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Comment by prokopton | Hacker News Reader

This is only going to get worse. There are a number of services in Japan that let you pick up part time jobs on short notice. These workers don’t know what they’re doing a lot of the time and their mistakes are going to frustrate customers more.

https://timee.co.jp/

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Amazon Japan transitioning from delivery via reputable companies to their own part-time driven mess is a great example of how things can get worse very quickly even in Japan. Frequently not bothering to ring the bell, packages left outside your door without updating you via e-mail, barely legible safety box passwords scribbled on a shrivelled note in your mailbox, failing to send the safety box password to you via e-mail so that they are now stuck in the box, etc.

When I lived in an apartment in the U.S., I had a number of Amazon delivery drivers, I think they were Amazon Flex drivers i.e. they were driving their personal vehicles, who looked and sounded like it was the first time they’ve been to an apartment building. I wonder if there’s any training whatsoever.

Edit: A quick search tells me the “training” is some short videos they may or may not watch.

Delivery driver is one of those jobs that attracts people down on their luck or desperate. Long hours,low pay and the only requirement is how to drive a car.

this is a casualty of markets -- in the 1960s California, UPS delivery drivers were very well paid and held to high standards. Customer service was a selling point for UPS at that time.

I believe UPS drivers are the exception and are still best paid in industry.

"UPS says drivers to make $170,000 in pay and benefits following union deal":

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ups-drivers-170000-pay-benefits...

reading "Teamsters Local 853 - Drivers - Group 1 Class" for coastal HCL California -- it appears that the base pay rate is $35.95 per hour for a journeyman (practicing member). New hires have 3000 hours to perform before getting journeyman status (about 18 months) and other conditions apply. Trainees are paid less than full journeymen. The Teamsters may have negotiated additional pay package for UPS drivers of various kinds, especially regarding overtime.

The fact that the parent comment cites a short national news story, and crucially fails to distinguish between many specialized kinds of drivers among UPS operations, shows superficial knowledge IMHO.

> I wonder if there’s any training whatsoever.

Amazon here advertises, and this is closer to a literal quote than paraphrasing:

"Need a job? Can pass a background check? Apply today, start tomorrow, no interview required."

So I'm sure their attitude to training is probably "as little as possible".

Then don’t buy from Amazon. Haven’t used Amazon directly for at least 3 years now. 1-day shipping is very overrated and the pressures AMZN puts on the people behind the network are not worth it.

It's not only overrated, it's a blatant training of the population to overconsume. It's the supermarket checkout line candy and tabloid impulse buy behavior brought to the internet.

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