A new streaming music service and personal assistant drones are two of the more recent (if not creepy) ways in which Amazon head Jeff Bezos probably hopes to recuperate the $3 billion he lost in October. Unfortunately for Jeff, this won’t be happening anytime soon if a new BBC News report detailing the lives of Amazon delivery drivers in the United Kingdom proves to be true. That’s because his company’s overworked truck drivers apparently aren’t given enough time to drop a deuce.
No really. Per the unnamed BBC News reporter’s extensive article, which recounts his (or her) undercover investigation as a U.K. Amazon employee, they literally didn’t have time for that sh*t:
A few drivers admitted to peeing in a bottle in their van because they didn’t have time to find a toilet. Another admitted having defecated in the back of the van on one occasion.
As “Chris” explained, he quickly discovered “that things like tiredness and toilets aren’t taken into account when Amazon plans its delivery routes” for its drivers. Nor was the company all that concerned with handling customer issues mid-delivery, as the reporter found out while trying to help one “locate her parcel”:
My agency supervisor barked down the phone: “If it’s not in your van forget about it and move on. Stop trying to do customer service. You don’t have to be nice.”
Nor did they have to drive within the speed limit, as one driver confessed he went “120 mph down the motorway” to “get the job done.” Obviously said “job” is delivering items ordered by Amazon customers, though considering the New York Post‘s “Poop Vans” headline, it’s fun (and horrifying) to imagine a delivery driver doing the deed at nearly double the speed limit.
(Via New York Post and BBC News)