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The U.K. Gig Economy

So - since shops re-opened the Amazon routes do seem to have generally reduced in volume from highs of 270+ parcels, to today where I delivered 212 but they can jump around each day between 195 - 240 presently.

We set on a load of new drivers when the parcel volume shot up when the lockdown started and probably have too many now, but excess drivers have been sent all over the U.K. to cover areas like Edinburgh, Carlisle and Maidstone. Drivers get incentives of increased pay, free hotel room (shared with another driver tho) and fuel there and back to work away.

Still high daily volume tho as there are two loading cycles (cycle 1 is early start first delivery around 9am, cycle 2 is late start first delivery around 12.30pm) which normally only ever happens at Xmas time. When we go back to only one loading cycle then that’s a sign that things have returned to ‘normal’ - but when that happens, who can really say 🤷‍♂️
 
Early morning warehouse rave at Amazon depot (they blast hi-energy dance music to get workers to work faster).

 
So they were asking for drivers to consider splitting their route today with other drivers as there wasn’t enough work, so I volunteered.

Ended up splitting with one of the new starters - older bloke who is 62yrs old (think I’ve mentioned him before on here).

He informed that he was leaving on Sunday. I asked him what he was going to do instead - his answer was - ‘nothing’. Apparently he’s only been offered 3 days work per week recently and can’t make a living off that. He hires a van from the agency which is £200 per week so basically with 3 days work, the first 2 days only pays for the van with the third day as his pay. So he’s been delivering around 600 parcels over 3 days for £116 to live off ffs.

But it gets worse as due to him not being that fast - he’s had support drivers come out to him to take parcels off him at his cost of £1 per drop - so you can take about £60 off his £116 leaving him with £56 for 30hrs work.

On top of that he said he’s never experienced stress like this in his life.

Meanwhile:

www.news.com.au

Richest man makes $18 billion in a day

The masses of consumers forced to retreat indoors during the coronavirus pandemic has reaped huge rewards for the world’s richest man.
www.news.com.au www.news.com.au

Thank you for choosing Amazon!
 
Marty1 said:
So they were asking for drivers to consider splitting their route today with other drivers as there wasn’t enough work, so I volunteered.

Ended up splitting with one of the new starters - older bloke who is 62yrs old (think I’ve mentioned him before on here).

.
.

But it gets worse as due to him not being that fast - he’s had support drivers come out to him to take parcels off him at his cost of £1 per drop - so you can take about £60 off his £116 leaving him with £56 for 30hrs work.
Click to expand...

So this old guy is your dropping partner? :hmm:
 
Marty1 said:
So they were asking for drivers to consider splitting their route today with other drivers as there wasn’t enough work, so I volunteered.

Ended up splitting with one of the new starters - older bloke who is 62yrs old (think I’ve mentioned him before on here).

He informed that he was leaving on Sunday. I asked him what he was going to do instead - his answer was - ‘nothing’. Apparently he’s only been offered 3 days work per week recently and can’t make a living off that. He hires a van from the agency which is £200 per week so basically with 3 days work, the first 2 days only pays for the van with the third day as his pay. So he’s been delivering around 600 parcels over 3 days for £116 to live off ffs.

But it gets worse as due to him not being that fast - he’s had support drivers come out to him to take parcels off him at his cost of £1 per drop - so you can take about £60 off his £116 leaving him with £56 for 30hrs work.

On top of that he said he’s never experienced stress like this in his life.

Meanwhile:

www.news.com.au

Richest man makes $18 billion in a day

The masses of consumers forced to retreat indoors during the coronavirus pandemic has reaped huge rewards for the world’s richest man.
www.news.com.au www.news.com.au

Thank you for choosing Amazon!
Click to expand...

So stop working for them
 
I shouldn’t have taken a day off yesterday as I’ve gone in today to find - not enough work for me :facepalm:

Apparently Amazon have told all the driver agencies to keep the large pool of drivers they took on during Covid lockdown as they want to retain them for the Xmas surge (which is fucking months away) as typically it’s a fuck on for them to set on a load of new drivers then.

What this really is, is Amazon yet again fucking over workers without mercy - setting on new drivers over Xmas means they would have to pay them £75 per day for 2 days classroom training and 2 days doing a ride along with an experienced driver followed by a week and a half of paying full route money for 65% then 80% learner routes - so they’re trying to negate those costs as much as possible. Maybe Bezos need to hit that Trillion dollar personal wealth target quicker than expected?

The reality tho is that there’s not enough work to sustain these numbers of drivers from now till Xmas so a lot of drivers will leave - but due to Amazon’s insistence that driver agencies maintain this high pool of drivers, new recruits will have to be brought in to replace them causing this circle of shit to continue until Amazon either abandon this experiment or it can be stretched out till Xmas.

This job has never felt so precarious as it is now.
 
Non work again today and about 10 drivers finished - most of which were brought in during the height of the Covid lockdown.

As I’ve learned today, the main reason for reduction of routes available is due to another depot not having enough work to sustain it so our depot has given them some of their routes, leading to mass layoffs and reduction of work for established drivers like myself.

Apparently routes will be dropping from 9hrs to 8hrs in attempt to alleviate the sudden drop in work.

😐
 
Home sweet home - just pulled up on my drive.

Amazon app estimated (algorithm) Id be home at 18.55 so it’s uncannily accurate.

B1472494-231F-450E-8F92-01461F40D44C.jpeg

Off for 2 days now :)
 
Calm before the storm routes have arrived.

DB46D723-8B62-4612-8040-9025CC1659C7.jpeg

There’s more drivers than routes so Amazon have to severely water down the routes to keep everyone in work as they need drivers ready for Prime and Xmas.

A temporary reprieve/respite before all hell breaks loose when the full force of peak season kicks in.
 
Marty1 said:
Calm before the storm routes have arrived.

View attachment 233134

There’s more drivers than routes so Amazon have to severely water down the routes to keep everyone in work as they need drivers ready for Prime and Xmas.

A temporary reprieve/respite before all hell breaks loose when the full force of peak season kicks in.
Click to expand...

You deliver for them Marty?
 
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