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Businesses Transportation

Amazon Uses An App Called Mentor To Track and Discipline Delivery Drivers (cnbc.com) 80

Posted by BeauHD from the dystopian-measures dept.
Amazon has for years been using an app called "Mentor" to monitor and track delivery drivers' behavior on the road. "The app, which Amazon bills as a tool to improve driver safety, generates a score each day that measures employees' driving performance," reports CNBC. From the report: Just like the AI-equipped cameras rolling out to contracted delivery companies, Mentor is framed as a "digital driver safety app" to help employees avoid accidents and other unsafe driving habits while they're en route to their destination. But multiple delivery drivers who spoke to CNBC described the app as invasive and raised concerns that bugs within the app can, at times, lead to unfair disciplinary action from their manager.

The scores generated by the Mentor app are used in more ways than just evaluating an individual's job performance, drivers say. Amazon also looks at the scores, in part, when ranking a delivery partner's status, according to the drivers, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from Amazon. The ranking system for DSPs ranges from "Poor" to "Good" to "Fantastic" to the top tier, referred to as "Fantastic+." A surplus of poor Mentor scores among a delivery partner's workforce can drag down the DSP's ranking, which can potentially jeopardize their access to benefits provided by Amazon, such as optimal delivery routes, the drivers said. The app also features a dashboard for drivers to "see how they stack up against the rest of their team." Mentor's score-based system raises concerns that the app intensifies the pressure of the job, pitting drivers and competing DSPs against each other to an unhealthy degree. Amazon spokesperson Deborah Bass told CNBC in a statement: "Safety is Amazon's top priority. Whether it's state-of-the art telemetrics and advanced safety technology in last-mile vans, driver-safety training programs, or continuous improvements within our mapping and routing technology, we have invested tens of millions of dollars in safety mechanisms across our network, and regularly communicate safety best practices to drivers."
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Amazon Uses An App Called Mentor To Track and Discipline Delivery Drivers More

Amazon Uses An App Called Mentor To Track and Discipline Delivery Drivers

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  • They should make this available on the App Store so people can see how well or poorly they drive. That'd be a hoot.

    • Re:They should make this available to the public (Score:5, Interesting)

      by stephanruby ( 542433 ) on Friday February 12, 2021 @08:22PM (#61058038)

      There are many free apps on the app store that already do that. They measure harsh braking, whether your phone is in a cradle or not, and when you exceed the speed limit by x number of miles per hour.

      When I was an Uber driver a couple of years ago, the Uber app would measure those things as well. I would get dinged because I would wait for ride requests at home and then I would run out to the car in my driveway with my phone in hand. Also, I would get dinged in downtown San Francisco around the skyscraper area, because the GPS signals would bounce off the buildings in certain spots, and make it look like I was driving super erratically.

      Eventually, Uber turned that functionality off, at least in my area. I wouldn't be surprised if this became a liability issue for them. After all, if they knew which areas I was more likely to have an accident in (or to do harsh braking), they could have chosen to forbid customers from calling us from those particular locations and asked them to walk to a safer location first.

    • Invested millions, so need to keep bonuses safe with a return on investment. Lower insurance, improved utilization of drivers, can negotiate lower fees. Next up selling as a service. Has potential way while working on self driving. Like Tesla the data could be useful beyond immediate safety monitoring. Operation guinea pigs.

  • Insurance companies are good at what they do (Score:4, Informative)

    by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Friday February 12, 2021 @06:33PM (#61057760) Journal

    Car insurance companies are really good at calculating driver risk. That's how they make money, by pricing just above the "expected cost" based on driver risk. A car insurance company that doesn't do this well goes out of business.

    Car insurance companies have found that an app that measures things like how often the driver brakes hard, floors the accelerator, or texts while driving does help them measure risky driving.

    That's good evidence that an app measuring these things can in fact see indications of aggressive and dangerous driving habits.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Those apps don't work. They see you floor it and think you are accelerating hard, but actually it's just that your little 1.0 litre engine struggles to go up hills or pull out onto a roundabout safely.

      • If all the companies use one, then if the app says that you are bad none of them will give you a cheap premium and you will have to pay more.

        Stupid is OK as long as everyone is stupid.

