Originally Posted by
Mobile 155
no, they aren’t paying by the hour. They are paying by the piece. Hence you origionally piece work. The driver is the contractor. He gets paid by the delivery. If he has a van load routed by computer, to keep track of the deliveries he has to deliver the packages before getting paid. Hence the scanner connected to Amazon and their computer.
Amazon could also pay the van driver for bringing the crates to the couriers, and then pay the couriers separately for bringing the packages to the door. Then, customers could also bike/walk to where the crates are delivered and pick them up DIY. Amazon is talking about installing delivery lockers at homes, but they could just as easily install one set of lockers per zip+4 area and customers could choose to pick up their packages themselves or pay an extra dollar for a bike courier to do it for them. Then the question becomes how much you have to pay the van drivers to bring the crates to the lockers.
Even if they could unload all of their packages to the cyclists they will get a share of the money even if they head back to the warehouse. But that could easily be an hour out and an hour back plus loading and unloading time. Remember the van driver is on the hook for 10k up front. Any assistance on parts for bikes would come from the contractor or the sub contractors not the company.
Like I said, I think it's a marketing ploy to get the $10k for the vans. In fact, I think there are laws against requiring purchases for employees, but I guess if it's an independent contractor then they can excuse as part of selling a franchise. To me it just seems like a shady way to sell delivery vans, to be honest.
To make money someone has to increase the deliveries without increasing increasing labor costs.
As I said, bundle the packages according to zip+4 areas and deliver them to locker islands located within the zip+4 area. Then give customers the choice of self pickup or having a bike courier bring it for an extra $1.
You beat the system or you work for work for less than minimum wage.
The trick is to combine functions so it doesn't matter if you're making less than minimum wage. E.g. let's say you know you will be going to pick up a package by bike and you are registered as an at-will courier so they can trust you to pick up and deliver other peoples' packages. That means you can go pick up your own package and pick up some more packages for other people and get $1 per package for delivering them during your bike ride home. That way, you've combined your package pickup with a recreational bike ride that also happens to make you a few extra dollars.
In fact, you could even make it a better deal for Amazon by paying people to pickup extra packages for their neighbors by giving them shipping discounts, free shipping deals, etc. Then, whenever someone goes to pick up their own package, they pick up a couple extra and get rewarded with free shipping on future purchases.