Amazon Hires Unsafe Trucking Firms Twice As Often As Peers, WSJ Finds (arstechnica.com) 40
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: For years, people in cars stuck behind blue delivery trucks in traffic have echoed media reports criticizing Amazon for clogging American roadways. It's well-known that the Amazon drivers steering these fleets of trucks and vans don't actually work for Amazon but are hired by companies contracted by Amazon, and Amazon has repeatedly denied liability for any dangerous driving reported, though. Because Amazon has contracts with more than 50,000 firms, just how dangerous Amazon's contracted drivers really are remains a question that is hard to track. However, The Information reported last year that horrific car crashes are part and parcel of Amazon's culture of convenience. And then more recently, The Wall Street Journal provided another window into how deadly America's favorite speedy delivery service can be. Since 2015, WSJ reported this week, "Trucking companies hauling freight for Amazon have been involved in crashes that killed more than 75 people."
To arrive at this number, WSJ partnered with Jason Miller -- a Michigan State University professor who researches transportation safety -- to analyze various sources of government data from "3,512 trucking companies that were inspected by authorities three or more times while hauling trailers for Amazon since February 2020." The resulting report, WSJ said, "for the first time showed how the safety performance of Amazon's trucking contractors compared with their peers." And their results didn't appear good for Amazon. For example, a review of Department of Transportation data on unsafe driving scores of more than 1,300 Amazon trucking contractors from February 2020 to early August 2022 found that contractors who worked the most with Amazon were "more than twice as likely as all other similar companies to receive bad unsafe driving scores." WSJ also found evidence of dozens of companies that Amazon contracted that had "conditional" ratings, which is like DOT putting them on probation -- a black mark that typically alienates most firms from contracting them. One Illinois-based company contracted by Amazon "scored worse than the level DOT officials consider problematic" every month of WSJ's review period. "First and foremost, the insinuation that Amazon puts more value on meeting deadlines than on human lives is categorically false," said Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel. "Any accident involving one of our partners or community members is a tragedy, and we always work with our contractors to prevent accidents or learn from them, so they don't happen again."
The safety director of Amazon's freight unit, Steve DasGupta, noted that Amazon contractors had "a rate of fatalities per vehicle mile about 7 percent lower than the industry average in 2020." The company also told said it has "suspended all contractors involved in car crashes described in WSJ's report, suspended or terminated 80 percent of contracts where WSJ found unsafe driving scores, and made changes to its screening process," reports Ars.
To arrive at this number, WSJ partnered with Jason Miller -- a Michigan State University professor who researches transportation safety -- to analyze various sources of government data from "3,512 trucking companies that were inspected by authorities three or more times while hauling trailers for Amazon since February 2020." The resulting report, WSJ said, "for the first time showed how the safety performance of Amazon's trucking contractors compared with their peers." And their results didn't appear good for Amazon. For example, a review of Department of Transportation data on unsafe driving scores of more than 1,300 Amazon trucking contractors from February 2020 to early August 2022 found that contractors who worked the most with Amazon were "more than twice as likely as all other similar companies to receive bad unsafe driving scores." WSJ also found evidence of dozens of companies that Amazon contracted that had "conditional" ratings, which is like DOT putting them on probation -- a black mark that typically alienates most firms from contracting them. One Illinois-based company contracted by Amazon "scored worse than the level DOT officials consider problematic" every month of WSJ's review period. "First and foremost, the insinuation that Amazon puts more value on meeting deadlines than on human lives is categorically false," said Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel. "Any accident involving one of our partners or community members is a tragedy, and we always work with our contractors to prevent accidents or learn from them, so they don't happen again."
The safety director of Amazon's freight unit, Steve DasGupta, noted that Amazon contractors had "a rate of fatalities per vehicle mile about 7 percent lower than the industry average in 2020." The company also told said it has "suspended all contractors involved in car crashes described in WSJ's report, suspended or terminated 80 percent of contracts where WSJ found unsafe driving scores, and made changes to its screening process," reports Ars.
my guess (Score:4, Interesting)
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Is that unsafe firm charges less for for loads hence they keep getting the contract. Amazon will do anything to cheap out and drive rest of prices down even if it hurts themselves.
