Conditions of an Amazon Sprinter Van Delivery Driver

Amazon Worker Correspondent

La Vergne, Tennessee – As a delivery driver, I’m struggling to get 40 hours, so I’m doing DoorDash and Instacart after shifts just to maintain. We’re a single-income home; I’ve got two kids, both young. We can’t afford daycare so we are homeschooling them.

I start around 10:30am and usually end at 7pm, but some days I go until 10:30pm. There’s a huge turnover for drivers because of slowdowns and how trying to catch up impacts your safety score.

I had a route to Bellbuckle and Shelbyville, with a start time at 10am. I get to the loading dock and my route’s not ready, so I get held up for an hour and 20 minutes at the facility. I didn’t make my first delivery until 1:30pm. The Amazon and logistics managers blamed me, but we can’t rush deliveries since there are cameras all over the van.

We have a safe driving protocol and if you get two pings in one day then you’re suspended for two days. You get pinged for anything, even preparing for another delivery by putting the package in the passengers seat. They also have a “distracted driver” rating system where you can be suspended without pay if you look down to get a drink from the cup holder or move to change the AC. Even just looking down for 2-3 seconds, you could get a deduction.

Most of our vans don’t have AC. I saw a guy evaporate a bottle of water on the floor of his van and it was just steam. When we are at peak we are forced to take 10-minute breaks and then expected to run to make deliveries after. Overheating is common but management at drivers support just says, “Keep going, you’re running late.”

The app we use for deliveries has so many bugs. We have to wait a long time to take pictures and when it freezes, Amazon pings you and you get penalized.

You get a pay deduction if you get pinged too many times. You could lose a full hour’s worth of pay. With kids, family, inflation, no one’s gonna pay you enough unless you’re single. If you mess up you’re dinged, deducted, suspended or fired. Everything they’ve applied to what they call “safety protocol” with cameras and the point system leads to high turnover.

The new EV (electric vehicle) van has new driver safety protocols. Everything in that vehicle has a camera and there’s a 24-inch computer screen where the radio would be with a satellite overhead-view of the vehicle. If you stop at a red light or stop sign and if your tire is caught even going slightly over the white line, you get pinged. It also has a regenerated breaking system; once you take your foot off the throttle it automatically breaks, so no coasting. There is also auto-corrected steering. So if you’re on a highway and an oversize truck comes into your lane and you want to move towards the shoulder, if you go over or hit the shoulder line, the van auto-corrects to the center lane and you have to fight the steering wheel to not get too close. These EVs are already on the street, in Nashville and Lebanon. They have a charging station in La Vergne and are already building another one.

In our training back on June 16th/17th, a bunch of people quit on the spot because they had to test drive these vehicles. 85% of drivers are quitting. I’ve only been in the sprinter van three weeks and I’ve seen 11 people come through. To them we are replaceable, so it doesn’t matter what happens.

We are looking for worker correspondents: cashiers, drivers, nurses, construction workers, cleaners, warehouse staff—anyone who wants to report on what’s really happening at work. Share a story, a tip, a victory, or a fightback. We’ll help you turn it into an article. Contact us at theworkerpaper@proton.me.

Image: Amazon Prime Delivery Trucks in Gainesville, FL. Credit: Todd Van Hoosear.

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