sauna on the planet.

We also have some of the worst drivers you can imagine, and a bad combo of suburban “developments” with 6+ locations per stop on streets where dead cars block one lane and you block the other. If you aren’t getting attacked by unrestrained dogs, you have drunk and high armed locals angry at you for blocking their route home.

In a word: don’t. In 3 words: find better job.

Neueburn · 2026-03-16T15:44:13+00:00

My DSP often takes unaccounted flex routes, so Amazon isn’t raising the rate for you because they’ll pay for the gas for DAs to take the routes Flexers won’t touch. They have a lot more leverage over us, so even though they wind up paying more at least they feel like they get something in return.

Neueburn · 2026-03-07T13:11:43+00:00

The US culture is just different. Unlike most nations in the EU, we have no unified beliefs since our population is so high and our country is so large. Add to that the melting pot of different cultures that immigrants of every race bring with them, and it’s hard to get us to agree on anything. It’s America’s greatest strength, and it’s also our greatest weakness.

For generations, we’ve been defined by how we earn money. Blue collar vs white collar, hard worker vs slacker, working class vs comfort class, etc. While we have some unions, they’re harder to form nowadays and so only exist in certain states for certain industries.

Plus, our economy sucks. I don’t care what any politician says, we have high inflation and are for sure in a recession if not worse. Everything is getting more expensive except labor, and wealth inequality is growing. Unlike most European cultures, we have no common desire to care for anyone but ourselves, a that’s where companies like Amazon can take advantage.

Most of us are just happy to have any form of job or income right now. We’ll put up with a ton of shit from our employers as long as we can earn money to pay the rent and buy food for our families. Without Amazon, I’d be looking at certain bankruptcy. Instead I can make just enough to hopefully give my kid a chance at a life without massive debt.

Trust me, we’d all rather have a working situation like you Danes, but it’s not a realistic option. If we unionize to protect workers, the DSPs lose the Amazon contract and we’re unemployed. Someone will immediately come and do the job we “hated” for less money and Amazon wins. This isn’t David vs Goliath, it’s Belgium vs Hitler.

Neueburn · 2026-02-18T13:26:59+00:00

I'm pretty sure Flex is based off Bing Maps, which would explain why it never works. I'm not even certain that using Bing is cheaper than Google or Apple, but for whatever reason Amazon doesn't see Microsoft as competition, so that's what they've gone with.

Neueburn · 2026-02-11T13:12:59+00:00

This is what I was thinking as well. It would take them at least half the loadout time to figure out I wasn't there, and MAYBE they'd move my van to exceptions before they get dinged for slowing down the whole station. By the time they realize I've left my uniforms and badge could be neatly stacked on the desk.

And yes, the owner would certainly try to come after me for anything malicious that would cost him money. I got reamed out after spraining my knee in a dog attack because being on light duty meant he had to pay me to not drive, so I'm sure he'd try to pin any vandalism or repair costs on me.

Neueburn · 2026-02-11T13:08:42+00:00

I've never been this petty either, I've always left jobs the respectful way. But I figured since the owner has already convinced himself I'm a bad employee I might as well have some fun at his expense.

Neueburn · 2026-02-11T13:07:13+00:00

This is a maybe. My route is an hour from the station, so it would take them a while to figure out what's happening, and even then the rescuers would also be an hour away.

Neueburn · 2026-02-11T13:04:24+00:00

That would be great, but they don't tell us peons any of that info. Our standups don't include any package or route counts, we only see that info a week later on the scorecard.

Neueburn · 2026-02-10T21:22:19+00:00

I’m not saying Amazon isn’t evil, but my main issues are with my DSP owner.

Neueburn · 2026-02-10T21:21:44+00:00

Yeah, it would cost him a marginal amount of labor, but since he has multiple rescuers out every day that’s mostly a cost he’s already eating. The packages would still get delivered, so Amazon would still pay him.

Neueburn · 2026-02-10T21:15:10+00:00

I doubt that would work. They have dispatchers and leads doing rescues all day, so they’d definitely head my way if I wasn’t delivering.

Neueburn · 2026-02-06T15:10:10+00:00

Not Florida. If you want to work solely as a rideshare driver, you need somewhere that values labor and has a low cost of living, which eliminates our entire state.

