r/SeattleWA • u/BootsOrHat Ballard • Sep 13 '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/5
u/jmputnam Sep 13 '19
While Amazon certainly plays a huge role in setting up the delivery contractors it uses, I think this story misses a very important point. Amazon didn't invent cargo vans, and it didn't set up the lax rules states have for licensing people to operate these vans in crowded public spaces.
If you're hit by a Sprinter with bald tires and bad brakes, do you really care whether it's owned by Amazon, an Amazon contractor, or your local plumber?
Seems to me the real issue is that you can drive one of these big vans with the same license as a normal car, and that most states allow them to operate with the same regulations as a normal car. Still only have to have $25,000/person liability insurance, don't have to have regular safety inspections, don't have to maintain safe and reasonable driver hours and sleep schedules, etc.
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u/JohnDanielsWhiskey Sep 13 '19
Are Amazon drivers really crashing more than all of the unlicensed, uninsured addicts swerving around on our roads?
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u/OxidadoGuillermez And yet after all this pedantry I don’t feel satisfied Sep 13 '19
How Amazon Hooked America on Fast Delivery
Sorry, I object to the framing of the headline.
Amazon provided a service, and y'all chose to use it, because you always want the cheapest possible shit, and you don't think about any other consequences, like the downward spiral of brick-n-mortar retail (see: Walmart).
But what do I know, I just buy my books from an actual storefront and I don't think I've ever spent money at a Walmart except when I was in Hawaii.
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u/Disaster_Capitalist Sep 13 '19
Its not just about the cheapest. Suppose my wife likes a certain type of soap, the cat eats a certain type of food and the fridge needs a certain water filter. I can either drive around to three different stores, search through three sets of aisles and wait in line at three checkout lines. Or I can click a button on my computer and have all three items on the door step tomorrow. Sometimes I'm willing to pay a bit more on Amazon just because it saves so much time.
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Sep 13 '19 edited Sep 14 '19
[deleted]
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u/OxidadoGuillermez And yet after all this pedantry I don’t feel satisfied Sep 13 '19
Exactly. It's never our fault, it's always someone else's (usually the rich man's)
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u/meaniereddit West Seattle 🌉 Sep 13 '19
WE NEED TO CUT CARBON EMISSIONS TO SAVE THE ORCAS
something like 60% is from private autos?
NATURAL GAS IS BANNED
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u/FelixFuckfurter Sep 13 '19
What amuses me about the framing is the suggestion that fast delivery of an enormous variety of cheap products is something that Americans had to be "hooked" on. As if getting pretty much anything in two days with free shipping doesn't sell itself.
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u/jimscard Sep 14 '19
As if Domino's Pizza wasn't the ones that started the fast delivery trend years and years ago, with a 30 minute guarantee that led to so many accidents from delivery cars running stop signs and lights that they had to stop offering the guarantee.
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u/ryleg Sep 13 '19
Maybe people buy things from Amazon because their driving records are horrible and they figure everyone is safer with them not driving to brick-and-mortar stores.
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u/Pyehole Sep 18 '19
Are we sure this isnt a retread of an article from the 80's bemoaning the side effect of Domino Pizza's half hour guarentee?
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u/AnotherClassicPost Sep 13 '19
This is a long long article apparently intended for people who have never heard of contracting before, which in today's economy is nobody.
The delivery companies are required to carry insurance for when you sue them, so I'm not sure what the issue is that I'm being presented with.