      • > Those apps don't work. They see you floor it and think you are accelerating hard, but actually it's just that your little 1.0 litre engine struggles to go up hills

        The app, running on your smartphone, is taking its measurement from your smartphone's accelerometer. It's not actually connected to your gas pedal. It's measuring actual acceleration.

        They said your driving sucks because your driving sucks, not because your car sucks.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          The ones in the UK plug in to your OBD-II port and record things like pedal position.

          I'd be wary of the smartphone ones too. I was reading on a forum about someone who had their insurance cancelled for speeding, because the GPS thought they were on a parallel road with lower limit.

          Also how does it know you are driving? Do you have to tap something in the app every time? Or are you going to get penalized for being a passenger in someone else's car, or going on a rollercoaster?

          • Guess what OBD II reports besides pedal position? Speed.
            That's code 13. Throttle position is 17.

            So yeah if your 1.0 liter car is going up a steep hill, it will show acceleration is zero.

            TFS addresses the second half of your post, if you're curious to know.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              That would be fine if they had someone sensible looking at it. They don't, it just notes that you floored it.

            • I would guess they primarily use the actual speed variable. I used one of these from Progressive years ago to try and get a discount, they didn't increase premiums because of it. Back then at least you were more penalized on hard braking and time of day driving. Hard braking was something like slowing down more than 3mph per second or some BS and time of day driving was something like driving between the hours of 2-4am since thats when the drunks are on the road, or you are one of the drunks leaving after l

              • I'm sure that you are aware that humans, as a rule, greatly over-estimate our abilities. We all think we're well above average at whatever, including those who are well below average. The Dunningâ"Kruger effect. That especially sucks because it means it's very hard to improve. We humans don't see where we need to improve, so we don't improve. We continue to suck.

                > Within the 1st week I hit the 3 per month hard braking limit.

                The data says .... :)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by malkavian ( 9512 )

        That's correlated to acceleration, not gunning to go up hill. You've not worked on an actuarial model before, I suspect.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hawk ( 1151 )

        we had one for a few weeks when switching insurance with a recent charged accident for my wife.

        We actually got reports for each "incident", with description and location.

        Mostly they were for sudden hard breaking.

        In the school parking lot full of teenage drivers . . .

        It reduced our premium by about $1k . . .

    • Those apps the auto insurance companies want people to use are giving them flawed, inaccurate data. They may *think* it's helping them, but let's look at the facts with those!

      1. The apps measure metrics like how hard you brake or accelerate based on the g-force sensor/accelerometer built into your smartphone. That means an incident like someone's smartphone falling off of a suction-cup mount on their windshield onto the floor on the car could register as a sudden acceleration or braking event. It also mean

      • Nonsense, Insurance companies always raise premiums when they make mistakes and need money to pay out claims. Look at fires or floods, they are often in trouble and not prepared to pay for them.

      • The state I lived in (Maryland) even has legislation barring the insurance companies from raising your rates based on refusal to use one of these programs. A number of other states enacted similar laws.

        Do they have a law against raising everyone's rates and then just giving the people who accept the devices a discount?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shanen ( 462549 )

      If the insurance companies are so good at what they do, why didn't they sell pandemic insurance before Covid-19 struck? (Actually, my "solution approach" would be to run the clock backwards and let them "sell" the pandemic insurance now (to the government), with appropriately incentivized coverage that also has the advantage of hindsight. Rather than spraying money at random with big fire hoses, the governments would loan the borrowed money to the insurance companies to pay the documented damage claims of t

      • > If the insurance companies are so good at what they do, why didn't they sell pandemic insurance before Covid-19 struck?

        Because they would have had to pay out $16 trillion?
        The insurance companies want to MAKE money, not lose trillions of dollars.

        > Rather than spraying money at random with big fire hoses, the governments would loan the borrowed money to the insurance companies to pay the documented damage claims of the actual victims. The insurance companies are supposed to be experts in checking clai

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by shanen ( 462549 )

          Basically the ACK, but I'm sorry the first point wasn't clear enough for you that you seemed to think we were in disagreement. My implicit premise is that the future is unknown and therefore it is impossible to provide sufficient premise for all of the possible disasters that might happen. The government is therefore forced to step up as the insurer of the last resort for such risks that cannot be insured in advance. My suggestion is basically a different kind of time machine.

