Amazon Deliver Crash: Amazon delivery contractors quit Portland routes, citing ‘unsafe’ work expectations
Two large delivery companies serving the Portland area notified drivers this week they will stop working with Amazon, their only client. Amazon’s policies create unsafe conditions, leading to Amazon delivery crashes. In an email to drivers, one of the contractors cited “unsafe” Amazon working conditions and a deteriorating relationship with the retail giant.
“Amazon has been nickel and diming us so bad that if we don’t make change we can no longer offer the support and incentives that thus far we have been able to provide. This leaves all of you without help to do over 200 stops while getting paid less to do so,” Tracy Bloemer, co-owner of Last Mile Delivery, wrote in a note to her drivers Wednesday. Bloemer is concerned that the routes Amazon requires drivers to take are unsafe. These safety lapses often cause injury, and, thus, the need for a Portland injury lawyer. The “contractors”, Last Mile and Triton, are going to sue Amazon for “arbitrarily, capriciously and unreasonably” changing the terms of their business relationship, cutting delivery fees, changing work requirements and even firing the contractors’ own drivers without notice. Amazon delivery drivers have long complained that the demands on their time are so severe that they resort to urinating in bottles inside their vans rather than take the time to find a restroom.
Amazon drivers aren’t always safe
In 2019, Busines Insider reported that 10 people were killed as a result of “Amazon-related delivery accidents since 2015. In October 2019, a joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and ProPublica “found Amazon delivery drivers have been involved in more than 60 crashes causing injuries or death” in the same time frame. That joint investigation found that drivers reported feeling tremendous pressure to meet deadlines and that Amazon often avoids liability for Amazon delivery driver accidents.
According to reports, Amazon has a tight grip on the day-to-day operations of its “contract” drivers. The company can even tell drivers to turn left or right on a particular route. Amazon knows where they are on the road, it’s telling them the order in which they can deliver each package.
Some studies have shown Amazon generally requires 999 out of 1,000 deliveries to arrive on time.
In 2017, an Amazon driver was the cause of a hit-and-run that ended with an innocent man left for dead in the roadwhile walking his dog. In 2016, a woman was actually struck and killed by an Amazon delivery driver. In that case, the driver was charged with vehicular homicide.
Hurt by an Amazon Truck? Call today. Time may be running out to file a claim.
Amazon claims their “contract drivers” are independent contractors. But, under the Federal regulations and state law, Amazon exercises control over the contract drivers, and should be held responsible for what a “contract” driver does (because, in reality, the “independent contractor” drivers really aren’t independent). If you have been hit by an Amazon driver, call 888-353-5995 today.
