Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Flex

flex.amazon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 475 posts

Re: Amazon Flex

#101

Post by carsonreinke »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #86
suvelx wrote: post #8

I've got a suspicion that Amazon has been trialling/building this in the UK since their purchase of Yodel, perhaps earlier. A number of times some bloke in a car has turned up and delivered me a package. No uniform, no branding. Just a phone running Amazon software. I can't say it's the greatest experience.

E-commerce companies have 2 points of contact with the customer - the website and the courier. It makes no sense whatsoever to me why there's this ongoing race to the bottom on the courier side of things while companies spend more and more on the website side. I suppose at that point they already have your money, so what if this delivery experience is awful? Yodel are worse than useless, and I can't see this being mu…

A lot goes into the infrastructure of the carriers, I think most companies cannot afford this.

Re: Amazon Flex

#102

Post by ousta »

bmelton wrote: post #72
radmuzom wrote: post #64

How does the math work out on wages once you factor in the vehicle costs (gas, insurance, maintenance, etc...)? Is it higher than minimum wage?

In America, generally speaking, if you're using a privately owned car for business, the companies pay a mileage rate, which is currently 57.5 cents per mile. That cost is expected to cover the cost of gas and maintenance on the vehicle. I don't know if Uber / Amazon actually DO this, but if so, that mileage fee would be on top of whatever their actual pay rate is.

can't you remove this cost from taxes?

Re: Amazon Flex

#103

Post by DarkTree »

zo7 wrote: post #85
vkjv wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have lived in Baltimore my entire life and this comment is an enigma. I assume this is some type of jab at crime, but IMHO, Baltimore is perfect for this kind of operation. To name a few reasons: * Urban environment. Lots of deliveries in a short period of time. * Amazon DH is conveniently located near I-95 for easy access to the city as well as I-695 and surrounding suburbia. * Traffic actually isn't that bad comp…

Yeah I don't get what the comment was getting at either. People robbing drivers, I guess? (Although I've never heard of such things happening) I agree with your points though - something like this would be perfect for the city!

I live in Baltimore, and the only thing I can think of that the OP is referring to is the fact that it is extremely risky to get anything delivered to your place while away. If something is sitting on your front stoop, it is very likely to get stolen, even in the nicer neighborhoods. However, I don't see this being different than any other city.

Re: Amazon Flex

#104

Post by god_bless_texas »

Every time I see Amazon make an announcement, I'm reminded of this quote by Conan O'Brien:

"Just remember kids, you can do anything you set your mind to, as long as Jay Leno doesn't also want to do it."

Substitute Amazon for Jay Leno in that!

Re: Amazon Flex

#105

Post by ekianjo »

kaybe wrote: post #94
ekianjo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah, and who is going to confirm that the delivery is done, or walk in apartment buildings to deliver to the right door ? A robot ? Going to the last mile actually means going to the last centimetre as well. The car is not everything.

I think most people would be perfectly happy to walk to the street and open the car with a code they just received per text if that saved them some money.

> I think most people would be perfectly happy to walk to the street

Then it's a worse service and you might as well to the local post office if that's the case.

Re: Amazon Flex

#106

Post by mattmanser »

popopje wrote: post #80
suvelx wrote: post #8

I've got a suspicion that Amazon has been trialling/building this in the UK since their purchase of Yodel, perhaps earlier. A number of times some bloke in a car has turned up and delivered me a package. No uniform, no branding. Just a phone running Amazon software. I can't say it's the greatest experience.

Package delivery is never a good experience in the UK i have my packages delivered to a friendly shop nearby - to my house, it's a nightmare. The collect+ system also works reasonably well, i take that option if offered. (where it's delivered to a local cornershop or similar and you walk to pick it up) I really feel there should be a gap in the market for "last mile" delivery to be solved properly, but i suspect ther…

Every time I use collect+ the shop always seems to complain about it (it's too big/I'm too busy/etc.). These have all been various different shops.

Re: Amazon Flex

#107

Post by tokenizerrr »

ekianjo wrote: post #89
tokenizerrr wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll be deprecated as soon as self driving cars become viable. The same goes for most jobs like this, technology will catch up eventually and make them obsolote.

