Amazon Plants Fake Packages In Delivery Trucks As Part of Undercover Ploy To 'Trap' Drivers Stealing (businessinsider.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: Amazon uses fake packages to catch delivery drivers who are stealing, according to sources with knowledge of the practice. The company plants the packages -- internally referred to as "dummy" packages -- in the trucks of drivers at random. The dummy packages have fake labels and are often empty.

Here's how the practice works, according to the sources: During deliveries, drivers scan the labels of every package they deliver. When they scan a fake label on a dummy package, an error message will pop up. When this happens, drivers might call their supervisors to address the problem, or keep the package in their truck and return it to an Amazon warehouse at the end of their shift. Drivers, in theory, could also choose to steal the package. The error message means the package isn't detected in Amazon's system. As a result, it could go unnoticed if the package were to go missing. "If you bring the package back, you are innocent. If you don't, you're a thug," said Sid Shah, a former manager for DeliverOL, a courier company that delivers packages for Amazon.

Comments

now that everyone knows

[renegade600]

well, since the cat is out of the bag, only idiots will be caught.

Re:now that everyone knows

[farble1670]

well, since the cat is out of the bag, only idiots will be caught.

Not the point. Amazon doesn't care if you don't steal because you are honest or if you don't steal because you know you will get caught. They only care if you deliver your packages. It's much simpler to prevent crime than to punish it.

Re:now that everyone knows

[taustin]

I would suggest that they don't actually have to have every actually planted any fake packages, because 99.999% of the benefit of the whole idea is in the story that they do.

Re:now that everyone knows

[rtb61]

Actually in the case of delivery drivers, cameras mounted all around and inside the cargo area for security reasons, quite reasonable, just not the drivers compartment. Really the cheapest thing to do, data storage is pretty cheap, recording it pretty cheap, and problem solved. Keep the videos records for thirty days post delivery to resolve any delivery disputes, overall a pretty sound solution, video record all deliveries, done and finished.

Why would you steal an empty package?

[SuperKendall]

It seems really odd that someone would steal a package so light you could basically tell it was empty. Maybe they think they are getting some kind of small electronics? At least put a brick in there Amazon.

Re: Amazon's own delivery service

[TheMeuge]

Well... They are paid so little that they need food stamps, are scheduled for 1-2 hours less that full time to avoid paying for their health insurance, and are scheduled to deliver enough packages to take up all their time if they never eat or pee. What do you expect?

Re: Amazon's own delivery service

[farble1670]

Well... They are paid so little that they need food stamps, are scheduled for 1-2 hours less that full time to avoid paying for their health insurance, and are scheduled to deliver enough packages to take up all their time if they never eat or pee. What do you expect?

Lesson: if you are unhappy with your employment, you should damage others' property. Because it will help you.

Re:Amazon: "We just can't trust our drivers!"

[devslash0]

That's the right approach. In fact, you should not automatically trust anyone. Even your girlfriend. Trust should always be earned, not assumed. In a job like this, however, there is no way to earn trust, therefore checks like this are absolutely necessary.

Re: Amazon's own delivery service

[Archangel Michael]

scheduled for 1-2 hours less that full time to avoid paying for their health insurance

Which is exactly what we predicted when congress passed ObamaCare, requiring full time employees be covered. Well, now we have a bunch of professions that no longer work full time, simply because idiots can't figure out how their stupid ideas would be handled by businesses.

And don't go on a rant about how amoral businesses are, unless you're equally ranting about how immoral socialist policies are that cause these problems in the first place. Using government guns to threaten the populace to comply with the desire to take from people for no reason other than "fairness" (subjective) is immoral.

Amoral is still better than immoral, all day long.

Re:Entrapment?

[Tyr07]

It's not entrapment.

Your job is to deliver the package. They didn't do anything that suggests you should keep it instead. There is no reason to believe you can keep it just because there is an error scanning it. It's not yours. No one said it's fine to keep if the system has a problem with it.

It's a sealed box. Calling that entrapment would be like saying people parking their cars on streets sometimes get stolen, and putting a car alarm in them is baiting them to steal it for entrapment. At no point was it suggested or pushed that you should steal a car.t.

Re: Amazon's own delivery service

[haruchai]

"Which is exactly what we predicted when congress passed ObamaCare, requiring full time employees be covered. Well, now we have a bunch of professions that no longer work full time"

If by "we", you mean the people who said implement Medicare-for-all instead of that convoluted gladhanding to the insurance industry, then yes, this is exactly what "we" predicted.

I'm reminded of

[rsilvergun]

this.

If you're wondering why this feels like entrapment even though legally it's not; it's because Amazon treats their workers badly enough (and keeps them financially desperate enough) that temping them with something so minor is enough to push them over the edge. Want people to stop risking their jobs and jail time for what's maybe a $20 package? Pay them enough to live.