Or, they are the only ones willing to accept Amazon's rates since no one else will hire them. Same thing, essentially. Amazon could check record automatically for each firm to weed out the bad ones but that would raise their costs. It would also mean dealing with larger companies who could be in a better bargaining position. Since they are generally not liable for contracts there is only reputational risk for Amazon that is dealt with with PR and bandaid fixes.
While TFA references 18 wheelers, Amazon al
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While TFA references 18 wheelers, Amazon also uses contract companies for final mile. I've often seen damaged vehicles on the road. Granted, it was cosmetic, but that tells me the margins are too slim to fix or make an insurance claim and see your rates skyrocket. I suspect, as insurance companies develop more data on such contracted delivery rates will go up based on potential liability assessments.
I have a number of friends who work as last mile delivery drivers for oneof Amazon's local contracted carrier. More often than not, the cosmetic damage isn't fixed because they're waiting on their preferred body shop or the insurance company to have the availability, not that they're too cheap to pay for it. The supply chain issues have definitely hit the body shop industry, too.
Other anecdote on that last note, buddy of mine's Civic got hit in a parking lot (so not terrible damage) and the front bumper n
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The unrealistic time constraints that Amazon expects from their drivers are probably also partially to blame.
There's a lot of blame going all around here :P
I HATE to pay less! (Score:2)
And we all hate, when this happens!
Yes, we should all be driving to the malls ourselves — one-two people per car, buying 1-3 items, instead of a couple of trucks delivering hundreds of purchases into the neighborhood!
20 years ago it was Walmart, that was targeted [nydailynews.com] by a campaign over its "bankrupting mom-and-pop stores" — discriminating by family status became Ok, haha. Now it is Amaz
Categorically true. (Score:5, Interesting)
"First and foremost, the insinuation that Amazon puts more value on meeting deadlines than on human lives is categorically false," said Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel.
No. If you did, you wouldn't be doing this shit:
dozens of companies that Amazon contracted that had "conditional" ratings, which is like DOT putting them on probation -- a black mark that typically alienates most firms from contracting them. One Illinois-based company contracted by Amazon "scored worse than the level DOT officials consider problematic" every month of WSJ's review period.
It should have alienated you from contracting them, yet you still did. So the insinuation is quite categorically true.
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It would be nice if the world was as simple as you assert, but it isn't.
I've been in logistics for 30+ years, and the vast (I'd say 90% as a low guess) majority of firms don't know and don't care about the safety rating of the transport firms they engage.
And then you have brokerage which is perhaps the majority of spot market business today adding another layer of obfuscation in the process.
No, it's simplistic to suggest that anyone is even consciously regarding this unless/until someone has an accident acc
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So do you.
Do you ask for the safety record of every Domino's delivery driver that brings you pizza?
Why not?
Clearly you don't give a shit about road safety?
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I must respectfully disagree. It's interesting that it says "dozens of companies that Amazon contracted that had "conditional" ratings"
Not hundreds, dozens. It also says that Amazon contracts with 50,000 firms. Dozens I will say is likely 3-4 dozen. At the top end, that is 48 firms - out of 50,000
Likely the article would not have been as eye-catching if it said that over 99.9 % of the transport companies Amazon deals with are NOT on "probation".
I don't consider that a big problem. 10%? Sure. 1%, not g
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From bad, to worse..? (Score:2)
"...a rate of fatalities per vehicle mile about 7 percent lower than the industry average in 2020." The company also told said it has "suspended all contractors involved in car crashes described in WSJ's report, suspended or terminated 80 percent of contracts where WSJ found unsafe driving scores, and made changes to its screening process,"
So, all this was done two years ago by Amazon themselves, and the end result of that is a rate of fatalities considerably worse than others? Am I missing something here? Did they go through all that effort years ago, and then not monitor it?
