Amazon Drivers Getting Their Pay Slashed

[onehandle]

At least five days a week, Myron Ballard races around Washington, D.C., with a cargo van full of Amazon Prime packages. A career delivery driver with 20 years behind the wheel, Ballard typically gets paid $1.50 for each address he visits. If he delivers 150 Amazon boxes -- a fairly routine number -- he can net $225. Not bad for a day's work. That is, until he starts tallying up all his out-of-pocket costs. Ballard works for an Amazon contractor called LaserShip. He's technically an "independent contractor," not an employee, meaning all of the costs stemming from the deliveries fall on him rather than on LaserShip or Amazon.

Ballard had to purchase the cargo van he drives for work. He doesn't get reimbursed for the wear and tear he puts on it; for the gasoline he pours into it on a near-daily basis; for the auto insurance he needs to carry; or for the parking tickets he inevitably racks up downtown. He doesn't even get reimbursed for the LaserShip uniform he's obliged to purchase and wear.

At the end of the day, much of that $225 has vanished. "It's like they want us to be employees, but they don't want to pay for it," said Ballard, 45.

Anyone who shops regularly online, particularly with Amazon, has to marvel at how quickly and cheaply packages arrive on the doorstep these days. Many of the millions of Amazon Prime members -- including this reporter -- may have noticed, however, that not all packages are ferried by workers wearing the familiar UPS, FedEx or U.S. Postal Service uniforms. Instead, they’re sometimes handled by smaller companies like LaserShip, with drivers working on contract and out of their own vehicles.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/amazon-delivery-lasership_n_5193956.html

Amazon Is The New Walmart!

[tridim]

1. I saw a dude using a U-Haul for deliveries the other day.

Seemed a bit odd and potentially dangerous, since these guys have front-door keys to apartment complexes.

How many contractors were given keys, and who is issuing them?

[leftyohiolib]

2. "It's like they want us to be employees, but they don't want to pay for it," exactly

now what are you gonna do about it

[Brickbat]

5. Yep.

[Johonny]

7. It isn't just amazon doing it either

[msanthrope]

3. I hate Lasership...and I complain to Amazon when my packages are not UPS or USPS, because

Lasership always....and I mean always....screws them up.

[onehandle]

4. Same here. nt

[godai]

8. Lasership faked a camera delivery to me.

I happened to see the van in front of my house...driver checked inside the van,then drove away. Package was then listed as 'delivered'. They seem more reliable lately.

[msanthrope]

9. I pretty much had the same thing happen to me....and then when I called lasership

to complain, I was told I could come pick up the package at their "depot" about an hour away.

You should have heard the threeway call I had with them and Amazon. The driver was back at my door an hour later.

[frazzled]

6. He should be taking these expenses off on his taxes

if he is truly sole proprietor of his own freelance business and not an employee of LaserShip. The van is property that gets depreciated on a schedule, year by year; the gas, uniform, and all the rest are business expenses. At least he may end up paying next to no taxes. (Of course, he'll owe Social Security and self-employment taxes--he needs to consult with a good tax person.)

Still, I hate Amazon.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. That was the first thing that struck me, too.

mis-leading article, AFAIC.

[n2doc]

10. I had an Amazon shipment cancelled as 'undeliverable'

Funny thing, I've had hundreds of packages over the years delivered to that same address. No barrier to delivering. I suspect they just didn't want to deliver it.

[msanthrope]

11. Call amazon and find out who the shipper was. nt

[cbdo2007]

12. He is a delivery driver making $58,000/year.....

of course that isn't all salary and he will have expenses, which are tax write-offs, so what's he complaining about? Talk about your first world problems, geez.

[IronLionZion]

14. Contracting is creeping into every industry now

Unreimbursed expenses can ruin you. And the tax deductions help but they're not great. Lasership often delivers stuff pretty late into the night too, like 9pm.

I suppose this is how companies try to be "efficient".