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Amazon Flex

flex.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon Flex

#281

Post by Splines »

cableshaft wrote: post #67
wyldfire wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. Sounds like an opportunity for a new business? Fluber will spawn itself as a broker to both services -- you just go where the app tells you and pick up your cargo (packages or people) and shuttle them to where the app tells you to go.

This is starting to sound suspiciously like missions in Grand Theft Auto. Now we need an app that shows you the best places to carjack and a social networking service for people who plan heists.

You'll need to also provide a voip service that will obnoxiously ping you for "entertainment".

Re: Amazon Flex

#282

Post by caskance »

cesarbs wrote: post #243
School-Cotton wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several reasons, but I think the main one is filling Seattle with lots of people (programmers) that don't really culturally fit in with the rest of the population. There's also a lot of resentment about rent prices etc., but unlike the Bay Area there is one company (Amazon) for all the anger to be directed at, because Microsoft is far away in the suburbs and everyone else participating in the tech boom is tiny by com…

What would be a cultural fit for Seattle? Seems like such a diverse place.

It's what racists say to pretend they're not racist.

Re: Amazon Flex

#283

Post by ndhc3 »

martingordon wrote: post #134

One of the reasons I hesitate to use Amazon Now is that big "suggested tip" field. I don't tip the UPS delivery person, why should I tip my Amazon Now delivery person? What's been the norm for you all?

There's a tip field? Is there a "shipping cost"? If there's both, that is a full stop for me. This will push Amazon's pricing above local pricing for me. Amazon wants me to willingly add 10-15% to my purchase price? Come on.

Re: Amazon Flex

#284

Post by mindslight »

jonlucc wrote: post #251
chrisBob wrote: post #130

I see the appeal for people looking to work, but as a customer I strongly prefer UPS, FedEx or USPS. Last week I got a phone call: "Hi, are you home right now?" It turns out it was actually an Amazon Logistics delivery person, but that still isn't a question I really want to answer over the phone to some random person.

Would you feel better if the person said "Hi, I work for UPS; are you home right now?"? There's no authentication built into the phone call. Perhaps Amazon should use their apps to facilitate that kind of communication with something like a push message?

UPS/Fedex/USPS have figured out how to reliably enter apartment buildings on their own (USPS uses a key, I presume UPS/Fedex use some numeric code convention). Amazon randos call you and make it your problem, as if they have never delivered a no-signature package before.

Nearly every time I've used Amazon, they've surprised me with something crappy and I'm left wondering how they're so popular. Recently, they displayed a "guaranteed delivery by this day if you order within the next 45 seconds" on the checkout confirmation. I had been paying attention to the cutoff time and the time had just previously said 40 minutes. All the digging I did supported the conclusion that both times were a fictional dark pattern to drive order completion.

Never mind the clingy stalker follow up spam when you price check an item outside of incognito mode.

Re: Amazon Flex

#285

Post by caskance »

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 owner taking their tips is punishing the driver. It's not my responsibility to insulate the driver from that. I am paying a surcharge for delivery. That's reasonable. If the driver doesn't get the cut of that he feels he deserves, he can work somewhere else.

Re: Amazon Flex

#286

Post by TeMPOraL »

suvelx wrote: post #96
SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

In Poland, one company set up automated package drop points ("paczkomat", portmanteau of "paczka" - package, and "automat" - automaton, machine) in pretty much every big and small city. Couriers deliver packages to them both in the morning and in the evening, and you can pick them up 24/7 with no human interaction required (you get a one-time password via e-mail and text).

This is godsend for people who work standard hours. I buy on-line quite often, and whenever (90% of cases) there's an option, I pick up a paczkomat on my route home (big cities have a lot of them; mine has something around 50). If a particular shop doesn't offer this type of delivery, I order it to work.

Sadly, post office is no longer an option for me - they work standard hours, and only during Monday - Friday, which makes it hard to pick up anything there. In other words, I have to come late every time something big from Aliexpress comes.

EDIT:

> What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free.

s/free/a fee/, and I think it could work. For large enough values of "a fee".

Re: Amazon Flex

#287

Post by Splines »

tokenizerrr wrote: post #107
ekianjo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

That sounds like a nice system. In the US we don't have scanners you pick up at the entrance - it's more like you do the part the cashiers used to do. You pull up to a scanner, scan everything in your cart, bag everything, then put it back in your cart and pay at the machine.

A scale underneath the bagging area keeps tabs on everything you can to make sure you're not cheating the system. (Still, I've heard stories of people checking out all produce as watermelons.)

Re: Amazon Flex

#288

Post by oh_sigh »

eli wrote: post #19

Sounds a lot like LaserShip which Amazon already uses sometimes here on the east coast. Minimally trained people delivering last mile packages using their own vehicle. Results are.... mixed.

I've had 5 packages in my life delivered by laser ship, and they fucked it up in various ways each time. I hate when I see a laser ship tracking number.

Re: Amazon Flex

#289

Post by caskance »

doki_pen wrote: post #74
bkanber wrote: post #3

Great idea on Amazon's part; they're already set up to handle the logistics for this kind of last-mile delivery stuff. Of course, one could argue that moves like this and pushing us towards the gig economy are a net negative for our future economy. They seem to be compensating fairly (for now?) at least.

Considering they are pushing cost for vehicles, vehicle maintenance, insurance, payroll taxes, fuel, unemployment insurance and uniform onto their workers, I'd say they are paying peanuts. You'd have to shortsighted to see why this is worse than a normal job. I'd also guess that the rates will drop the minute they get some traction, just like Uber.

Why shouldn't they do that? I am pushing cost for ingredients, kitchen maintenance, insurance, etc to a restaurant when I eat out, and that's great. That's what they specialize in.

Have drivers handle the driving side, and dispatchers pay when they need someone to deliver a person or parcel. There's no reason they have to be linked.

Re: Amazon Flex

#290

Post by dragonwriter »

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.

When I worked delivery, back in the mid-Triassic period (or early 1990s, whatever), I got $1/delivery (which was better than mileage reimbursement would have been) even though we didn't charge for delivery, and similar practices seemed to be common at other places providing similar services. If the now dominant practice of adding service charges for delivery has been accompanied by eliminating delivery pay to the people providing the service, well, that sucks for drivers, in the same way that it would suck if a restaurant put a "service included" charge on the bill and but paid its service staff the same base (below-minimum-wage) pay that is typical in tipped positions.

OTOH, if that dishonest practice factors into my decisions at all, it would factor into my decision not to frequent the business in question, rather than a decision to subsidize the bad practice by paying both an in-the-bill charge for the service and a tip for the service.

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