Amazon has announced that will send money to its partners so they can raise the hourly wage of their delivery drivers, for the moment in the United States. The pay increases are part of a $440 million investment from the Delivery Services Partner Program, which launched in 2018.
According to the information that has just been leaked, on average a delivery driver will earn 20.50 per hourmore benefits, although Amazon has not confirmed this figure and it is known that the amount will depend more on the decisions of the partner companies.
The company announced the pay increase at an annual closed-door conference called Ignite Live with the 3,500 small businesses that make up its service partner program of delivery.
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Amazon outsources its delivery drivers
The program launched in 2018 has about 279,000 drivers in the United States, often distinguishable by blue Amazon-branded vans, and they are responsible for delivering packages to the end customer.
It will not be Amazon that increases the salary of its delivery drivers, but rather the online sales giant is going to give the money to these small companies so that they can apply the remuneration. According to Amazon, the objective is that these small companies “can offer competitive salaries to their employees and build and retain their teams“.
Anyway, These companies will be “free to set their own salaries and incentives.””, although Amazon establishes a minimum wage standard through the contracts it signs with its partners.
It must be taken into account that complaints from Amazon delivery drivers are a constant and that, at the same time, many critics argue that the firm uses outsourced delivery drivers to avoid liability and avoid unionization.
The same thing happens in Spain. Despite being a company with million-dollar sales, the drivers are subcontracted by other companies and often work as freelancers. A few weeks ago we learned about the case of a delivery woman who was fired after sharing on social media her exhausting work days and the risks she runs as a delivery woman in order to meet strict objectives.
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It must be taken into account that this program, called DSP, has been a key weapon for Amazon to reduce its dependence on large carriers such as the United States Postal Service or the giant FedEx.
At the same time, this move comes as Amazon faces a new push from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to improve its working conditions. After long protests, they have managed to get UPS to raise the salaries of their staff and now they are seeking the same with Amazon.
Image | Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash
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