Either directly or indirectly? It has been alleged on another forum that Amazon drivers are pushed so hard that, apart from mental breakdown, they are forced to break the rules regarding drivers’ hours and forced as a result of reduced breaks to urinate and defecate in their trailers.
I doubt anyone will want to admit to the latter but I would like some ammo if I am to reply.
never worked there but i suspect its down to the conditions at the subcontractor. I knew a couple of drivers when i was at a supermarket that worked for the company running the distribution side they always preferred doing the amazon runs than the supermarket.
Thanks, that hardly constitutes something akin to what has been alleged.
Was it as bad as I heard about Amazon at the supermarket then? Must have been worse for them to prefer Amazon, or Amazon is not as bad as I was told.
the supermarket was easy work… all you had to do was pull the cages to the back of the wagon 2 runs a night 90% of goods in staff were helpful always let you get a cup of coffee and use the facilities if needed. I think they didn’t like the rubbish collection side of it because that could take you an extra 2-3 hours all told.
These allegations sound like Driver-Facebook-group stories, all based on MMR (my mate reckons…).
No big name consignor/operator could impose conditions which go against the standard undertakings of every O-licence, in particular:
Amazon literally could not financially afford to be associated with situations like this, they would be hammerd in the courts, and I would be gobsmacked if they did not have to formally demonstrate to one or more authorities that they “have systems in place” to prevent their contractors operating in this way.
If I recall correctly, there’s at least one TN member who has posted pictures on their trailer being ridiculously underloaded with a handful of pallets which constituted a whole shift of work.
@zac_a I was having a similar discussion with someone the other day re my overnight no bunk issue. we were arguing whose responsibility is it that i stay with in the law. Also who has the duty of care
Thanks all, I’ll check what, if anything, the Yanks have to say and then go into battle suitably armoured.
These allegations were made in a thread entitled ‘Hats off to Amazon’, in praise of the company and its excellent service, something that I, living in deepest countryside, heartedly agreed with. But then it turned into ‘not allowed unions, sacked for going to the toilet too often, drivers forced to exceed legal hours and the classic I quoted above about what they were forced to do in vans’ load of nonsense.
Then we moved over into a general condemnation of all their customers for over working forced labour kiddies in Asia, and well, you get the picture. I am willing to bet that there is not a single person anywhere who hasn’t bought Chinese goods. I know as I sit here I am totally surrounded by them.
a while back primark got in trouble for using Asian labor and paying a pound an hour or what ever it was. everyone was up in arms saying you couldn’t buy a cup of coffee for a pound etc etc. Then someone sensible said well that equates to however many yen or whatever and pointed out they could feed their family that week and pay rent etc so what sounds aborhant to us may not be to others
Aye, that was a bad situation they put you in. Duty of care is easy “we all have a duty of care to ourselves and everyone around us, via our actions and omissions”, even if that means squaring up to the employer.
Similarly with responsibility to stay within the law: Whose licence is it? Yours. Therefore your responsibility. Again, if you need to square up to the employer, just remember some of these guys will happily hang you out to dry when it all goes Pete Tong, so look after number one, always. Better to be temporarily looking for a job with a clean licence than the alternative.
I agree whole heatedly with what you are saying my license my responsibility. The area i was discussing with my friends is was it the supermarkets responsibility to make sure i had a bed or the agencies. Had vosa that were parked in the car park been watching me stopped me obviously i would of been in trouble but would the supermarket been able to shrug their shoulders and say not our problem.
I think the supermarket probably could honestly say “Nowt to do with me mate”, they have no governance over whichever haulage company is carrying out the delivery.
If you’d been stopped by DVSA (VOSA ceased to exist ten years ago, need to move with the times), that would have been the moment to say “I’m pleased I’ve ran into you guys…” then spill the beans on the toe-rags what put you in that situation.
i did think about going and having a word just didn’t want to drop myself in the sticky stuff any further.
Yeah, sometimes it’s worth it, sometimes it isn’t. But I’m guessing you’re not doing any work for those characters from now on. I had a similar experience many years ago: overly long run which I’d questioned at the start of the shift, coupled with them deliberately sending me out without a fuel card “You won’t need it” they said. They were wrong, as I told them while sat at the fuel station with the amber fuel light showing, and just about to enter the 14th hour of my shift with more than an hour to go to get back to base 
This post on the US site seems to back up what I have heard already:
I hauled Amazon for almost 2 years before I got my own trailer. It’s cheap freight, but it’s light and I got home every night.
Until this past October 2023 I never had a problem with Amazon schedule times. I averaged 5 stops a day and I drive 61 MPH.
Now if you are ahead of schedule, they update your schedule to make your appointment time earlier.
On the occasional time or two the dispatch is illegal, I post a message to their operations center to inform them the schedule is illegal and give them a good eta.