Amazon cuts ties with delivery firms, leaving 2,000 jobs in the lurch

By Muhammad Jarir Kanji
last updated

Amazon logo on a wall
Amazon logo on a wall (Image credit: Andrew Martonik / Android Central)

What you need to know

  • Amazon uses smaller 'delivery service providers' for last-mile deliveries to its customers.
  • The three companies in question have been engulfed in scandal due to pedestrian deaths.
  • The move will lead to as many as 2,000 layoffs.

Three of Amazon's delivery service providers — Inpax Shipping Solutions, Sheard-Loman Transport, and Letter Ride LLC — will be laying off more than 2,000 employees combined, reports BuzzFeed News, as the retail giant decides to take its business elsewhere.

Amazon has begun attempting to more directly control the provision of delivery services for its products through the use of an expanding network of delivery service providers like those above. The company controls most aspects of their operations and accounts for an overwhelmingly majority of the small firms' business.

The three firms in question were recently embroiled in scandal, with their drivers involved in at least two pedestrian deaths, while a 21-year-old Sheard-Loman driver was the victim of a fatal accident.

In what has become a hallmark of any Amazon story involving overworked employees, the report alleges drivers were required to meet strenous targets of delivering as many as 300 packages a day. Another omnipresent detail in any story involving Amazon workers these days: the drivers reported being forced to skip lunches and having to urinate in bottles to keep up with the breakneck pace of work required of them.

Amazon's issued the following statement regarding the development:

"We work with a variety of carrier partners to get packages to Amazon customers and we regularly evaluate our partnerships. We have ended our relationship with these companies, and drivers are being supported with opportunities to deliver Amazon packages with other local Delivery Service Partners."

This corresponds with reports from Inpax drivers who claim new delivery vendors operating out of the same warehouses are already hiring the laid-off drivers. And it's business as usual for Amazon.

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Muhammad Jarir Kanji
Muhammad Jarir Kanji
4 Comments
  • I've noticed in the last year virtually all of my Amazon packages have been coming through the Post office with nary a problem. It used to be a nightmare getting a package from UPS. FedEx was better but Amazon rarely used them for delivering in my area.
  • This is the price of convenience...
  • Amazon Prime Delivery is the Uber and Lyft of package handling & delivery services. The people who operate these services entice people to work for them with the promise of making a great wage and being independent. Unfortunately the only people making the big money are the owners of the service. Getting paid by how many packages you deliver per day will always result in unsafe practices and it will only get worse during the holiday season. FedEx and UPS aren't perfect, but at least their drivers are not out of control.
  • It's all about big profits for the business, nothing more. I work for a nationwide next day parcel service in the UK and our areas are split between company employees and self-employed drivers. The self-employed drivers are paid a very competitive rate per parcel with the most carried by one particular driver being 150. The average travel time between his drops are 2-3 minutes though because it's a densely populated area (as far as a small UK city goes). He invoices the company for £5000-6000 per month so he's happy and the company is happy too. There's no excuse for Amazon's business practises but with the profits they make, who's going to argue?