The article pointed out -- at some length -- ways that the brave new gig job world is different: less training, more inexperienced drivers, more layers of contractors and subcontractors, drivers under very aggressive time pressure, drivers in vehicles with which they are unfamiliar, and drivers on routes with which they are unfamiliar. And for the coup de grâce, Amazon -- unlike Fedex, DHS, UPS, or the USPS -- worms out of liability for any of these accidents, eliminating pressure to reduce them.
Agree or disagree, but it's hard to see how you read the article and didn't see the extensive discussion of ways Amazon is more dangerous.
> the brave new gig job world is different: less training, more inexperienced drivers, more layers of contractors and subcontractors, drivers under very aggressive time pressure, drivers in vehicles with which they are unfamiliar, and drivers on routes with which they are unfamiliar.
This seems to apply to Uber drivers in the UK - I've never been in one, but as a pedestrian they are terrible drivers compared to taxis, I frequently witness them driving through zebra crossings and red lights while pedestrians are using them... taxis are the complete opposite, they go out of their way to be nice to pedestrians, after all they are potential customers.
> taxis are the complete opposite, they go out of their way to be nice to pedestrians
You must be living in a different UK to me (and everyone else based on the general consensus of taxis)!
Uber drivers have to drive well else they'll be reviewed poorly. If someone leaves a 1* review for their Uber driver saying that they drove through a red, there will be serious repercussions. Try complaining about a similar thing to a taxi company and see how that works out for you.
In terms of quality of drivers respecting other cars: regular car drivers > taxi drivers > Uber drivers.
Uber drivers are the worst to drive near to. They do all sorts of stupid things like pull over in spots where they SHOULD not, all to pick up or drop off passengers.
I see it time and time again. They prioritise their customer over the road rules and respect for other vehicles.
Taxi drivers also drive faster than Uber drivers, who seem to enjoy sitting well under the speed limit.
> Uber drivers have to drive well else they'll be reviewed poorly. If someone leaves a 1* review for their Uber driver saying that they drove through a red, there will be serious repercussions.
I really doubt that, people riding in ubers are too busy on their phones... and often the drivers are too which is why they are so unobservant.
Taxis in between jobs are on the look out for being hailed, they have their eyes on the road and on the street.
This is empirical, if you watch enough of them while they are around pedestrian crossings see how attentive they are by comparison.
One of my chief complaints about the "gig" economy; large corporations get to avoid certain risks and (some) people ignore (or may be ignorant of) these risks which means society sometimes shares the burden. For example, not paying the extra insurance premiums when using their vehicle for commercial purposes.
I think of it similar to working under the table; some think "I get paid more than minimum wage and save money on taxes!" But the employer often saves much more and the worker is often to naive to realize what they're losing out on (social security contributions, potential workers compensation benefits, potential recovery of wages, etc)
According to the Buzzfeed investigation, Amazon set it up so as to not require a more stringent commercial driver’s license, and Amazon was exerting such pressure on their contracted startup delivery companies that the companies were telling their drivers not to wear seatbelts and the culture was to pee in bottles. There were even examples of dispatchers telling drivers to flee the scene of accidents to make sure they made their deliveries.
Stressing and driving untrained people that hard has a lot more with the sad frequency of vehicular delivery crashes. If Amazon used established companies with trained drivers instead like Fedex, USPS, and UPS, which take safety much more seriously, we wouldn't be talking about this.
If you’re doing this argument, you should go the full HN and blame zoning.
Poor Amazon wouldn’t need drivers if only zoning rules allowed them to place warehouses anywhere. If silly regulations didn’t forbid Amazon from putting a container full of stuff in every driveway, rent free, countless lives would be saved.
Ofcourse Amazon will try to protect them selfs against lawsuits
I do think that Amazon have some moral issues, Since I came across Amazon M turk.
They basically have army of over 500,000 registered workers
Those people make few cents per micro tasks while amazon make x10 that amount of each task and leave tiny slice of the cake for its core users.
I highly doubt Amazon makes 10x profit over what they pay their workers. My guess would be that they have very thin margins per worker, and just have a lot of workers.
M'turk doesn't seem that hard too replicate, yet I am not aware of notable competitors (outside of specialized niches like design or captcha solving). If there were massive margins surely there would be highly advertised competitors trying to get in on these massive profits.
I like how the comment above you is "I doubt they make as much as 10X" while you're saying they're making much more. I'd side with you, though, considering how scummy Amazon's practices can get. The way they treat their workers and "shave off costs" (read: make work conditions inhumane) is a capitalist wet dream and a worker's nightmare.
there is competition from a customer perspective, but not really from an "employee" perspective. the people working in these cannot unionise and effectively negotiate their wage
EDIT: if anything these competitors make it worse by suppressing wages even further
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 68.8 ms ] threadAgree or disagree, but it's hard to see how you read the article and didn't see the extensive discussion of ways Amazon is more dangerous.
This seems to apply to Uber drivers in the UK - I've never been in one, but as a pedestrian they are terrible drivers compared to taxis, I frequently witness them driving through zebra crossings and red lights while pedestrians are using them... taxis are the complete opposite, they go out of their way to be nice to pedestrians, after all they are potential customers.
You must be living in a different UK to me (and everyone else based on the general consensus of taxis)!
Uber drivers have to drive well else they'll be reviewed poorly. If someone leaves a 1* review for their Uber driver saying that they drove through a red, there will be serious repercussions. Try complaining about a similar thing to a taxi company and see how that works out for you.
Are they though? I took a good few Ubers who had great ratings but were terrible drivers.
The incentive is to get as fast from point A to B and it's having an effect.
That's the same for both Uber and taxi drivers.
Also they usually charge you based on the distance actually travelled, not a predetermined price so they can afford to make detours.
In terms of quality of drivers respecting other cars: regular car drivers > taxi drivers > Uber drivers.
Uber drivers are the worst to drive near to. They do all sorts of stupid things like pull over in spots where they SHOULD not, all to pick up or drop off passengers.
I see it time and time again. They prioritise their customer over the road rules and respect for other vehicles.
Taxi drivers also drive faster than Uber drivers, who seem to enjoy sitting well under the speed limit.
I really doubt that, people riding in ubers are too busy on their phones... and often the drivers are too which is why they are so unobservant.
Taxis in between jobs are on the look out for being hailed, they have their eyes on the road and on the street.
This is empirical, if you watch enough of them while they are around pedestrian crossings see how attentive they are by comparison.
I think of it similar to working under the table; some think "I get paid more than minimum wage and save money on taxes!" But the employer often saves much more and the worker is often to naive to realize what they're losing out on (social security contributions, potential workers compensation benefits, potential recovery of wages, etc)
Stressing and driving untrained people that hard has a lot more with the sad frequency of vehicular delivery crashes. If Amazon used established companies with trained drivers instead like Fedex, USPS, and UPS, which take safety much more seriously, we wouldn't be talking about this.
Poor Amazon wouldn’t need drivers if only zoning rules allowed them to place warehouses anywhere. If silly regulations didn’t forbid Amazon from putting a container full of stuff in every driveway, rent free, countless lives would be saved.
I do think that Amazon have some moral issues, Since I came across Amazon M turk.
They basically have army of over 500,000 registered workers Those people make few cents per micro tasks while amazon make x10 that amount of each task and leave tiny slice of the cake for its core users.
(The link is different, but it's the ProPublica version of the same article, so the commentary is very relevant.)