[wirthjason]

Obviously not all of this is true. I chatted to Amazon driver for my apartment about some local Chicago sports and he talked to me forever. Ironically I had to end the conversation by saying I needed to use the bathroom. He’s definitely not timed.

Can’t wait for Season 2 where he chronicles how to game the ratings system.

I feel 99% of the people on HN understand it but on the other hand there’s people like my 70 yr old mom who look at that and think, oh what a fantastic product. She is very susceptible to dark patterns, has no concept of sold by Amazon vs 3rd party sellers, etc.

[enragedcacti]

> Obviously not all of this is true. I chatted to Amazon driver for my apartment about some local Chicago sports and he talked to me forever. Ironically I had to end the conversation by saying I needed to use the bathroom. He’s definitely not timed.

In the US and the UK (where the interviews were conducted) Amazon deliveries are mostly contracted out to Delivery Service Partners who are small businesses that work exclusively for Amazon, drive Amazon vans, and wear Amazon uniforms. Amazon puts a lot of pressure on DSPs while giving DSPs the digital tools to apply pressure to their drivers, but there isn't a fully direct link and you can expect variation DSP-to-DSP and day-to-day.

Also, trying to calculate something as complicated as delivery routes to the maximum a human can do is bound to have outliers on either side. Eventually Amazon will figure it out and fix it, or they won't because the driver is smart enough to intentionally slow-roll it and feed them route data that validates their prediction.

https://www.protocol.com/workplace/amazon-delivery-program-t...

[wirthjason]

I might have miscommunicated my idea. I certainly think everything that documentary shows happens and agree with everything you say. No dispute there. I just don’t know what percentage it represents.

Maybe my driver is a corporate driver, not a DSP, and has different metrics etc. I don't know.

BTW I really like the term “partner” in delivery service partner. It’s a weasel word that covers up what’s really going on. They are not partnering in the common sense of the word like “my wife is my partner.” (Although on a long road trip she wouldn’t hesitated to make me pee in a bottle rather than stop for my baby bladder. Haha.)

[gosub100]

nice little liability shroud there. Looks like a full-time-employee, walks like a FTE, but has no access to the same rights or protections as someone whose paycheck says Amazon on it.

[bragr]

It's pretty true. Here's a screen recording some guy took while working in the dispatch role. They're tracking every driver in real time and measuring against the expected progress

https://youtu.be/8SJYPf73iJI

[PH95VuimJjqBqy]

funnily enough I had never seen for myself the whole "Amazon truck just stops in the middle of a 1 lane street to start delivering packages" until yesterday evening while driving.

That driver may not have felt rushed, but certainly other drivers do.

[klyrs]

Did that driver you chatted with ever deliver a package to your house again?

[wirthjason]

Yes. He comes all the time. I haven’t been in this apartment for very long but he’s had this route for at least a year. I first met him on New Years Eve when ordering a board game to play that night. I came back from picking up last minute groceries and he was delivering packages. In the spring we talked NBA playoffs (he was very proud that he predicted the Nuggets to sweep the Lakers). During the summer when we talked about the Cubs. It’s coincidence we bump into each other but I see him driving the truck around.