A prime post about Amazon

A few years ago, when talking with a student, I asked him about his part-time job.  I knew he worked for UPS for a few hours every week.

He had quit UPS.  Which is when he said something that I found to be interesting.  He said that he would never get hired again by UPS because he quit.  Apparently UPS's policy is comparable to that of the husband who throws out his wife after her first known affair. UPS gave him a chance to work there, but he left.  So, UPS does not ever want him back.

That day my respect for UPS went up. A lot.

And then two years ago, I read this at one my favorite sites:

It might seem strange, but UPS delivery vans don’t always take the shortest route between stops.

Of course it intrigued me.

UPS have moved away from trying to find the shortest route and now look at other criteria to optimise the journey. One of their methods is to try and avoid turning through oncoming traffic at a junction. Although this might be going in the opposite direction of the final destination, it reduces the chances of an accident and cuts delays caused by waiting for a gap in the traffic, which would also waste fuel.

How about that!

Driving and delivering is serious business.  And fraught with perils.

Which is why Amazon uses unregulated businesses that don't care about their drivers or others.

UPS and FedEx, the traditional powers of the logistics world, are deeply invested in safety. ... Both firms are also heavily regulated by the government, and many of their trucks are subject to regular federal safety inspections and can be put out of service at any time by the Department of Transportation.
But Amazon’s ingenious system has allowed it to avoid that kind of scrutiny. There is no public listing of which firms are part of its delivery network, and the ubiquitous cargo vans their drivers use are not subject to DOT oversight.

There is no free lunch--there is a hidden cost to every damn thing.

Amazon denies any responsibility for the conditions in which drivers work, but it has continued to contract with at least a dozen companies that have been repeatedly sued or cited by regulators for alleged labor violations, including failing to pay overtime, denying workers breaks, discrimination, sexual harassment, and other forms of employee mistreatment.

I have always refused Amazon's offer for Prime.  I have never ever felt that I needed to have anything that urgently.  If ever there is an urgency, I drive over to the nearest store for whatever it is that I need it that badly.  When people--family or friends or students--talk up Prime, I nod my head and move on.  No point debating with them.  No point in sharing these kind of articles also with them!

[The] Sprinter-style vans Amazon requires its delivery providers to use weigh several times more than most passenger cars, they fall just under the weight limit that would subject them and their drivers to Department of Transportation oversight, unlike most FedEx and UPS trucks.
In a sign of how business is booming, Amazon last summer bought 20,000 of these vans from Mercedes-Benz to be leased, through fleet managers, to its dedicated delivery companies around the country.

The business of big business is about business--not about humans!  Dumb fucks we are!