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Comment by PythonicAlpha | Hacker News Reader

I also strongly disagree with the (white-washing) statement, that the working conditions at Hermes are purely a result of the logistic market!

There are other logistic companies that still have far better working conditions. So it is possible.

The whole construction of Hermes is made this way, that the conditions of the workers are bad and Hermes itself can wash their hands of it. Even the small companies in between this "chain of irresponsibility" are complaining of bad conditions and many go bankrupt for Otto's billions.

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I did not say that Otto is innocent in this case. Most of the bad press is a result of Hermes' overdependence of contractors, who often have contractors themselves. Of course, each link in the chain of contractors is obligated to make profit from the already low shipping price. DHL has this problem too (see the small "On behalf of" at the logo). Even though, DHL has another history (Deutsche Post) and therefore some advantages. The logistic companies are working on this. As a result you find more and more pickup shops. It is even discussed to make door-to-door delivery a premium service, so less delivery wo/men are needed and prices for direct shipping can be raised. The standard service will then be to pickup shops or automated packet stations only. Of course, this can be prevented if customers would accept higher shippings costs...

My critics of this system goes just in this direction. The construction is on purpose in a way, that responsibility is disconnected from Hermes and the pressure is made so that the contractors themselves are forced to create bad working conditions.

There are also contractors that admitted that they had to cheat the tax system to stay afloat. Many have gone bankrupt and the people involved are often left without social security. That's all inside the "System Hermes".

Hermes working conditions might not be the result of the market dynamics itself but you cannot put the blame on the Otto Group either. Hermes was a wholly separate company that was purchased by the Otto Group. It's not like OG bought the company and came in and put in place all these conditions.

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