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Amazon Launches 'Flex,' a Crowdsourced Delivery Service
sckirklan writes: Amazon has rolled out a new service called Amazon Flex. It lets people sign up to deliver packages using their mobile phone and their car, earning $18-25/hr while doing so. Think Uber, but for package delivery. Their goal is to fully support one-hour delivery within certain cities. The service is available in Seattle to start, and it'll soon expand to Manhattan, Baltimore, Miami, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta, and Portland. No news on what they think of bicycle couriers, but given their focus on being green, I'd imagine something is in the works.
It's on the main page:
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
It'll be interesting to see if they solve Uber's problem in California, where their drivers existed in a grey area of employment, with courts deciding they were employees (and thus entitled to expenses) rather than independent contractors. Interesting that the list of cities mentioned so far avoids California, even though SF and LA would be ideal cities for this. I'm guessing they'll construct their driver contracts with extremely thoroughly reviewed legal definitions to avoid having these drivers classified as employees.
What happened to the drones? Oh wait? What? We're the drones?
This is the uber of the owner driver truck/van model, should be interesting to see what happens!
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
It's always nice to read about the high speed fiber, car services, delivery services, etc. that I know will NEVER EVER come to my small city.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Check the insurance policy on your car before rushing to Amazon to offer your services... Chances are that this is considered as a commercial usage of your car and you're not covered.
Try it! Library of Babel
8 hour shift is $200 max. Out of that comes fuel & vehicle wear and tear, IRS say 57c per mile and I would have thought 20 miles an hour was reasonable including stops etc so that $91.20 on an 8 hour shift. Add to that cost of capital of the car, insurance, accountants, other ancillary "run your own business costs" and I'm struggling to see you making $10 an hour.....
i wonder.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
At least UPS FedEx and the like to a certain extent vet their employees. I don't want some yahoo at my house delivering my packages, playing catch with them and god know what else (staking out my house - get off my lawn).
Sure we can "leave a bad review" but by then it's too fucking late. And to what end - they get "fired" and I got broken shit - big deal, they just move on to the next Uber job.
With the traditional services, you jack around - like the fedEx monitor delivery guy and get caught, you really get FIRED, and there goes your livelihood.
Guess what - anyone who sees your house on the street knows where you live.
Next up: Worrying about the existence of neighbors and pizza delivery men.
I got the infamous You were not home for your delivery! Why were you not home for your delivery? Please visit the USPS site to reschedule your delivery! email this month. Well, if Amazon _really_ sent the package USPS like their order confirmation email said, USPS would know that I had a fraggin HOLD on my mail during the labor day week surrounding that day.
I really, really, really do not want more creative delivery. I just want really stable, logical, predictable delivery. I dont want people on bicycles trying to find my address. Sweet Christ on a Pogo Stick, is that really too much to ask?
This may terrify you: Any stranger can find out where you live any time. I mean unless you are like in witness protection or something.
A FedEx driver isn't a "random person"? I don't know about you, but I have no idea who the typical people who deliver USPS, UPS, and FedEx packages to me are. They might be wearing a uniform, but that doesn't mean much; anyone can get one of those. It's amazing how much trust we place in people wearing uniforms.
Dipshit, Amazon sells your information to many, many, MANY different people. If you think the delivery person is the only person knows you're buying expensive electronics from Amazon, then I have a bridge to sell you.
I don't respond to AC's.
I need sunglasses to read writing so White.
Delivery employees were random people already. Their only special trait is being in their employer's records. Much like Amazon will have.
Much like USPS/etc, local citizens already had "random access" all along. That may be a shocking realization, much like when I informed entitled, squeamish, cleanworld types that they're constantly swallowing a stream of mucus.
Would you like to know more about the bottled water you're obviously a patron of?
The end user may get sued if the delivery driver gets in accident. As amazon can say they are a IC and we don't have to pay up.
http://marshallbrain.com/manna...
I shall just leave these here, eh?
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
As the subject says, this is 1930s depression all over again. Lots and lots of people being forced into dayjobs not having a stable income to support themselves or their families, and absolutely no securities if they get sick or somehow are not able to work. It might be ok now but just wait until millions of unemployed people are flooding into this area of work pushing the wages way down. In the 1930s people went to the dock where a foreman would handpick a lucky few. The rest could go home without any money for that day. Only difference today is that the foreman will be some app for your smartphone telling you if you got a customer or not... what a horrible life that would be longterm.
because the UPS guy actually makes money doing this and has more to loose by being fired.
have nothing to do with "being green". Come back and talk about being green when your culture and society picks up stuff at the end of their working day, or the next time they're by the post office, rather than having a truck or a car deliver every single item to the front door. What a curious definition the USA has of "being green".
The Fedex van they got out of is a little more an investment though.
I don't know about you, but I'll answer the door if there's a fedex van out front and fedex uniform at my door.
I'm much less inclined if its random people knocking... usually they're either trying to recruit me to a religion, beg for money, or want to sell me something.
Yeah, if you can see the van, that's a good point.
What if you're in an apartment though, and don't have view of the street and didn't or couldn't hear the van pull up?
Also, what about other delivery services? Do you refuse to answer the door when you order a pizza and some guy driving his personal car shows up? Do you check to see if his car has a Domino's sign on top, or ask him for ID or call Domino's to make sure he's an employee there?
Remember also, this is supposedly a service so people can have stuff delivered from Amazon within an hour. It's not like Fedex when it could show up any time during the day; you place the order, and within an hour someone shows up with your item, not much different from pizza delivery really.
I take it someone hates pizza delivery.
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
What if you're in an apartment though, and don't have view of the street and didn't or couldn't hear the van pull up?
Yeah, its not universally applicable.
Also, what about other delivery services? Do you refuse to answer the door when you order a pizza and some guy driving his personal car shows up? Do you check to see if his car has a Domino's sign on top, or ask him for ID or call Domino's to make sure he's an employee there?
Not if its around 30 minutes after I ordered a pizza and he's holding a pizza box.
Remember also, this is supposedly a service so people can have stuff delivered from Amazon within an hour. It's not like Fedex when it could show up any time during the day; you place the order, and within an hour someone shows up with your item, not much different from pizza delivery really.
That's a good point.
modded this nsightful by accident, need to post to cancel that - we need bikes and feet doing this, not unprintable cars.
Those Laser guys drive up in their own cars.
Umm, I'm really not interested in random/first-time/first-day/once-and-never-again drivers coming to my house, thank you very much.
I wonder how long it will last before some company, fearing for their income, is calling the cops for "illegal package delivering".
I take it someone hates pizza delivery.
I've only ever had pizza delivered when I'm too drunk to walk, so my standards of food hygience have already gone out the window.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
If you're that paranoid, then just don't order pizzas or stuff from Amazon and never answer your door unless the person has phoned you in advance and arranged a password.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Great. More flakes driving around with my purchases, showing up late or not at all. If they can pay a random dude in a car $18-25, maybe they could just pay UPS/FedEx a buck more, and let them figure out how to do it.
Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
I emailed them and here was their response.
"When you come to our onboarding session and download the app, you can review the Terms of Service. "
Not good if you want to study it before making a commitment. Also, if you down load it what if they force you into an NDA?
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
" I care when his meth head roommate knows I'm buying expensive electronics from Amazon"
How often are you buying "expensive electronics" ? This would seem to be a rare occasion. Or are you having $1000 items delivered daily?
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
...something else that will need to be made illegal posthaste lest it upset the existing package-delivery services unused to the idea of gasp! - competition... I give it a year before the crap begins to fly and governments and business demand shutting it down.