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Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate enroute

theintercept.com

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Re: Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate enroute

#81

Post by b112 »

giantg2 wrote: post #75
b112 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in a rural area, and sometimes find 'city logic' amusing. Need to urinate? Pull over, get out, and water the grass. This is older than time, and a non-issue. Really. It isn't an issue to me. Defecation is obviously in another category. Peeing in a bottle is also a non-issue. As far as I am concerned, if a woman can breast-feed in public, why can people not urinate into a container inside a car? (Both are bo…

"Need to urinate? Pull over, get out, and water the grass." Yet even many rural places have laws against it (usually at the state level). It's just enforced less strictly outside of the towns and cities.

It's often unenforceable, due to rural driving distances, with potentially zero alternatives.

(eg, are you just going to do it in your pants, over the car's seat??)

I'd even call it a human rights issue, when no alternative exists.

Here, the key is to leave the passenger door open, and do it concealed. Then, silly usages of public exposure law attempts cannot be deployed.

Other method are to hike into the bushes, but with ticks and mosquitoes, many refuse to.

Re: Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate enroute

#82

Post by nerdponx »

madaxe_again wrote: post #50
neartheplain wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the first joke refer to the fact that if they wanted the Ferrari they’d have bought it already, or that if they really wanted the Ferrari, they’d have chosen a more lucrative profession than economics?

The former - it’s a dig at “efficient markets”.

More specifically, the first one is a dig at anyone who tries to infer preferences from behavior, without considering or knowing the full set of alternatives available to the individual.

In this case, even a well-paid tenured economist probably could not afford the Ferrari without making some significant sacrifices elsewhere. So it's not that they are choosing between "Ferrari" and "no Ferrari", it's that they are choosing between "Ferrari and I don't have any money and my wife leaves me" and "no Ferrari and I keep my retirement savings and my wife doesn't leave me."

The relevance here is that, for some people, their best option might actually be "stay at horrible job at Amazon where I'm forced to piss in a bottle", not because they like pissing in bottles, but because the alternatives are actually worse.

The only thing you can tell from a person's behavior is that, to that person at that particular time, whatever they did/chose seemed like the best option.

Re: Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate enroute

#83

Post by fakedang »

evan_ wrote: post #38

Someone needs to start urban truck stops. Convert storefronts in centralized areas into a space with bathrooms, showers, maybe some snacks and sundries. Keep it clean and climate-controlled. Maybe it’s a gas station too, but the idea is to have them scattered around town and easy to build/operate, so maybe not. Work out a deal with UPS/FedEx/Amazon but also Uber, Lyft, Postmates etc where they pay a membership and al…

These companies wouldn't pay for it anyways, and you have a significant maintenance cost.

Re: Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate enroute

#84

Post by etxm »

gunshai wrote: post #34
etxm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably Adderall or modafinil

Good thing modafinil isn't a stimulant though

The interwebs seem to think they are

> Modafinil, a novel stimulant which has several remarkable features... [1]

> Modafinil is considered a stimulant doping agent [2]

> Adderall and modafinil are central nervous system stimulant medications (psychostimulants). [3]

- [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1675850/

- [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil

- [3] https://americanaddictioncenters.org/adderall/vs-modafinil

Re: Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate enroute

#85

Post by LorenPechtel »

moduspol wrote: post #40
cletus wrote: post #7

My understanding is that this is pretty common for every courier including UPS and FedEx. Why? Because the driver will have a set of deliveries. Once they’re finished those they’re done for the day. In NYC at least finding a restroom and finding parking (even double parking) beat it takes valuable time. It saves time to pee in a bottle. This just isn’t unique to Amazon is all I’m saying.

I think any organization that actually incentivizes employees to complete small, objectively-measurable tasks quickly will have stories like this once you've got enough employees. Unless you keep cameras on them at all times, I guess. These stories are always framed this way as if only someone truly desperate would stoop to peeing in bottles. But to many people, peeing in a bottle is actually not a big deal and is, i…

Exactly. Especially this year--I put a pee bottle in the car specifically to avoid having to go into restrooms. Or long-standing stories of trucker bombs when they dispose of pee bottles on the side of the road rather than emptying them and reusing them.

If the nature of your job permits converting going-to-the-restroom time into time at home and you have adequate privacy it's a very sensible thing to do.

Re: Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate enroute

#87

Post by evan_ »

fakedang wrote: post #83
evan_ wrote: post #38

Someone needs to start urban truck stops. Convert storefronts in centralized areas into a space with bathrooms, showers, maybe some snacks and sundries. Keep it clean and climate-controlled. Maybe it’s a gas station too, but the idea is to have them scattered around town and easy to build/operate, so maybe not. Work out a deal with UPS/FedEx/Amazon but also Uber, Lyft, Postmates etc where they pay a membership and al…

These companies wouldn't pay for it anyways, and you have a significant maintenance cost.

The companies that pay for access can use it in their marketing. “You can feel good about ordering from our food delivery service, our drivers don’t have to pee in bottles.”

Re: Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate enroute

#88

Post by LorenPechtel »

b112 wrote: post #81
giantg2 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Need to urinate? Pull over, get out, and water the grass." Yet even many rural places have laws against it (usually at the state level). It's just enforced less strictly outside of the towns and cities.

It's often unenforceable, due to rural driving distances, with potentially zero alternatives. (eg, are you just going to do it in your pants, over the car's seat??) I'd even call it a human rights issue, when no alternative exists. Here, the key is to leave the passenger door open, and do it concealed. Then, silly usages of public exposure law attempts cannot be deployed. Other method are to hike into the bushes, but…

I looked at the law on this locally--there is a necessity defense, if you gotta go and are as discreet as practical you're in the clear.

Ticks and mosquitoes are basically a non-issue here, but finding a bush isn't always the easiest.

Re: Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate enroute

#89

Post by wutbrodo »

evan_ wrote: post #38

Someone needs to start urban truck stops. Convert storefronts in centralized areas into a space with bathrooms, showers, maybe some snacks and sundries. Keep it clean and climate-controlled. Maybe it’s a gas station too, but the idea is to have them scattered around town and easy to build/operate, so maybe not. Work out a deal with UPS/FedEx/Amazon but also Uber, Lyft, Postmates etc where they pay a membership and al…

It's regularly commented-on that the reason we don't have widespread public bathrooms like many other developed and Middle-income countries is due to insane laws prohibiting against pay toilets, on the grounds that. Turns out when you don't allow pay toilets, you end up with no public toilets at all, even in places like San Francisco where the government attempts to pour money into providing them.

It's a very "American left" pitfall: make the victims of your "compassion" worse off as long as you avoid the appearance of inequity. See also: payday loans, boxing gloves, etc

Re: Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate enroute

#90

Post by wutbrodo »

User23 wrote: post #9
prpl wrote: post #3

I floated around grocery stores quite a bit in the early/mid 2000s, working at several locations and various jobs. Meth was fairly common among the grocery night stockers, especially in the big stores. Often times management has some idea of this, but it was usually don’t ask, don’t tell, especially in the union stores, until the point somebody wanted a person fired.

I assume some fairly high percentage of FAANG developers are on some kind of lawfully obtained prescription stimulant.

I'd be extremely surprised if the percentage was "fairly high", having worked in FAANG for half a decade.
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