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Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

latimes.com

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Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#171

Post by junon »

crazy_horse wrote: post #164
junon wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of the states I've ever been, over the thousands of times I have partaken, with the maybe hundred different strains, with different percentages of indica/sativa, at different dosages, in different forms (flower vs. edible vs. whatever else), have ever been safe for me to operate a vehicle. No, nobody is an exception. You are not superhuman. Please stop normalizing this. This narrative makes it harder to change t…

Sorry, I don't agree. I don't think cannabis is just a drug for having fun. I'm open to scientific studies that show that car accidents increase but your experience is yours and mine is mine. The people who have a problem with it aren't going to be able to stop legalization. You shouldn't do it, I agree.

> I don't think cannabis is just a drug for having fun

Where did I even allude to this? In fact I implied the exact opposite in my last sentence.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#172

Post by crazy_horse »

junon wrote: post #171
crazy_horse wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I don't agree. I don't think cannabis is just a drug for having fun. I'm open to scientific studies that show that car accidents increase but your experience is yours and mine is mine. The people who have a problem with it aren't going to be able to stop legalization. You shouldn't do it, I agree.

> I don't think cannabis is just a drug for having fun Where did I even allude to this? In fact I implied the exact opposite in my last sentence.

Cannabis does and will have medicinal uses. The laws and and the mindset about it are going to vastly change. Delta-8 and all the other numbers are already legal in illegal states.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#173

Post by inetknght »

bserge wrote: post #146
honksillet wrote: post #137

One underappreciated aspect of this. They will ignore marijuana at time of hire. But they will absolutely test you if there is ever an accident or if you are injured at work (even if you just strain your back picking up a heavy object) before you see an occupational health doctor. If you come back positive in the course of injury, they won't cover your workers compensation bills. They'll fire you (for being intoxicat…

Take full advantage of the system. Smart. These people might never suffer no matter what changes, unless maybe there's some sort of purge.

Who and why do you want to suffer?

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#174

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

tyrfing wrote: post #144

One large brown delivery company also rarely drug tests. Drivers of school buses, semi trucks, and similar have federally mandated drug testing, non-CDL delivery drivers don't. Particularly when liability is transferred to contractors, the surprising part is that this wasn't the encouraged policy from the start. Also, any shortage is entirely self inflicted from offering poor wages.

That delivery company also has a union which could've been negotiated for.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#175

Post by hellbannedguy »

jack_riminton wrote: post #5

Some of the comments are assuming that all those who smoke pot are irresponsible or unable to do a job if they do smoke pot (this includes people who may only smoke at weekends/parties btw)

Personally, I can't smoke pot. I get very nervous, and can't wait until it's out of my system.

But I have worked with many frequent users who smoked daily, and their job. They didn't mind doing terrible jobs.

I'm suprised people arn't talking about habitual pot smokers vs. occasional. If used to smoking--it's no big deal.

Same with alcohol. An alcoholic can drive perfectly well at .08, or a bit higher. An occasional drinker probally shouldn't be drinking and driving.

I heard TX takes into account tolerance when prosecuting DUI's.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#176

Post by bpodgursky »

mikewarot wrote: post #168

>One solution is to raise their wages. But that can happen only if Amazon agrees to pay its delivery partners more for their services, which the company can be slow to do. It's not a labor shortage, it's just a correction in the price of labor

> Amazon delivery contractors are often outbid by school bus companies. Drivers who work for those can make more than $20 an hour and be home for dinner. Amazon contract drivers typically earn $17 an hour and often work late into the night to keep up with demand.

I mean, sure, Amazon can raise their wages to compete, and then we run out of... school bus drivers? I'm not sure that's any better.

At a point, you either need to increase the labor pool (by pulling people out of unemployment, retirement, etc) or seriously automate the profession, and we're just not there with delivery services right now.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#177

Post by wutbrodo »

peanut_worm wrote: post #167

It is strange to me that the only job I have ever been drug tested for was a movie theater as a janitor. No tech job has ever even mentioned it.

Marijuana testing is an arbitrary bar, but a fairly well-known one, so you do actually improve the distribution of your candidate pool by using it for low-skilled jobs with a large, undifferentiated labor pool.

Specifically, if it's known that these jobs test for Marijuana use, you're cutting off the portion of the applicant pool that knows this but still uses anyway, which stochastically reduces the likelihood that a candidate will eg show up to work intoxicated (fwiw, I'm a big fan of marijiana: I use it regularly, am a commensurately lighter drinker relative to my peers, and I'm pretty sure I'm making the right choice in terms of health and responsibility)

Like I said, it's an arbitrary bar and a path-dependent one, and a counterfactual equilibrium in which alcohol or another intoxicant was tested for would work just as well. But it's not irrational for employers to use it in certain labor market conditions. There are analogues in other labor markets, like requiring a college degree to be a firefighter; the false positive rate only really starts to matter if you start finding it difficult to find qualified applicants.

Tech jobs, by contrast, already have plenty of bars that their employees need to clear. In this context, any candidates swept up in blunt drug tests are likely to be false positives, and the use of the bar is a net negative for the employer.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#178

Post by tyingq »

toast0 wrote: post #169
tyingq wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meaning most people can drink alcohol without fear of being tested for past use in a work context. We don't regulate it in the workplace the way we regulate pot use.

I think a big part of the issue is how the subtances work and how the tests work. Are there tests that indicate past use of alcohol or just the ones I'm aware of where the measurement drops swiftly as alcohol is processed? Same for marijuana; is there an objective(ish) test that indicates current intoxication or only the tests that show use within about a month?

Marijuana does stick around a long time, but they test for other stuff that doesn't, some benzos, heroin, etc. There's apparently something called an ETG test for alcohol consumption that can reach back a few days.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#179

Post by klyrs »

oblib wrote: post #150
ffhhj wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I learned from a pot smoker: they sometimes mix it with other drugs for higher effects.

Someone stuffing crack in a joint is not a "pot smoker". They're a crackhead using pot to burn their crack.

Nah, crack harshes the mellow. Real heads put powdered banana peel and nutmeg in their spliff bongs.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#180

Post by wutbrodo »

missedthecue wrote: post #157
new_guy wrote: post #9

How about just having decent working conditions and paying a living wage? Amazon is cancer.

$15/hr is what populist politicians have been calling a living wage. What do you think they should pay?

I think you may be misunderstanding the parent comment. In current usage, the term "living wage" doesn't have any connection to employee wages or what quality of life they buy. It's just a shibboleth reaffirming one's identity as anti-corporation qua corporation.
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