According to a recent story from
CNBC, “Amazon drivers at some U.S. facilities will soon have an extra set of
eyes watching them when they hit the road to make their daily deliveries. The
company recently began testing AI-equipped cameras in vehicles to monitor
contracted delivery drivers while they’re on the job, with the aim of improving
safety.” Amazon is using the cameras in “Amazon-branded cargo vans” which are
deployed for “last-mile deliveries.” For those who have had to deal with Amazon
Logistics (AMZL), this means items are “picked” at fulfillment centers, then
sent to distribution centers—either directly if a local delivery, or by plane
or ground truck and then to a distribution center, where they are loaded onto
those dark gray “Prime” vans to be eventually delivered (emphasis on
“eventually”).
The contract drivers themselves
are expressing concern over these “extra eyes” on top of the GPS tracking they
are required to provide to consumers online. Drivers are calling these “Big
Brother” devices “unnerving” and a “punishment system” that puts “further
pressure” on them. Drivers fear that video will be used against them for safety
violations or unacceptable performance. I have to agree with them, because
those are problems, but more for customers than for the drivers themselves.
I’ve always had trust issues with
the AMZL delivery system, because of its unpredictable and unreliable service. Remember
when you ordered something and they gave you a “guaranteed” delivery date? Since
they began using their own logistics method for most deliveries, they have been
forced to drop the “guaranteed” part because, well, they can no longer make such promises, even if you pay for "Prime." I’ve had orders to be delivered the next day leave an Amazon facility in
Texas and then not show up until over 24 hours later in Portland, meaning it
was put on a truck instead of a plane directly to Seattle. I had another package
leaving Texas for a next day delivery that did leave on a plane—except that it
showed up the next day not in Seattle, but in Ohio. I had another next-day AMZL delivery disappear
for two days until the next tracking scan was in Philadelphia. I had more than
a few packages leave the Kent Fulfillment Center to take the 20 minute drive to
the Seattle distribution center, and not “arrive” there for another 16 hours
and wind up being delivered a day late.
Just as frustrating is what
happens when packages are finally put on a delivery vehicle. Now, AMZL
deliveries used to be carried out by people who were hired to make deliveries using their own POVs, like the Uber people-delivery service. Whether or not this was “good” depended upon if your packages were loaded on the driver’s first run—or the
next, or the next. Then Amazon started using its own “Prime” vans, but using
contract drivers. AMZL drivers are not actual Amazon employees; as opposed to USPS
delivery drivers, who operate on set schedules where you can make an educated guess what time
they make their deliveries, with AMZL drivers it’s impossible to make any such
assumptions. It can be anywhere from 1 hour after they leave on their runs, or
10 hours—or not at all.
What makes it worse is that
drivers are supposed to provide GPS tracking, and one of most frequent
headaches is that it is impossible even with this to get a handle on the “approximate”
time a delivery will be made, because you can't make any assumptions about how long it take the driver to go from, say, stops 5 to 4. Instead of the expected progression of stops, you encounter the “the driver
has to make a few more stops to your location” message between each “stop.” Thus two or even three hours can pass between each “stop.”
On one delivery, the GPS indicated
that the driver was right on top of the delivery location, but spent an
inordinate amount of time there before leaving without indicating a delivery
had been made. When I arrived at the delivery location, the package was in fact
not delivered. Shortly thereafter the driver was back at the Seattle
distribution center, claiming that it had to make “a few more stops to your
location,” and kept claiming that until after 10 PM, when I received the “apology”
from Amazon for not delivering the package on time. It appeared that the driver
had been looking for the package, couldn’t find it, went back to the
distribution center because it hadn’t actually been loaded on the van, and
since it couldn’t be found right away, it was decided to “deal” with it the
next day.
This past Thursday I had three
packages out for delivery, in a fashion. The first GPS tracking began around 11 AM
and it indicated “7 more stops.” I work at night, so I have this “expectation”
that I can pick up my packages before I get there. It didn’t quite work out the way I thought it
should. During the next five hours there the tracking was all over the map, and
“a few more stops” between every stop. Finally it said “You are the next stop”
at 3:30 PM, which I didn’t quite trust because the van’s location was about two
blocks away from the delivery location. At 4 PM the GPS showed that it hadn’t
moved from that spot.
I was already frustrated by the
snail pace of this delivery, so I decided enough was enough, I was going to find
out what was going on. When I arrived at the location the GPS indicated, there were
in fact two Amazon vans sitting there:
Both of them were driverless. It
wasn’t until 4:30 when one of the drivers appeared and drove away, and the other
left 5 minutes later. I wasn’t sure which one was supposed to be the “you are
the next stop” deliverer, so I waited to check the GPS. I couldn’t have been
the first driver who left, because she turned the next corner away from the
direction of the “next stop” to make another delivery.
So it must be the other driver?
This person actually did make a turn in the “right” direction—except that it continued
driving past the delivery location. So that person couldn’t be the “next stop”
driver. I assumed that given past history of incompetence and unreliability
that it was the first person who was supposed to make “next stop,” and
predictably when I looked at the tracking it was back to “a few more stops.”
But there was something still not quite right: the GPS location indicated that it
was the second driver who had the packages, and was now parked about five
blocks away. I decided enough was enough (again) and I was going to take an
image of the license plate of the van and report this to Amazon logistics. Not
that I actually thought they would do anything about it; Amazon customer
service is the most useless in the world—they know nothing and can do nothing,
unless your package is too lost for them to think of any more excuses.
Anyways, I took a stroll down the
street and it was still there, and then it drove off another two blocks, made a
turn, made another turn, and I finally was able to take a photo of that damn
license. Since it was on the “right” road to take it to the delivery location,
I started walking back in that direction, expecting that it would pass me at
some point, but it never did. But as I was walking up to the delivery location
at what was now 5 PM—90 minutes since the packages were the “next stop”—I saw
the first van sitting there. Confused, I looked at the GPS tracking again, and
it still showed that it was on the second van still far down the street. Checking my mail, the packages had to have been delivered by the first van.
So what had happened here? Were
the packages put on the incorrect van? Probably, but that doesn’t “explain” away
the actions of the driver who according the GPS tracking was allegedly
responsible for the delivery, nor does it explain what the drivers were doing
inside the location for at least an hour where I first found them at. The
tracking indicated the one had only left on the route shortly before 11 AM,
before taking a “break” at that location. Maybe it was their “lunch break,”
except that it lasted a little longer than it was supposed to be, but since
these people are not being monitored properly, Amazon cannot "control" what they do.
My “investigation” of this
particular delivery uncovered the following: GPS tracking is unreliable, the
drivers are unreliable, and the whole AMZL delivery system in unreliable. Yes,
you may say, at least it was delivered and be satisfied with that. But Amazon
shouldn’t be excused for creating a Frankenstein monster that it can’t
control, which likely explains the “drastic” action of putting cameras into vans
which lazy drivers are expressing fear over. With UPS and Fedex you get your
packages on the day they say you will get them, and not earlier even if they
have to sit next door for two days—but also not later. With USPS, you may
actually receive your packages earlier than scheduled just to get them out of
the way. But with AMZL, Amazon threw out that “guarantee” promise, and for good
reason.
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