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It's standard practice for corporations (and police and politicians and lawyers and ...)
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Coincidentally, you see armies of these trucks of a morning on Long Island. You might catch 5 or 6 of 'em at a time getting on the Long Island Expressway. UPS trucks, too, but they don't try to claim "It's not us!" I've seen the Amazon trucks plenty of times, but I haven't seen
Re: From bad, to worse..? (Score:1)
You are describing bad behavior by the drivers, and ascribing it to their employers. Is Amazon responsible when a driver is caught speeding, running a stop sign, changes lanes without signaling, etc? At some point the guy behind the wheel is responsible for their own behavior. Now, show me a corporate training video or driver instruction manual that says to break the law or operate in an unsafe manner and you will have a point, but I suspect their training manuals say to obey all laws and always operate in
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You are describing bad behavior by the drivers, and ascribing it to their employers. Is Amazon responsible when a driver is caught speeding, running a stop sign, changes lanes without signaling, etc? At some point the guy behind the wheel is responsible for their own behavior. Now, show me a corporate training video or driver instruction manual that says to break the law or operate in an unsafe manner and you will have a point, but I suspect their training manuals say to obey all laws and always operate in a safe manner...
I remember when seeing a Domino's delivery driver would instantly put me on alert. They would drive at crazy speeds, flying around corners and running lights. Why? Because Domino's had a 30 minutes or it is free and they charged the driver if it was free. Domino's lost a lawsuit and stopped that system, but only after 20 people were killed. At some point a company is responsible for what it motivates its employees to do.
Re: From bad, to worse..? (Score:2)
Are you literally making things up?
From the summary:
The safety director of Amazon's freight unit, Steve DasGupta, noted that Amazon contractors had "a rate of fatalities per vehicle mile about 7 percent lower than the industry average in 2020."
Amazon FREIGHT (not residential delivery) reported fatalities per vehicle mile about 7 percent lower (not higher).
The company also told said it has "suspended all contractors involved in car crashes described in WSJ's report,
Good.
suspended or terminated 80 percent of contracts where WSJ found unsafe driving scores,
Good. (I assume the other 20 percent had compelling arguments about their long-term track record of safety and expressed a commitment to improve.)
and made changes to its screening process,"
Good.
Assuming this is all true, what more would you expect Amazon to do? Sever all contracts with every firm once anything bad happened? Remember this is all in the past (history) - the WSJ is lo
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Are you literally making things up?
From the summary:
The safety director of Amazon's freight unit, Steve DasGupta, noted that Amazon contractors had "a rate of fatalities per vehicle mile about 7 percent lower than the industry average in 2020."
Amazon FREIGHT (not residential delivery) reported fatalities per vehicle mile about 7 percent lower (not higher).
Oh, so now we're going to watch Amazon split hairs over FREIGHT and whatever they want to call all that other shit they deliver when it comes to safety statistics? Shocking we find an organization slicing and dicing the numbers in their favor. Gee, never seen that one before. Now wonder how FREIGHT statistics look two years later.
and made changes to its screening process,"
Good.
Assuming this is all true, what more would you expect Amazon to do? Sever all contracts with every firm once anything bad happened? Remember this is all in the past (history) - the WSJ is looking at historical records, and Amazon is describing their actions taken at the time.
What I expect Amazon to do, is what any other logical company would do after making a considerable investment into making things safer.
