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Amazon Flex

flex.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon Flex

#291

Post by knowaveragejoe »

clarkmoody wrote: post #232
TheRealWatson wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we agree already to not have to tip? I don't want Amazon to realize this money-saving practice at my expense. We don't tip UPS, we shouldn't tip these guys. Nobody tips me for pushing code to git.

Better yet, put the tip in the app, with a notification that pops up after delivery asking you: * How would you rate the delivery experience? (multiple dimensions here) * Do you want to tip your courier?

That seems more ideal, and gives the drivers an incentive to be courteous and professional and not "stick around".

Re: Amazon Flex

#292

Post by Splines »

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.

It depends on the kind of housing and street layout. If you're in suburbia, walking to your street vs walking to your front door is a difference of 20 feet.

Also note that for many neighborhoods in the US, picking up the mail is a PITA - there's a collective mail box somewhere in the neighborhood that you need to walk to, usually a several minute walk. Door-to-door mail delivery only exists for houses that are several decades old.

If I could get a business to gather my postal mail & packages and park outside my door I would be very happy.

Re: Amazon Flex

#293

Post by tokenizerrr »

Splines wrote: post #287
tokenizerrr wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That does sound less pleasant. Now that I'm thinking about that, I've encountered a system like that once. I think that was one of the first supermarkets trialing self-checkout. The system disappeared soon after and got replaced by what I've described.

It is quite easy to cheat the current system, though the random sampling helps some. I think someone somewhere made a decision that it is worth it to improve customer satisfaction and deal with some losses, but I have no idea.

Re: Amazon Flex

#294

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Flex

#295

Post by TeMPOraL »

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…

I don't think anybody really associates couriers with sellers - they're part of the infrastructure. It doesn't really count as "contact with the customer" (unless you see it as a business opportunity - making the experience special - which for some reason no one takes).

E-commerce businesses do however have strong incentives to ditch the completely unreliable delivery companies, because they cause a lot of mess on the business end (besides angry customers, you waste a lot of time finding the package and scolding the delivery people). As a result, most delivery options suck equally.

Re: Amazon Flex

#296

Post by dankohn1 »

ihsw wrote: post #191
dankohn1 wrote: post #165

This is a big step for Amazon, and one that I can imagine them eventually offering as a service to other companies that need to provide real-time delivery. And, $18 to $25 an hour represents close to a livable wage, although less than it seems once you take into account depreciation of your personal automobile (which is why the future transit and bike options are particularly intriguing.) But, it also calls out the n…

> although less than it seems once you take into account depreciation of your personal automobile (which is why the future transit and bike options are particularly intriguing.) Vehicles depreciate a fair bit when they roll straight out of the parking lot. Vehicles depreciate over time staying parked in your drive way/garage. Racking up miles on the odometer will definitely inflict wear and tear, especially in winter…

> I think depreciation should be the least of our concerns

Here is a superb article showing that depreciation (and fuel) costs 19% of an Uber driver's pay: http://citypaper.net/uberdriver/

So, that's $14.58 to $20.25 instead of $18 to $25.

Re: Amazon Flex

#297

Post by caskance »

barrkel wrote: post #168
user24 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And fuel, and vehicle maintenance, and maybe the personal liability insurance.

Indeed; in the UK, you need courier insurance to be a delivery driver. If you're just Joe Public doing Amazon deliveries, you are potentially driving without insurance.

If you're just Joe Public doing Amazon deliveries, you can also break the speed limit or park illegally in order to make your deliveries. How is that any different from not being properly insured? It's the courier's responsibility to not do those things. The most Amazon can do is to not work with people they know break the law.

Re: Amazon Flex

#298

Post by [deleted] »

barrkel wrote: post #168
user24 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And fuel, and vehicle maintenance, and maybe the personal liability insurance.

Indeed; in the UK, you need courier insurance to be a delivery driver. If you're just Joe Public doing Amazon deliveries, you are potentially driving without insurance.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Flex

#299

Post by TeMPOraL »

jegutman wrote: post #262
thoman23 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And your employer (sometimes) shares with you (some of) the spoils. :).

Re: Amazon Flex

#300

Post by TeMPOraL »

ekianjo wrote: post #239
TheBeardKing wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a multitude of things you can do to reduce inequality at birth, from prenatal care to childcare. Statistics show that inequality certainly matters when correlated among other first world countries with social problems such as crime, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy, health, etc etc. If you're open to new ideas, I suggest you watch this TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson?language=en

> There are a multitude of things you can do to reduce inequality at birth The most egalitarian folks actually dream of a society where it would be forbidden to have your own children (since it's actually VERY unfair to pass your genes down to the next generation... Smart people get smart kids, that's furthering the gap of inequalities) and let the sacrosanct government take care of human race reproduction and ensure…

Well, the whole inequality issue only matters because we're all locked in a fierce, eat-or-be-eaten competition with each other, where if you fail you end up being miserable and die of hunger or bad health. Hence basic income.
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