          (I think the main problem with

    • Yes, but most insurance companies I've seen use a device that plugs into your car and broadcasts the info from your car to your phone via Bluetooth. It's much more reliable that way, instead of trying to guess what's happening from the sensors and/or the GPS of only your phone.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hawk ( 1151 )

        the one we used for a month, which reduced the annual premium by $1k after a charged accident, had its own cellular connection.

        my wife didn't have a smartphone back then . . .

  • Compare a random Amazon truck with a UPS truck. The UPS truck will not have a single scratch. The Amazon truck, which is undoubtedly newer, will be covered with scratches and dings.

    The app might make the drivers work harder, but I doubt it helps them drive safer.

    • UPS driver slid off my driveway and had to be recovered by tow truck... Which he did not tell me, I found out when the tow truck arrived. Their competence is exaggerated

      • UPS driver slid off my driveway and had to be recovered by tow truck... Which he did not tell me, I found out when the tow truck arrived. Their competence is exaggerated

        Slid off your driveway? Like on the ice?
        Sounds like you need to clean your driveway better.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Shaeun ( 1867894 )

          UPS driver slid off my driveway and had to be recovered by tow truck... Which he did not tell me, I found out when the tow truck arrived. Their competence is exaggerated

          Slid off your driveway? Like on the ice? Sounds like you need to clean your driveway better.

          Assuming facts not in evidence. Then constructing a strawman. There is a reason the name for UPS in the shipping community is "Oops".

          • UPS driver slid off my driveway and had to be recovered by tow truck... Which he did not tell me, I found out when the tow truck arrived. Their competence is exaggerated

            Slid off your driveway? Like on the ice? Sounds like you need to clean your driveway better.

            Assuming facts not in evidence. Then constructing a strawman. There is a reason the name for UPS in the shipping community is "Oops".

            I was asking a question, not really assuming much, but I have a hard time picturing a big UPS truck sliding off dry pavement.

        • The driveway was muddy, I literally explicitly told him to turn around in my front yard which would have tracked it up a bit but no big deal, this was in the country. Instead he turned around where I told him not to and zing! Off the fucking driveway.

          I could have turned the truck around where he turned it around, but he couldn't. And I suspected he couldn't, which is why I told him not to. I was right.

  • Amazon deliveries continue to be the worst in the biz. They frequently fail to deliver packages properly or even at all. If I had a dollar every time a package was left in front of an open door or not put inside their very own Amazon Lockers, I would probably have enough money to buy out Amazon.

    • Amazon deliveries continue to be the worst in the biz. They frequently fail to deliver packages properly or even at all. If I had a dollar every time a package was left in front of an open door or not put inside their very own Amazon Lockers, I would probably have enough money to buy out Amazon.

      Amazon has setup their DSP program to drive that behavior. Drivers have to deliver a set number of packages and get paid for x hours to that. They need to meet their time quotas and if they get done early still get paid the full amount. If a DSP wants to hire better drivers they really can't pay more than the going rate as that would significantly cut their profits. Amazon holds all the cards and the DSPs are essentially their way of transfering all the costs and risks of last mile to the DSPs and get lever

    • You already bought Amazon, you might want to check how many billions of tax payer dollars have been gifted to amazon.

  • Wasn't that feaured on The Venture Brothers? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Babel-17 ( 1087541 ) on Friday February 12, 2021 @06:45PM (#61057794)
    Mentor Bot, working in tandem with Discipline Bot?

  • From the moment Amazon Delivery was introduced in my area, it's been horrible. Late deliveries, deliveries marked as completed yet showing up a day or two later, completely missed deliveries...I consider myself lucky if something shows up on time and in good condition.

    Whatever scores they're giving the drivers, it's too high.

    I miss Fedex/UPS deliveries. Hell, at this point I'd take USPS.

  • Another contractor/employee distinction disappears (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DRJlaw ( 946416 ) on Friday February 12, 2021 @06:50PM (#61057800)

    Amazon requires contracted delivery drivers to download and continuously run a smartphone app, called âoeMentor,â that monitors their driving behavior while theyâ(TM)re on the job. The app, which Amazon bills as a tool to improve driver safety, generates a score each day that measures employeesâ(TM) driving performance.