I'm still waiting to see cashiers disappear in supermarkets. Or bakers, since bread and cake production could be completely automatized by now. Strangely they are not going away. I wonder why... People who predict extinction of jobs are usually wrong.

I don't know how it is in America, I live in the Netherlands, but I haven't interacted with a cashier in a supermarket for a very long time. Every supermarket has self-checkout, and still some cashiers for people who don't want it, of course. But a lot less cashiers than a few years ago.

You grab a scanner at the entrance, scan all your purchages and then you put the scanner away and pay at a terminal. The terminal prints out your receipt, which you can scan to open the exit. You will sometimes (this has never happened to me, but I've seen it to other people) be picked by the system for a random check to see if you're not stealing anything.

It is a really pleasant system.

Re: Amazon Flex

#108

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

popopje wrote: post #80
suvelx wrote: post #8

I've got a suspicion that Amazon has been trialling/building this in the UK since their purchase of Yodel, perhaps earlier. A number of times some bloke in a car has turned up and delivered me a package. No uniform, no branding. Just a phone running Amazon software. I can't say it's the greatest experience.

Package delivery is never a good experience in the UK i have my packages delivered to a friendly shop nearby - to my house, it's a nightmare. The collect+ system also works reasonably well, i take that option if offered. (where it's delivered to a local cornershop or similar and you walk to pick it up) I really feel there should be a gap in the market for "last mile" delivery to be solved properly, but i suspect ther…

I've had terrible experiences with some couriers, but good experiences with DPD.

They provide a one-hour delivery window, a map with local van tracking, and the driver usually arrives in the earlier half of the time slot.

You can choose an alternative date or delivery to a neighbour right until the van rolls up.

Short of Star Trek teleportation or Magic Drone Technology[tm], it's probably as a good a service as it can be.

Re: Amazon Flex

#109

Post by suvelx »

mattmanser wrote: post #97
suvelx wrote: post #8

I've got a suspicion that Amazon has been trialling/building this in the UK since their purchase of Yodel, perhaps earlier. A number of times some bloke in a car has turned up and delivered me a package. No uniform, no branding. Just a phone running Amazon software. I can't say it's the greatest experience.

UK Prime customer getting terrible service from Amazon delivery - I think you're right, I complained the other day that Amazon are the only delivery people who demand I come down to the building entrance to collect my package instead of delivering it to my door. Prime is an important part of Amazon's strategy, if they're not going to actually deliver packages properly then they're screwing themselves over. I'll see h…

I don't pay for Prime.

Ether I or my wife buy something once a month 'next-day'. Amazon fail to deliver it, we complain to customer service, and demand a free month of Prime.

Rinse/repeat.

Re: Amazon Flex

#110

Post by mikeash »

joshstrange wrote: post #13
suvelx wrote: post #8

I've got a suspicion that Amazon has been trialling/building this in the UK since their purchase of Yodel, perhaps earlier. A number of times some bloke in a car has turned up and delivered me a package. No uniform, no branding. Just a phone running Amazon software. I can't say it's the greatest experience.

How was the experience bad? I never see my UPS delivery guy so I can't imagine it matters one way or the other to me how my packages "magically" show up on my front porch.

There are lots of ways a package delivery can be "bad."

For example, delivery services routinely leave packages at my garage rather than my front door, because it saves them 15 seconds of walking. This is less convenient for me but more convenient for them.

But that's not all! Once they put a package low to the ground and not out of the way, so that when I went to drive somewhere, I backed over it.

I once saw a delivery guy deliver to a neighbor. He dropped the package at their garage door, knocked on the garage door, and left. I assume they are required to knock but it doesn't say where.

And of course because they never knock or ring my doorbell, the only way I know a package has been delivered is if I sign up for electronic notifications, or I discover it on my way out.

In other instances, I've had packages simply delivered to the wrong house, I guess because numbers are hard. Once I had a package delivered to the wrong city.

Usually it works well enough, but there's plenty of room for improvement for me.

Post reply on HN