The Nightmare of Running a Delivery Company for Amazon

CYBER

VICE

Tech News, News & Politics, Technology, News

4 • 645 Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amazon. The company none of us can seem to get away from. Whether you’re a Prime member or just surfing the web on sites hosted by AWS, the company is inescapable. But it’s worse when you work for them. Especially if you’re an independent contractor running delivery vans. It’s a job where crushing debt, sudden shifts in policy, and impossible demands are the norm.

These Amazon Delivery Service Partners, or DSPs, are key to Amazon's dominant position, and the way many people are able to get what they order from the company so quickly, the next day or even within hours. But as Amazon gets unimaginably rich, some of these small companies are going bankrupt and leaving owners in crushing debt.

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This week on CYBER, Motherboard Senior Staff writer Lauren Kaori Gurley walks us through her piece ‘‘I Had Nothing to My Name’: Amazon Delivery Companies Are Being Crushed by Debt.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Tadden, it's got the code it's going to launch.
0:10.2	It's a unit system.
0:12.6	I know this.
0:14.6	It's all the files of the whole park.
0:16.8	It tells her everything.
0:18.6	Sir, he's uploading the virus.
0:21.3	Eagle One. The package is being delivered.
0:25.0	Hello out there in cyberspace.
0:27.3	Amazon, the company none of us can seem to get away from.
0:30.4	Whether you're a prime member or just surfing the web on sites hosted by AWS,
0:34.9	the company is inescapable, and it's worse when you work for them.
0:39.9	Especially if you're an independent contractor running delivery vans.
0:43.4	It's a job where crushing debt, sudden shifts in policy, and impossible demands are the norm.
0:48.3	Here to walk us through what's going on is Motherboard Senior Staff Writer, an expert on things, Amazon. Lauren Kiori, Gurley.
0:57.5	I'm so sorry. I've gotten that right every other time, but this one.
1:01.4	The delivery drivers are the subject of her new piece.
1:04.4	I had nothing to my name.
1:06.0	Amazon delivery companies are being crushed by debt.
1:10.1	I'm Matthew Galt, and this is Cyber.
1:13.1	Lauren, how are you doing today?
1:15.1	Hey, I'm good.
1:16.3	It's been a while.
	...

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