Actually MONITOR the fucking safety pro
Hyperbole much? (Score:3)
There isn't a logistics company that doesn't have accidents and unfortunately, some are fatal.. It's how they deal with the aftermath of those accidents that differentiate responsible from irresponsible companies. While 75 people may seem like a lot, we lost almost 43,000 on the highways in 2021, that's one year. Of that, 5600 were trucking-related deaths. So, TFA reports 75 over what, six years as being "unsafe?!?" roughly 13/yr is statistically significant based on 2021 trucking fatalities and while we may all not like Amazon they're certainly not a bad actor. You're more likely to die in a slip and fall accident. [lawfirms.com]
Re: Hyperbole much? (Score:2)
Oh look, we're ignoring scale (Score:3)
Amazon has 50,000 trucking firms it deals with (assuming world-wide), and the DOT found 75 fatal accidents involving Amazon-affiliated trucking firms.
The typical organization would have as many as a dozen or as few as one trucking firm they are associated with, which makes it easy for the organization to avoid certain companies.
Amazon doesn't hire or train the drivers, for legal reasons, and Amazon has a history of severing relations with companies that are unsafe, unreliable, etc. the issue is that a trucking firm flies under the radar, one driver makes a bad choice and causes a fatal accident, then Amazon drops the trucking company, but still this is counted against Amazon to gun up the problem.
If trucking firms are retained after fatal accidents, then you have a complaint, but if Amazon sever ties when a problem arises, that's really all they can do. How is Amazon to know how a new trucking firm (with no history) will perform in the future?
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Amazon has 50,000 trucking firms it deals with (assuming world-wide), and the DOT found 75 fatal accidents involving Amazon-affiliated trucking firms.
The typical organization would have as many as a dozen or as few as one trucking firm they are associated with, which makes it easy for the organization to avoid certain companies.
Amazon doesn't hire or train the drivers, for legal reasons, and Amazon has a history of severing relations with companies that are unsafe, unreliable, etc. the issue is that a trucking firm flies under the radar, one driver makes a bad choice and causes a fatal accident, then Amazon drops the trucking company, but still this is counted against Amazon to gun up the problem.
If trucking firms are retained after fatal accidents, then you have a complaint, but if Amazon sever ties when a problem arises, that's really all they can do. How is Amazon to know how a new trucking firm (with no history) will perform in the future?
I logged into to say this very thing. I'm pretty sure that only airlines have as many contracting companies as Amazon, and that's only because they operate in nearly every country and state within those countries.
If the is the new standard for Ars articles, and I'm pretty sure it is, then I'm glad I deleted my account and stopped visiting their site.
Re:Oh look, we're ignoring scale (Score:4, Insightful)
Amazon doesn't hire or train the drivers, for legal reasons,
Face meet palm.
The legal reason is that they can pay dangerously low rates but not be legally liable for traffic collisions (accident implies... There's no one to blame).
Completely legal, murderously scummy.
Re:Oh look, we're ignoring scale (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't know what you are talking about. Amazon pays competitive rates for moving goods, truck carriers have to do quite a bit of work to subcontract with them.
[citation needed]
With the regulations that exist in place and the costs there aren't enough drivers in the industry,
No with the regulations that exist there aren't enough drivers at the current cost.
otherwise the prices dor shipping could actually double.
Better that the customers and companies pay the true cost rather than have unconsenting third parties forced against their will to pay externalised costs.
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You don't know what you are talking about.
Look, Orc, just because you rephrase something using flattering terms and say a bunch of blah-blah about innocent aspects of what is going on doesn't mean that the person is wrong, or doesn't know what their own point was.
Instead, it suggests you have poor listening skills. Or are just lying about the subject to distract, which given your username actually seems likely.
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Nobody clicks links like that here, this is a website for nerds dipshit.
So what? (Score:3)
So what? It does more than twice as much business as its peers.
In any case, if you want trucking firms to be safe, increase regulation and enforcement, don't lay it at Amazon's feet.
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So what? It does more than twice as much business as its peers.
From the summary:
"more than twice as likely as all other similar companies to receive bad unsafe driving scores."
You're confused about the difference between a total and a rate? Are you sure you're smart enough to be commenting on site for nerds?
And Amazon defends themselves with misleading statistics that cherry pick a pandemic year when there was less traffic!
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Makes sense (Score:1)
Re: Makes sense (Score:2)