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Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

thestranger.com

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Re: Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

#31

Post by always_good »

djrogers wrote: post #20
imgabe wrote: post #5

Who are they polling? I think there's a fairly limited amount of people who would really want this, and lot of people who wouldn't. You need to live in a city, but not in an apartment building, which is a pretty small (and wealthy) proportion of people. If you live in the suburbs or the country, you probably don't mind leaving packages on the porch. In the city if you don't have a doorman, a package is almost guarant…

> In the city if you don't have a doorman, a package is almost guaranteed to get stolen. That’s taking a pretty narrow view of ‘the city’ - very few places on the west coast have a doorman for example (I’ve never actually seen one), and there are plenty of cities where you could have a package not stolen. Of course if your definition of a ‘city’ only includes Manhattan then you may be correct.

I'm not sure what your point is. Theft doesn't have to be a common event for it to ruin your day once it does happen to you.

Re: Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

#32

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

noobermin wrote: post #27
sliken wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had some issues with an amazon delivery and talked to the driver about fixing it for next time. They shrugged and said amazon pays like crap and the driver turn over is high. So high that I'd likely not get the same driver for my next delivery. Does seem like a bad way to run a business. Seems strange for amazon to propose entering into a house instead of just selling a locked box that you and deliveries could use.

This applies to almost all of the gig economy.

It's a shame for workers that delivery driving is now a gig. Historically, it was a stable, good paying career, something to work towards within USPS.

But hey, at least shareholders are getting a better value.

edit: It seems like any comment not intensely pro-capitalistic ends up downvoted. You folks need to realize that while capitalism is a fantastic method of maximizing wealth generation, it's not perfect.

Our lower-middle class is shrinking while our lower class is growing because of the loss of jobs like these. The fact that I'm getting downvoted for pointing this out is a bit surprising, given the generally levelheaded comment section this site usually provides.

Re: Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

#33

Post by [deleted] »

user5994461 wrote: post #26
sliken wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had some issues with an amazon delivery and talked to the driver about fixing it for next time. They shrugged and said amazon pays like crap and the driver turn over is high. So high that I'd likely not get the same driver for my next delivery. Does seem like a bad way to run a business. Seems strange for amazon to propose entering into a house instead of just selling a locked box that you and deliveries could use.

As in all labor intensive industries that require no particular skill. Turnover is not an issue, it's a consequence. You can't significantly improve the job and the work conditions, it is what it is. You can't pay more, that'd impact costs too significantly. The consequence is high turnover and you can't fix the root cause. Lucky you, there is an endless supply of fresh blood that can and are willing to do the job so…

[deleted]

Re: Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

#34

Post by sidlls »

tlb wrote: post #3

For historical perspective, I remember in 1996 when polls said most people would never use their credit cards to buy things over the internet. Bezos surely remembers that too.

I wonder if there are any differences between using a credit card online and allowing strangers entry into one's home.

Re: Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

#35

Post by yeukhon »

Solutions

1. Every house installs a dropoff box. This box allows owner to activate or deactivate which delivery companies get to access it

I like this. No more write special delivery note.

2. Open more amazon lockers that allow bigger sizes and more flexible delivery time

Actually #1 is the right solution

Re: Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

#36

Post by toomuchtodo »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #32
noobermin wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This applies to almost all of the gig economy.

It's a shame for workers that delivery driving is now a gig. Historically, it was a stable, good paying career, something to work towards within USPS. But hey, at least shareholders are getting a better value. edit: It seems like any comment not intensely pro-capitalistic ends up downvoted. You folks need to realize that while capitalism is a fantastic method of maximizing wealth generation, it's not perfect. Our low…

Amazon PE ratio is insanely high. Even shareholders aren’t getting better value.

Amazon is abusing drivers, fulfillment workers, and AWS engineers (so I’ve heard) because they can get away with it. It’s a shame really.

Re: Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

#37

Post by ng12 »

djrogers wrote: post #20
imgabe wrote: post #5

Who are they polling? I think there's a fairly limited amount of people who would really want this, and lot of people who wouldn't. You need to live in a city, but not in an apartment building, which is a pretty small (and wealthy) proportion of people. If you live in the suburbs or the country, you probably don't mind leaving packages on the porch. In the city if you don't have a doorman, a package is almost guarant…

> In the city if you don't have a doorman, a package is almost guaranteed to get stolen. That’s taking a pretty narrow view of ‘the city’ - very few places on the west coast have a doorman for example (I’ve never actually seen one), and there are plenty of cities where you could have a package not stolen. Of course if your definition of a ‘city’ only includes Manhattan then you may be correct.

Not sure why you're singling out Manhattan: Queens and Brooklyn are famously unsafe for packages. Even when I lived in the Sunset (the sleepy half of SF) I had packages go missing.

In fact I would argue that if a package can reliably last 8 hours on your porch you don't live in a city (at least for the purposes of this discussion).

Re: Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

#38

Post by user5994461 »

noobermin wrote: post #30
user5994461 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As in all labor intensive industries that require no particular skill. Turnover is not an issue, it's a consequence. You can't significantly improve the job and the work conditions, it is what it is. You can't pay more, that'd impact costs too significantly. The consequence is high turnover and you can't fix the root cause. Lucky you, there is an endless supply of fresh blood that can and are willing to do the job so…

You seem to forget there were and are companies like fedex and ups that deliver things just fine and don't have these issues. It might have something to do with how they train and pay their employees.

Let's not idealize the situation at other delivery companies. Delivering is not a dream job.

It'd be interesting to see how much business is B2B and repeated addresses for UPS/Fedex vs Amazon.

Amazon is likely to be distinct. High amount of one off consumers. Varying routes every day. Customers being away during delivery. Exactly what ruins a delivery company.

Re: Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

#39

Post by ekianjo »

yeukhon wrote: post #35

Solutions 1. Every house installs a dropoff box. This box allows owner to activate or deactivate which delivery companies get to access it I like this. No more write special delivery note. 2. Open more amazon lockers that allow bigger sizes and more flexible delivery time Actually #1 is the right solution

Yes. And that system should be open and not tied to a specific delivery company.

Re: Poll Shows People Don't Want Amazon Deliverers to Have Access to Their Homes

#40

Post by toomuchtodo »

prklmn wrote: post #25
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess USPS/FedEx/UPS drivers also have a lot of accumulated experience and 'tribal' knowledge that Amazon drivers lack.

The difference is that Amazon treats their drivers like garbage http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amazon-drivers-2016121... UPS and Fedex pay drivers enough to care.

UPS drivers have their own union, which protects their jobs and benefits, providing an incentive to be efficient and provide quality results.

Amazon delivery drivers have no incentive, thus terrible service.

Disclaimer: when I have to order through Amazon, I have them flag my account to use traditional delivery methods because Amazon delivery is trash.

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