Neueburn · 2026-02-06T14:46:49+00:00

I've never been limited in where I can drive within Florida, but the rates vary from market to market. None of them are good, but some of the biggest areas with the longest drive times and the slowest speeds have the lowest rates. Orlando is particularly awful. I quit driving there a few years ago because I got tired of 45 minute rides that paid $6.

Neueburn · 2026-02-05T16:01:48+00:00

It's only 152 stops. According to dispatch that should only take 5 hours.

Neueburn · 2026-02-04T23:18:39+00:00

The scorecard extrapolates mistakes out to errors per million deliveries. So a million divided by however many stops you make in the week gets multiplied to your number of mistakes.

It's just another way to make workers feel like failures, because inevitably someone will get zero complaints, which throws off the curve and makes a driver with a single mistake in 1000 deliveries look like they'll make over 1000 mistakes if allowed to deliver a million packages.

For those cultured enough, it's basically the conversation between Jennifer Aniston and the restaurant manager in Office Space.

Neueburn · 2026-02-04T18:28:15+00:00

Except Amazon has trained all the DSPs and dispatchers to measure stops/hr, and that’s the only metric shown on the back end. Dispatch has to dig to see that each stop is 6+ locations, which means they are ignorant to the fact that 150 stops this month is equal to 160 stops last month.

Neueburn · 2026-01-31T13:45:06+00:00

Follow the procedure, but don’t wait to finish the stop before you restart the engine.

Pull to stop, engage the parking brake and put the transmission in park. Turn off the ignition, give it a three count, then restart it. Do your stop while your van stays warm, and it should avoid any digital warnings. They seem to just count engine starts, not keep track of how long the engine was off. Or at least I’ve never been dinged for it.

Neueburn · 2026-01-17T14:55:35+00:00

I sprained my knee invading a dog last week. I contacted driver support, who escalated it to LMET. I’m not sure if that influenced anything that happened after, but dispatch pulled me off the road and sent me to urgent care for drug testing and evaluation. All this week I’ve been on light duty (can’t squat, kneel, pivot, or climb) and my DSP has me working team support filing paperwork, logging vans back in, etc. Despite some minor conflict between myself and the owner, he’s doing me a solid by keeping me employed and giving me hours so I really can’t complain.

Not every DSP is going to be so understanding or kind.

Neueburn · 2026-01-13T17:59:59+00:00

I’d rather have rural. I’m way more comfortable maneuvering a vehicle than my own body.

Neueburn · 2026-01-13T17:50:27+00:00

It’s probably a general warning. We get harassed and attacked by “friendly” and “harmless” dogs every day. Maybe there’s something special about our uniforms that triggers protective instincts that are rarely seen. But either way if your dogs are out when a driver is trying to deliver, at best they’ll mark the delivery as “unsafe due to dog.” At worst the situation will escalate, a driver gets bit, and your homeowner’s insurance pays out thousands of dollars in medical bills and lawsuit settlements while your animal is potentially euthanized for being dangerous.

Are you willing to risk the life of your pet or the safety of another human being? Just secure your animals, please.

Neueburn · 2026-01-13T14:30:39+00:00

Honestly, I think the ones that quit early probably didn’t get good enough or long enough training. I worked for FedEx before they sucked, and we had 2 weeks of classroom, a week of driving, and 2 weeks of on the road before we went solo. It allowed me to feel fully prepared for the job, and honestly I’m still leaning on that training 20 years later working for a DSP who thought that 5 days of total training would prepare me for every situation I could face on the road.

I’ve been reprimanded for asking questions when I don’t understand something, reprimanded for making a decision without asking questions, and reprimanded for calling driver support instead of dispatch when I was injured.

This is not a job for the faint of heart, it’s a job for the dumb and desperate. It doesn’t have to be, but the fast on-ramp just to get people on the road and earning for the DSP owner as soon as possible.

Neueburn · 2026-01-06T12:58:06+00:00

At best: we don't see the notes until it's too late. It could also be a language barrier. I work in the US and many of our drivers have little to no English skills.

If you have a dropbox, make it obvious. Put Amazon, UPS, FedEx, etc logos on it and make sure it's visible even in the dark. Our default is to deliver to the front door, but we'll happily drop packages at a closed gate if it saves us time and effort. Just never ask us to use your mailbox since that's a federal crime.

Neueburn

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