    Let's review the common law factors [irs.gov] that distinguish an independent contractor from an employee.

    "Behavioral: Does the company control or have the right to control what the worker does and how the worker does his or her job?"

    Well, that distinction has completely disappeared for these jobs, now hasn't it?

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Well, that distinction has completely disappeared for these jobs, now hasn't it?

      Yes, but that's why Amazon has been franchising out some of its delivery services these past two or three years.

      Many of its new van drivers are not independent contractors, but actual employees of very small Amazon-branded franchised delivery services. This way, if something happens, the franchise owner gets sued by its drivers (or the franchise goes out of business), but Amazon remains insulated. Also, if the franchise is small enough, it means it doesn't have as many Federal regulations to follow.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

        Many of its new van drivers are not independent contractors, but actual employees of very small Amazon-branded franchised delivery services.

        Those "services" are independent contractors. Being an employee of a "service" that is a faux independent contractor does not transform one into an employee of another entity, and that accepts your unstated assumption that the drivers are actually classified as employees of any entity in the first place.

        The common law factors don't care about the de jure form of the re

  • Halfway through the summary starts dropping in the acronym "DSP", like we all know what that is.

  • The app name "Mentor" should be "tormentor" or in Harry Potter genre, "dementor."

  • A algorithm is completely blind to any exceptions within the situation at hand, that the programmer did not expect. It will punish you for breaking or speeding, even if it's to save someone's life.
    But at least with an algorithm, you know why it does it, and who decided it to be that way.

    A human boss could also misjudge, but even a bad one usually has had a lifetime of experience to grow some common sense. Like it being OK to drive "badly" if it means not running a baby over.

    This bullshit right here ... this

    • The sad thing is Amazon has been built largely via public funds, be it incentives by local gov, which are of course paid by local rate payers, or tax incentives and so on. If there was none of this amazon would be significantly smaller.

      So much for capitalism, the truth is Amazon is one of the greatest tax parasites of the past 20 years
    • Car insurance offer drive recorders for good reason. If you know are being recorded drive safer, so if an incident can defend your actions. Many driving occupations have drive recorders for safety monitoring, taxis buses trucking . Ideally these should be more prevalent in vehicles but the cost and quality varies. Amazon extreme algorithms seems the issue. They should not overly rely on machine interpretations and manually validate if there are reports of issues or discrepancies.
  • I was wondering how they were tracking my hours at the bar when I was on the clock!
  • Isnt technology great, instead of giving people more time for family and friends its used to enslave and track every step, ... you... take... every...breath... you take.

    • every step, ... you... take... every...breath... you take

      It's funny you mention these lyrics. Maybe you already know, but I've read online (always reliable & accurate, right?) that "Every Breath You Take" was never meant to be a love song, but rather about stalking someone. Accurate, in this context, of course!

  • It's just like your mother in law sitting in the back seat.

  • Questionable Accurcy (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Angry Coward ( 6165972 ) on Friday February 12, 2021 @07:24PM (#61057910)
    I don't have any experience with whatever amazon is using, but I used to work as a manager for papa john's pizza, and they use a similar monitoring system integrated into the car toppers. It wasn't completely useless as a driver monitoring tool, as long as you understood that the generated data was untrustworthy and applied common sense when reviewing it. The generated score was nearly useless and had almost nothing to do with safe or legal driving. Corporate sure got excited about low ones though, to the detriment of the company and actually doing anything to improve driver safety. The papa johns system also had a lot of problems with accuracy near freeway interchanges or other places high and low speed roads ran in parallel, and would often incorrectly flag drivers for excessive speeding in those situations. Actual safe drivers making an effort to appease the topper without doing anything unsafe were rarely going to score over about 95/100 because of things where what everyone expects you to do and what big brother scores you highly for doing aren't the same. Look at all the problems companies trying to develop self driving systems are having and ask yourself how accurate something can be that's evaluating driving behavior can be with much less information. Would you want to serve such a digital boss? I don't know about amazon's system specifically but the papa john's one and a couple similar systems i have heard about but dont have personal experience with are working off gps and acceleration sensors, which gives zero context for the actual context of the situation on the road and is highly inaccurate if the gps signal isn't perfect.
  • ...it's to tell drivers to stop trying to pee into a plastic bottle while they're driving because they're on such a tight delivery schedule & don't want to get penalised for not meeting their targets. Wouldn't it be safer to allow drivers rest breaks?
  • Whats the bet this app doesnt actually result in bonuses for drivers with a good record...
  • "Mentor" is a pretty good name but I always liked "Mother" from Alien.
  • Interesting how the title and article never mentions rewarding drivers...but we all know in america the CEOs are the gods who do everything perfectly. Sometimes I wonder why these wonderful CEOS even bother to hire the masses. Better ask Hollywood where every CEO is so fucking wonderful and all the criminals are always the poor people and never th eohter way around.

