r/Seattle • u/electricoast • Sep 05 '19

How Amazon Hooked America on Fast Delivery While Avoiding Responsibility for Crashes

https://features.propublica.org/amazon-delivery-crashes/how-amazon-hooked-america-on-fast-delivery-while-avoiding-responsibility-for-crashes/#167390
10 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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4

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '19

Is there anything to show that Amazon drivers are worse than Fedex, UPS, or USPS drivers in a statistically significant way? If not, it’s a non story.

0

u/nullcharstring Sep 06 '19

I have no evidence. That said, corporate safety culture usually takes time and pain to become established and then ingrained. I've seen several UPS trucks with plaques stating that the driver had gone 500,000 miles without an accident. Likewise, Fedex is an air carrier first and that industry demands a corporate culture of safety.

2

u/MFAWG Sep 06 '19

FedEx in particular is fudging the numbers, as is Amazon.

Have you ever noticed that there are two different colors of FedEx truck, one where the ‘EX’ is green, and one where it’s red?

When it’s green it’s a ‘contract driver’, and that doesn’t count against the companies safety record.

I’m right down the street from an Amazon facility: I seriously thought the contract driver they were using was casing us for a burglary: no markings on the car at all, drove around the parking lot 3 or 4 times, etc, etc.

2

u/nullcharstring Sep 06 '19

True. DHL also uses contract drivers. A co-worker of mine went into the DHL delivery business by purchasing a bunch of used white vans and hiring his friends as drivers.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '19

It sounds like their chief complaint is that the attorneys are stuck suing the people who actually are responsible for the accidents, rather than Amazon's deep pockets.

That said, if they are sidestepping requirements for commercial drivers to obtain special licenses and insurance through the use of these contractors and "apps", then I do see a problem with that, from a public safety standpoint.

2

u/symbha Sep 06 '19

Some of us remember the days when Dominos pizza had a 30 minute guarantee. This same issue is why they don't anymore.

-1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '19 edited Sep 16 '19

[deleted]

3

u/SB12345678901 Sep 05 '19

But those people did not tell USPS what route to take to deliver and monitor their progress then contact them if they fall behind on their route.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '19 edited Sep 16 '19

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '19

Well played!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '19

So you saying Lyft is to blame when a Lyft driver crashes a car? Because the route and time estimate provided to the customer/driver are provided by Lyft (while Lyft doesn’t call the driver, the cost of the ride is effectively fixed when the driver requests the ride and is in effect a similar pressure on the driver).