Amazon drivers pushed too hard during holidays

Amazon+Fulfillment+Centers+around+the+country+are+especially+busy+during+the+holidays.

Photo by Alvaro Ibanez, Wikimedia Commons

Amazon Fulfillment Centers around the country are especially busy during the holidays.

Krista Rice, Staff Writer

Holidays.

That is the busiest time of year for Amazon drivers.

The holidays may be the happiest times for most of us but Amazon drivers have to work for hours just to make sure that all of us customers are happy.

Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman said, “On its busiest day, the Monday after Thanksgiving–Cyber Monday, in industry parlance– Amazon was expecting to receive more than 54 million orders.”

As a customer, I would love to be able to get packages early in order to prepare for the holidays, but after reading about the toll it takes on the workers I feel kind of bad.

While working as a deliverer, you have little to no free time. Angel Echeverria drives for Amazon and he gets no more than a 30 minute lunch break. Echeverria told the LA Times, “I eat on the road, usually scarfing down hot dogs and chips from 7-Eleven stores.”

When I bought my parents their Christmas presents last minute, I would’ve never even began to think about how much time it takes out of the driver’s day just to bring me two packages.

In the article “Amazon drivers say they are pushed to the limit as holiday deliveries reach a frenzy,” Natalie Kitroeff wrote, “Meticulously tracking drivers, hour by hour, is part of Amazon’s broader obsession with speed, which has allowed it to turn week-long delivery into days, and now hours.”

Amazon gives the option of prime in which customers can pay for yearly to get a shorter delivery of a time range between 1-2 days.

My dad has a prime membership and that is where he does all of his Christmas shopping. I’ve never even taken the time to wonder that if it gets to us that quickly, how fast must drivers have to get on the road to get our presents delivered?

If I was an Amazon driver I would hate the holidays and hating the holidays would crush my heart. Holidays are supposed to be about spending time with your friends and family but you wouldn’t even be able to be home for Christmas dinner. You would be stuck eating food from places like 7-Eleven and listening to Christmas music through your car radio.

I think we all need to be more appreciative of how much time delivery drivers take out of their days and nights to make us happy during their most stressful times of the year.