  • ...give me your Agonizer.

  • It's a well-established and documented fact among truck drivers that all the surveillance in and around the trucks they drive, ostensibly for 'safety' reasons, is used as leverage against them when it comes time for things like pay increases, bonuses, wanting to actually use their paid leave, and getting better schedules. Amazon is no different, they'll use this 'app' of theirs as a weapon against their drivers.
    Need I point out the effects it has on people's psyche and their emotional health when they're c

    • Also you just plain don't get quality employees, who voluntarily want to work harder to succeed, who want to take those extra steps, when you treat them like worthless throw-away people or like convicts in prison.

      What would you pay for delivery if they could hire "quality employees" who would require a quality salary and full medical benefits and retirement pension, and 401k, and paid leave, and paid childcare, and paid maternity leave and paid paternity leave and...
      $50 per delivery? $100 per delivery? how much is fine with you? And what about the ability of others to afford such services?
      What about enforcing tipping like the restaurant industry?
      How would you like to see your ability to get deliveries as they a

      • Why do you need everything delivered special to your door? Do you think YOU are special or something? You can't be bothered to go pick up shit you ordered, much of which you probably don't need anyway? Stop being lazy and we won't need a billion delivery drivers, then we won't need to have this conversation.

  • Just stop buying from Amazon. Don't be lazy and only ever buy from them. Instead, look around and find alternatives. Many companies have their own online sale these days and one can order directly and doesn't have to go through Amazon. Amazon is a cancer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hawk ( 1151 )

      I won't be renewing my amazon prime in a couple of months.

      As my deliveries have gone up during the Time of Chirus, I've noticed that Wally-world is almost always (as in, over 90% of the time) less than amazon, sometimes the same to the penny, and I don't recall the last time it was higher.

      And the free delivery is faster . . . some "two day" items are dropped on my porch from the local store a couple of hours later.

      I have to make sure the total order is $35 for most things, but that really isn't a problem.

  • without the owners knowing, everyone's phones could be phoning home to the Borg everyone's driving habits, i think i will start putting my phone in a metal box or faraday bag when i drive for now on,

    • Good thing your phone doesn't incorporate any kind of storage device it could use to store all the data until the next time it can contact Mother.

      Oh wait...

  • A little over four years ago, Kaveh Waddell wrote an interesting piece for The Atlantic [theatlantic.com]that discussed the "murky area" of companies tracking employees.

    It's big business.

    The article points out that from the perspective of the employee, the "danger areas" are for those who work from home electronically [your use of electronic equipment will be extensively monitored by hidden software running on the company laptop, or on the Virtual Desktop your employer uses], as well as when you are "out and about" on

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hawk ( 1151 )

      >I'm not aware of the outcome: my colleague left the company but was gagged with an NDA.

      She lost.

      The Fourth Amendment absolutely, categorically, does not apply to private parties. (There would be exceptions for corporate performance of government surveillance, of course).

      It may have been a violation of her privacy for many *other* reasons which would allow a recovery, and it may have been a breach of contract. But definitely not Fourth Amendment.

      hawk, esq.

  • Hate to be pro big brother, but UPS has a bad rep here. Living in not quite ruralville where people let their pets out frequently, the UPS drivers around have killed at least two pets of neighbors. Iâ(TM)ve seen them driving way too fast probably double the speed limit.

  • It is a federal crime for you to lie to an insurance company.

    It is no offense for an insurance company to lie to you.

    You can’t even sue in many cases.

    Nothing is for your safety.

  • Arisia will hear of this!

  • Why is it called Mentor and not Womentor or Persontor? Clearly sexist. Also racist.

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