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Amazon Flex

flex.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon Flex

#261

Post by wdr1 »

tlrobinson wrote: post #218
shawnee_ wrote: post #118

Q: Where can I deliver with Amazon Flex? A: Amazon Flex is available now in Seattle. It will be available soon in New York, Baltimore, Miami, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Portland. Smart move by Amazon to refrain from making any Bay-area city one of its test markets. It's like Amazon is saying "we don't need to prove this will work in the bubble; let's base our test data set on realistic markets…

Or Amazon is worried about a bunch of contractors being reclassified as employees as has happened to various "on-demand economy" companies in California: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0OX1TE20150618

Ah, that would explain why they skipped Los Angeles too.

Re: Amazon Flex

#262

Post by jegutman »

thoman23 wrote: post #260
herge wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, gentrification and the rights of workers in a sharing economy are still hot-button political issues in the Bay-area. Who's going to picket Amazon Flex in Indianapolis?

Can we please stop calling it the "sharing" economy? There is no sharing going on.

We're all part of the sharing economy. You share your labor with your employer. /s

Re: Amazon Flex

#263

Post by lotso »

dragonwriter wrote: post #166
jonesetc wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclaimer: I have never used Amazon now, and don't see myself using it even though it is available to me. I also have no idea how the whole operation works before it leaves the warehouse. Does your UPS package get delivered in an hour? Do you tip a pizza delivery driver? Personally I think it depends on how much work the person doing the delivery did before the delivery to help get it done fast. So for food delivery…

> Does your UPS package get delivered in an hour? If what you are paying for with Amazon Now is rapid delivery service, then why would you tip for the service you are paying for. UPS delivers in a time set by the level of service that is paid for. Presumably, Amazon Now does the same thing. > Do you tip a pizza delivery driver? I did before pizza parlors started adding an additional separate charge for delivery servi…

The separate charge doesn't actually go to the driver. You should really tip your delivery driver.

Re: Amazon Flex

#264

Post by noxToken »

dingaling wrote: post #233
dragonwriter wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. Because picking a delivery slot imposes a constraint which creates a cost for the delivery provider. > Everybody has jobs. Everybody finds it annoying to buy something on line. You never know when it's going to turn up. You have to take a day off, and hope your driver is competent at his job. Most everybody has jobs, but most people I know don'…

> Which would eliminate the freedom of delivery companies to efficiently use delivery vehicles. At present ( in the UK ) most courier delivery fleets stand idle in the evening after being out during the day missing deliveries to people who are in work. And having to call again the next day. It perplexes me why they don't shift their delivery period six hours later to start at 15:00 and end at 21:00. That would cover…

I wonder how this would work in more rural places in the US.

Before I graduated high school, I lived in rural-ish area where the nearest commercial couriers were 50+ minutes from my house to the north and about 90+ minutes to the south. Wal-Mart was literally my only choice for consumer goods, so I spent a good chunk of change online.

I always had the same driver for a certain courier. I asked him how often he had to come down that far, and if it was significantly out of the way compared to the rest of his route. He told me that there were occasionally other stops in my town, but it wasn't the norm. The city and the immediate suburbs were the vast majority of their deliveries. Driving 100 minutes round trip for a couple deliveries probably sucked.

Re: Amazon Flex

#265

Post by aikah »

bb101 wrote: post #14

Externalizing the parking fines. Clever.

that's the sharing economy ! the worker "shares" all the professional expenses , the corporation just creates "an app". How can one really make money without working illegally ? using his own car ? I don't know.

Re: Amazon Flex

#266

Post by blhack »

djur wrote: post #246
dragonwriter wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does your UPS package get delivered in an hour? If what you are paying for with Amazon Now is rapid delivery service, then why would you tip for the service you are paying for. UPS delivers in a time set by the level of service that is paid for. Presumably, Amazon Now does the same thing. > Do you tip a pizza delivery driver? I did before pizza parlors started adding an additional separate charge for delivery servi…

The pizza delivery driver doesn't get any of that delivery charge. Not tipping the driver because of the delivery charge is essentially punishing the driver for the owner's desire to take their tips.

>The pizza delivery driver doesn't get any of that delivery charge.

Yes they do, in the form of being paid for mileage (at least I did when I was a delivery driver).

Re: Amazon Flex

#267

Post by rexf »

brador wrote: post #202
suvelx wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. Everybody has jobs. Everybody finds it annoying to buy something on line. You never know when it's going to turn up. You have to take a day off, and hope your driver is competent at his job. Why can't you just say "I'll be at home on Thursday after 5pm. Call me on #555-333-9999 if you have any issues". Courier delivers the package after 5pm on Th…

Because an average courier drops 180 parcels a day. Now add customer preferences and you have a mess that can't be satisfied because everyone wants their parcel 5-7pm.

> everyone wants their parcel 5-7pm

If everyone wants later delivery, maybe that is something to look into (to meet/satisfy customer demand). Instead of the alternative of packages not getting delivered in the daytime and trying again the next day.

Re: Amazon Flex

#268

Post by bitdivision »

dingaling wrote: post #233
dragonwriter wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. Because picking a delivery slot imposes a constraint which creates a cost for the delivery provider. > Everybody has jobs. Everybody finds it annoying to buy something on line. You never know when it's going to turn up. You have to take a day off, and hope your driver is competent at his job. Most everybody has jobs, but most people I know don'…

> Which would eliminate the freedom of delivery companies to efficiently use delivery vehicles. At present ( in the UK ) most courier delivery fleets stand idle in the evening after being out during the day missing deliveries to people who are in work. And having to call again the next day. It perplexes me why they don't shift their delivery period six hours later to start at 15:00 and end at 21:00. That would cover…

I agree, this would be nice.

They would have to split the fleet, all business deliveries still need to be made 9-5.

Amazon have actually started doing this in reverse in the UK, you can set an address as a business address and your package should only be delivered 9-5. In practice the 'Amazon Logistics' drivers (the aforementioned blokes in cars) are terrible and rarely manage to get this right.

Re: Amazon Flex

#269

Post by sethhochberg »

organsnyder wrote: post #120
suvelx wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. Everybody has jobs. Everybody finds it annoying to buy something on line. You never know when it's going to turn up. You have to take a day off, and hope your driver is competent at his job. Why can't you just say "I'll be at home on Thursday after 5pm. Call me on #555-333-9999 if you have any issues". Courier delivers the package after 5pm on Th…

To get efficiency, delivery companies have highly optimized routes to deliver as many packages in as little time and distance traveled. UPS even has algorithms to reduce the number of left turns. It's probably cheaper for delivery companies to make multiple delivery attempts than it is for them to allow recipients to specify their own delivery times. Of course, there shouldn't be any logistical impediments preventing…

I actually just recently learned about UPS's "My Choice" program - it does exactly this, you get more precise delivery windows for packages and a certain number of times per year you can request specific delivery windows.

Re: Amazon Flex

#270

Post by cthalupa »

ekianjo wrote: post #105
kaybe wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Did you just equate walking to the curb to the same level of inconvenience of having to go to the post office? I'd have to walk nearly as far to get to my car as I would to get to the curb, and then I'd have to drive to the post office, find parking, walk into the post office, wait in line, walk back to my car, drive back, carry the package into my house...

"Whelp, having to cook my own food is more inconvenient than having it made for me. At that point I might as well butcher the cow myself!"

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