Amazon delivery drivers say they speed, urinate in bottles

Ann Chval said female
drivers brought buckets and baby wipes to work so they could go
to the bathroom inside their trucks.
Hayley Peterson/Business
Insider

• 
  Some drivers who deliver
  packages for Amazon told
  Business Insider they speed, blow stop signs, and skip meal and
  bathroom breaks to
  complete deliveries on time. 
  
• 
  The drivers we
  interviewed are managed by third-party courier companies that
  work out of Amazon facilities. Amazon provides the companies
  with packages, delivery routes, navigation software, and
  scanning devices.
  
• 
  Ann Chval said female
  drivers at Amazon-affiliated delivery company JARS TD brought
  buckets and baby wipes to work so they could go to the bathroom
  inside their trucks.
  
• 
  “We sped like crazy,
  everyone I know,” said Donato DiGiulio, a Chicago-area driver.
  “That’s the only way we were able to finish our routes on
  time.”
  
• Amazon said drivers are encouraged to take breaks any
  time they need.

Some drivers who deliver packages for Amazon say they feel
pressured to speed, blow stop signs, and skip meal and bathroom
breaks to complete deliveries on time. 

In
interviews with Business Insider, nine current or recently
employed drivers of Amazon-affiliated courier companies
complained about workers urinating in bottles, bags, or outside
to save time on the road. The drivers we interviewed are managed
by third-party courier companies that work out of Amazon
facilities. Amazon provides the companies with packages, delivery
routes, navigation software, and scanning devices.

Marvic Trejo, a driver who has worked for two courier companies
delivering packages for Amazon, said he’s found bottles of urine
in delivery vans and at the Amazon facilities where he loads
packages.

“It’s disgusting,” he said in an interview with Business Insider.
“There’s no place in society to have people pissing in a bottle.
The worst part about it is people don’t even throw it away. They
just throw it on the ground.”

He recalled one day last summer when a female worker refused to
deliver her route because the air-conditioning in her U-Haul was
broken on a sweltering day.

Trejo said he would cover for her. When he climbed inside the
van, he smelled an overpowering stench and spotted bottles of
urine in the passenger side, baking in the heat.

“It was one of the most disgusting experiences I have had to go
through,” he said. 

Hector Rivera, a former driver for Amazon-affiliated Thruway
Direct, said he’s also found discarded bottles of urine in the
trucks he’s driven. 

“Everybody has to go through that — they have to pee in bags or
stop somewhere and use bottles, and then they would leave it
there in the van. It was disgusting,” Rivera said. Thruway Direct
did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Ann Chval said female drivers at Tennessee-based JARS TD, an
Amazon-affiliated delivery company where she briefly worked as a
driver in 2017, brought buckets and baby wipes to work so they
could go to the bathroom inside their trucks. Once, a male driver
urinated on a customer’s lawn in front of her, she said. JARS TD
did not respond to requests for comment.

Amazon said drivers are
encouraged to take breaks any time they need.
Hayley Peterson/Business Insider

The drivers we interviewed are managed by third-party courier
companies that work out of Amazon facilities. Amazon provides the
companies with packages, delivery routes, navigation software,
and scanning devices.

Amazon spokeswoman Amanda Ip said most drivers complete routes in
a reasonable time frame, and that drivers are encouraged to take
breaks any time they need. The company factors a 30-minute
lunch break and two additional 15-minute breaks into daily routes
for drivers. 

“The majority of drivers complete their daily routes in under
nine hours, which factor in breaks, traffic patterns and more,”
Ip said. “And in cases where inclement weather or traffic
may impact a driver’s ability to complete a customer delivery
on-time, Amazon works closely with delivery service providers to
make adjustments to their delivery route and, if necessary, DSPs
call drivers to return to the station.”

Claims of drivers urinating in bottles does not reflect the
standards Amazon has for its delivery service providers, the
company said.

One driver said he didn’t have any issues with stopping to use a
restroom, however.

Jermaine Lakota Johnson, a former driver for Courier Distribution
Systems, in Everett, Massachusetts, said he had flexible hours
and could take as many breaks as he needed.

“It was a great job, one of my favorites actually,” Johnson said
of his Amazon delivery days.

In addition to skipping meal and bathroom breaks, eight drivers
employed by Amazon-affiliated delivery companies admitted to
speeding regularly to complete their routes. Some said they
sprinted between stops.

“We sped like crazy, everyone I know,” said Donato DiGiulio, a
Chicago-area driver who worked for New York-based Need it Now for
eight months. “That’s the only way we were able to finish our
routes on time. We were zooming through residential areas, all of
us, all the time.”

DiGiulio said he almost hit a child playing in the street during
a delivery. He slowed down after that and started stopping at
stop signs. But then his route times also slowed. Need it Now did
not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

Eric Jeffries, a former Army combat-arms specialist, said Amazon
required a three- to four-minute turnaround between deliveries
when he worked for DeliverOL last year.

He said it was nearly impossible to finish a delivery route
within Amazon’s nine-hour time frame. He said the delivery job
was more physically and emotionally challenging than his time in
the Army.

When he was delivering, Jeffries said, he would park illegally,
stuff a backpack full of packages, and then physically sprint to
complete deliveries on time. He said he lost 30 pounds in his
first month on the job.

Jim Blanchard, a representative for DeliverOL, said drivers
should not run from one stop to the next.