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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.
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.
I don't have a problem with timing (maybe due to Prime), but I do have a problem with drivers literally throwing packages several feet. It hasn't happened on the last two deliveries, but my home office is right by the front door and I could hear packages hitting and tumbling, and they'd be scattered across the porch. Looking outside, the driver would be almost back to his truck. I once went to get some kind of ID so I could report it, but the driver completely ignored me. I got the plate number and reported it to the company and to Amazon. Didn't get a follow-up from either one, though.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
They simply don't have the time to glad hand your packages. If they place them instead of throw them they won't meet their delivery schedule. Also, they are probably too tired and unhappy to care.
This suggestion checks out in a world where rich people dont steal, and yet...
But do they steal at a lower rate than the poor? If the rate of theft is lower, and savings from shrinkage and reshipping costs is still higher than wages then is it economical viable to do so?
The richer you are, the more the risks of getting caught outweigh the potential gain
If you are homeless and starving, you're not going to care if you get caught and put in a cell overnight and given a bowl of soup, a bread roll and a stern talking to.
But if you're a lawyer or doctor and you find a wallet with a couple of hundred cash in it in the street, the (very small) risk of getting caught if you pocket it is massively multiplied by the negative impact if you are caught, get a trivial fine, but lose your career, house, etc.
If you're even moderately well off, the reward part of the reward/risk calculation has to be pretty big to make crime worthwhile.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it