While the retailer still faces all sorts of questions about its labor practices, Amazon has made a nice gesture to its hard-working delivery drivers.
You almost never see the person who delivers your Amazon (AMZN) – Get Free Report order. Sometimes, you may see the truck out the window or catch a glimpse of the person dropping off your order as they race to make their next delivery.
During most of the year, these are very difficult jobs, which require long hours. Once the holidays get close the workload becomes even harder as more stops get added and more packages go to pretty much every stop.
It’s a thankless job where things can only go wrong. Put a package in the wrong place and customers get mad. Leave a box or envelope where it gets rained or snowed on and that’s somehow the driver’s fault too.
Now, in a small gesture for the holiday season, Amazon has come up with a new way for customers to thank their drivers in a meaningful way.
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Amazon Creates a Way to Say Thanks
Amazon has literally created something that seemed like one of those ideas that when you see it on Facebook, seemed like one of those not-true ideas that people love to share. The idea that you could say “Amazon, thank my driver” to your Alexa device and that would lead to your most-recent driver getting not just a thank you, but also $5 simply felt like a scam.
It’s not, however, as Amazon has actually launched a limited-time effort to put a little extra cash into its driver’s hands during the holiday season. Amazon’s Vice President of Last Mile Delivery shared a blog post on the new offer.
We’ve heard many examples through social media, emails, phone calls, and when talking with friends and family. You can even read some of them for yourself. Now, we’ll provide customers with the opportunity to say thanks each and every day—with the help of Alexa. We developed an Alexa feature that allows customers to directly thank their drivers for making their deliveries. This new feature is available to U.S. customers with an Alexa-enabled device (Echo, Echo Show) or the Alexa or Amazon Shopping mobile apps, making it easy to thank drivers in the U.S. anywhere.
The $5 “tip,” will go to the first million drivers thanked by Amazon customers. That’s only a $5 million investment from the online retail giant, which is probably a smart investment for the company given the amount of publicity from social media and actual media the company will get from this promotion.
Amazon will also give the five drivers who receive the most “thank-you’s” $10,000 and make an additional $10,000 donation to their charity of choice.
Amazon Faces Labor Woes
Amazon has launched the “thank my driver” campaign at a time when its labor practices are under fire. Some of its warehouses have attempted to form unions and questions exist as to why its drivers are actually contractors who work for third parties, not actual Amazon employees.
The company has fought off unions in some places but has also lost some battles.
“After workers in Staten Island, N.Y., voted to join the Amazon Labor Union this spring, the company appealed the result. A federal labor official presided over weeks of hearings on the case and is now recommending that Amazon’s objections be rejected in their entirety and that the union should be certified,” NPR reported.
Amazon has also begun the process of laying off as many as 10,000 white-collar workers.
“As part of our annual operating planning review process, we always look at each of our businesses and what we believe we should change. As we’ve gone through this, given the current macro-economic environment (as well as several years of rapid hiring), some teams are making adjustments, which in some cases means certain roles are no longer necessary,” Amazon’s global head of media relations said in an emailed statement to TheStreet. “We don’t take these decisions lightly, and we are working to support any employees who may be affected.”
