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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

#191

Post by ineedasername »

gruez wrote: post #182
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.

>Also, any shortage is entirely self inflicted from offering poor wages. Yeah! All the millennials who can't buy a home are just self-inflected by not bidding high enough! Government policy certainly didn't' contribute to either!

There's a difference: Amazon can pay more. As you said, the millennials can't. If there's a millennial out there flush with cash but didn't get the house they wanted despite having $$$ more than needed, then yes-- that would be their own choice. Just like it's Amazon's choice to live with a driver shortage if they can pay more but won't.

Based on their 2020 profits, they can pay more. $20B in profits, 170,000 deliverers worldwide. They could take 10% of that and pay those folks an average of about $10,000 more/year.

They have the money, so if their business suffers at all as a result of too few drivers, then it's absolutely self-inflicted.

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

#192

Post by JshWright »

crazy_horse wrote: post #172
junon wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

What does "medicinal uses" have to do with the topic of impaired driving? There are all sorts of legal medications that will also impair someone's ability to drive.

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

#193

Post by ipaddr »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #124

Damn, I always forget that drug testing is still a thing. If you were under the impression that Amazon & other companies are actually screening for cannabis use, you should realize that in any legal state they basically did everything they could to make sure their employees would not test positive. It's extremely hard to find people that would work minimum wage and are completely weed/drug free - especially if you ne…

Bus companies cannot compete. Bus companies will simply claim a shortage and your child will be left at home if the route has no driver.

To get the contract you must be the lowest bidder. In order to do that you need to pay drivers as little as possible. Raising wages means losing money.

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

#194

Post by Scoundreller »

klyrs wrote: post #179
oblib wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I’m more of a Zambian sewer gas kind of guy myself.

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

#195

Post by crazy_horse »

JshWright wrote: post #192
crazy_horse wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What does "medicinal uses" have to do with the topic of impaired driving? There are all sorts of legal medications that will also impair someone's ability to drive.

The use of THC does not mean you are impaired.

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

#196

Post by ElFitz »

phh wrote: post #31
tyingq wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't regulate alcohol use, and it's quite a lot more destructive for some. I don't get the specific puritanism for pot. Edit: Regulate as in drug testing for past use in an employment context, like what the story is talking about.

I think you have it upside-down. It's tobacco and alcohol that have special treatment, not pot. My main guess for that special treatment is merely that tobacco and alcohol were global when we started taking care about global health issues, so we left them, but banned any newcomer

> My main guess for that special treatment is merely that tobacco and alcohol were global when we started taking care about global health issues, so we left them, but banned any newcomer

That narrative just doesn’t hold up.

Opium, heroin and cocaine were pretty much global when we started taking care about global health issues.

Not consumed by everyone all around the world, for sure, but readily available and consumed nearly everywhere.

Heck, heroin was considered a magical cough syrup safer than morphine at one point. It took nearly 30 years for it to be banned in the US [1][2]

Compared to tobacco and alcohol, it certainly is a young one, but cannabis and hallucinogenic mushrooms hardly qualify as newcomers.

[1]: https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/from-c...

[2]: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bu...

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

#197

Post by gruez »

ineedasername wrote: post #191
gruez wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Also, any shortage is entirely self inflicted from offering poor wages. Yeah! All the millennials who can't buy a home are just self-inflected by not bidding high enough! Government policy certainly didn't' contribute to either!

There's a difference: Amazon can pay more. As you said, the millennials can't . If there's a millennial out there flush with cash but didn't get the house they wanted despite having $$$ more than needed, then yes-- that would be their own choice. Just like it's Amazon's choice to live with a driver shortage if they can pay more but won't . Based on their 2020 profits, they can pay more. $20B in profits, 170,000 deliv…

>There's a difference: Amazon can pay more. As you said, the millennials can't. Just like it's Amazon's choice to live with a driver shortage if they can pay more but won't.

But GP was talking about "any shortage", not just amazon's shortage. For the sake of argument I'll let that slide. I'm sure millennials can pay more. It just would involve uncomfortable sacrifices, and most people don't think that's not worth the trade-off for going from renting to owning. Likewise, amazon would like more delivery drivers, but isn't desperate enough to actually raise wages and/or improve working conditions.

>Based on their 2020 profits, they can pay more. $20B in profits, 170,000 deliverers worldwide. They could take 10% of that and pay those folks an average of about $10,000 more/year.

You forgot to include the cost of capital.

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

#198

Post by paulcole »

wutbrodo wrote: post #143
paulcole wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who live in glass houses and all. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28338633

I'm genuinely confused by this comment. Can you explain why you think speculation about the hardware costs of Waymo robotaxi is at all related to a complaint about silly jokes on HN?

The complaint wasn’t about a silly joke. It was about low quality comments.

A comment that’s just “I think I remember ________” is about as low quality as it gets — especially when it turns out to be wrong.

I know low quality comments. I’ve contributed hundreds of them myself. Check my comment history if you don’t believe me!

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

#199

Post by caymanjim »

tbrownaw wrote: post #189
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…

Is that not a different kind of test, for current presence rather than past use?

There aren't any reliable tests for active marijuana intoxication. Blood tests are sometimes used in DUI situations, but the science is weak. It's not as definitive as alcohol testing. You can test positive for marijuana in hair and urine tests weeks after last use, and test positive in blood tests well beyond the point of intoxication (like the next day).

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

#200

Post by ineedasername »

gruez wrote: post #197
ineedasername wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference: Amazon can pay more. As you said, the millennials can't . If there's a millennial out there flush with cash but didn't get the house they wanted despite having $$$ more than needed, then yes-- that would be their own choice. Just like it's Amazon's choice to live with a driver shortage if they can pay more but won't . Based on their 2020 profits, they can pay more. $20B in profits, 170,000 deliv…

>There's a difference: Amazon can pay more. As you said, the millennials can't. Just like it's Amazon's choice to live with a driver shortage if they can pay more but won't. But GP was talking about "any shortage", not just amazon's shortage. For the sake of argument I'll let that slide. I'm sure millennials can pay more. It just would involve uncomfortable sacrifices, and most people don't think that's not worth the…

You forgot to include the cost of capital.

No, that's why I included the stipulation "if their business suffers at all as a result of too few drivers"

Sure, they're not going to pay drivers more if those increased costs exceed the losses they'd suffer from a delivery shortage.

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