What is your opinion of delivery drivers who toss packages onto customers' property, instead of walking up and placing package down?

Two sides to this story I’m sure but, there is no excuse to do shoddy work like that. You do your work right and if you don’t get to it all, it’s not necessarily your fault. That’s not how Amazon rolls though. They’ll fire that employee if their delivery numbers are not up to “par.” That environment breeds this kind of behavior.

Amazon packaging sucks, it’s inconsistent, often inappropriate, wasteful and items are frequently damaged. I know this is just a result of rushing warehouse workers. Throwing packages is not the best thing to do for that reason among others.

If the item isn’t broken and is well placed, then sure, I can see your argument of ‘no harm/no foul’, but understand that if that were the case, it’s LUCK. The driver doesn’t know what’s inside, if it’s breakable, or what (as you mention). Even a well packaged item is only going to be so-durable.

I would say that doing this is the driver not doing their job well enough. I don’t know if it’s an instant-firing vs someone getting a warning first or something. I leave that to the manager to decide how to manage based on how easy it would be to replace the driver.

Now, I will bet that this is the driver’s reaction to the sometimes unreasonable time demands that Amazon and others place on delivery drivers nowadays. These guys are GPS tracked, how long they linger at every stop is tracked…he might have been running behind and felt pressured to cut corners as a means of making up time. In which case…I would argue that the company itself bears at least SOME responsibility for creating bad incentives that lead to the driver’s actions.

But I don’t know enough particulars about the specific situation to know if that’s what was going on.

To relate, i just had a package with an Xmas present inside delivered. It’s a rainy day here and this cardboard box was place NOWHERE NEAR my front door where it would have been at least partly sheltered. Now, fortunately, I got out there and the box was coated in enough packing tape that it could have been submerged in the ocean and not gotten wet. Which made it challenging to open. There was about 10% of the box that was damp through seepage, but the item inside was unaffected.

I saw a similar video where the delivery person walked almost all the way to the porch…was still about 5–6 feet away, threw the package onto the porch, snapped a picture of it and walked away. The thoughts I had about it were that it was the height of laziness to get that close to the final destination only to throw it. Another consideration is that she doesn’t know what is in the package. It might be something that doesn’t get along well with being thrown onto cement. So she demonstrated that she really didn’t care about the package or the customer.

If I ran a business that had delivery drivers involved (and I work in such a business), I’d have standards/policies/expectations of performance that all drivers would be expected to adhere to. If this behavior did not meet that expectation, they’d be written up at a minimum and possibly fired if there were enough instances showing poor performance.

This could be laziness, it could also be the result of unrealistic targets for the drivers. I remember reading about Amazon workers shitting in bags because they didn’t have time to go to the restroom. I’ve also read about AI that ran in the driver’s van that would dock their pay when they made a bad maneuver in traffic. The problem was when someone cut them off through no fault of their own, they got dinged. They complained but it fell on deaf ears.

This is why unionization is the solution to this kind of thing.

I agree with @gorillapaws. I would want to know more about the pressures on drivers to “deliver” before criticizing them. Especially at this time of year, the demands may be unrealistic.

The issue is, they are forced to do that, because of punishingly stringent quotas piled on them by their companies.

Since the delivery person doesn’t know if there’s a tennis ball or a $1500 macro lens in the package, I would agree with the people who say it’s not done to throw it.

Amazon is the very definition of why we still need labor unions.

What @gorillapaws said. It’s easy to criticize when you haven’t been in that kind of pressure situation. The vast majority of these stories I have seen involve Amazon drivers.

I don’t know about unions or rules or whatever “pressures” the drivers may be under, BUT I believe it’s their JOB to deliver the package (not throw it like a football) so they should be fired if they are not doing their job that they are paid to do.

Why should I buy from them just to get a broken item and have to deal with returns, missed present exchanges, insurance run-a-rounds and lost usage?

It would not be ideal, for sure. I’d probably call and complain.
Can’t add to what @gorillapaws wrote.

@RayaHope Without unions, which impose reasonable boundaries on the corporations, the drivers may be expected to deliver way too many packages in too short an amount of time. If they cannot meet the quota, they may be censured or fined or fired. It wouldn’t be fair if your school gave you 10 seconds between classes to go from one to another, down some long hallways dodging other students, then lowering your grade every time you couldn’t quite make it in time.

Companies like Amazon need checks and balances on how they treat their laborers. And no, you shouldn’t buy from them if their workers are that exploited.

More entitled Americans in a bubble. They’re also probably against raising wages and unionization because they may have to pay more for better service.

I’d ignore them. People are being worked to death and that frustration is gonna come out somewhere

I doubt most Americans are buying anything of significant importance for survival or the like.

They’re lazy and addicted to the dopamine rush of shopping from home.

@canidmajor So are you saying that Amazon does not recognize a union for their workers? So Amazon can treat their workers to unrealistic and unattainable expectations?

Lazy slacker. Packages should always be placed in the safest least likely to get wet place near the front door. The in most cases is a front porch. The rules change for expansive properties, locked drives, properties with outside dogs, and rural routes.

@RayaHope yes. Google “Amazon workers conditions” and you will find a number of articles that discuss just this. Workers are trying to unionize, but it is a difficult task.

I haven’t been a delivery driver or a warehouse worker, but I have worked retail and hospitality during the holidays. I have felt some of the pressure (not like the Amazon people) and really, if you are working flat out, and can get written up, or have hours cut, or get fired because the demands of the employer are unreasonable, it’s really daunting.

Think about the school analogy I posted, and how you would feel.

@canidmajor I would quit and find another school.

@RayaHope, Easy to say, not so easy to do. For example, if you are in public school, and you can’t really afford private, but you still have to go to school, you’re kinda stuck.
People that tend to be working in the warehouses, or driving the delivery trucks, don’t often have the privilege that would allow them to simply quit and go elsewhere. They need every paycheck, they need to pay rent and feed their kids. Having the choice to leave is a privilege that many are denied.

@canidmajor I’m in a mood today that I can’t explain. I’m sorta riled up because of the prisoner question and it’s making me mad. I don’t see how anyone can feel bad for criminals that have robbed, raped, hurt and even killed innocent people. I said too much already, sorry

@RayaHope I understand your frustration. <3

Can someone send me the prisoner question?

@RayaHope

Not that hard to understand:
Every criminal isn’t a violent sociopath. You live in a corrupt colonizers society that needs poor low status people to stay in jail for money and free labor. Investors depend on it and need a return on their investment. It also keeps people employed.

Judges literally get caught taking money to put people in jail for lesser crimes.

If people stop murdering, then it will be smoking weed or selling weed while their own kids do coke.

Look up literally any documentary from the past 20 years.

I taught 10 students from a prison. They were all non violent and doing time for weed. I second @Blackberrys answer.

I worked for FedEx for two weeks when I first moved to Wisconsin. My job was to load a truck with packages literally falling on us from a conveyor belt. I was appalled by the treatment of the packages by the people who were training me.

I walked off the job and never looked back.

Everyone is hiring right now. It’s very easy to quit a horrible employer and find a better one.
(if you are retired you might not know this.)

LAZY!!! There could be something valuable inside!