Saturday, February 20, 2021

Amazon looking to control its Frankenstein monster AMZL system by putting cameras in delivery vans

 

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment