Keeping Delivery Boxes Without Residents’ Permission? Amazon’s “harsh working conditions” force delivery workers to choose between violations.

The Nishinippon Shimbun reported that Amazon’s delivery service had been opening delivery boxes, which are used to temporarily store packages when residents are not home, without permission, and that Amazon’s delivery staff had been taking packages out of the boxes and placing their own packages in them. The reason behind this was the difficult situation in which Amazon delivery staff must deliver nearly 200 packages a day. In order to meet their quota, the delivery staff tried to reduce the amount of time they spent on redelivery by keeping delivery boxes in places where they could not enter due to automatic locks or where so-called “left-behind delivery” was not possible.

In response to an interview by The Nishinippon Shimbun, Amazon Japan said We regret the incident with our delivery service partners (delivery staff, etc.) and are currently investigating the matter. We are working to provide a reliable delivery experience and to ensure the safe delivery of products to our customers” (Operations PR).

So, how hard are Amazon delivery workers working? The following is a reproduction (with some additions and corrections) of an October 20, 2011 article that reflects the real voices of current delivery workers.

It is a joy for anyone to get what he or she wants. When it arrives overnight or in a day, the smile on one’s face becomes even brighter when one receives the package from the deliveryman. But what about the delivery person’s body and soul who delivers that joy?

Susumu Adachi (pseudonym, in his 40s), who has been in charge of Amazon delivery for nearly three years, told us the following words exchanged among those involved in the business.

The last mile is the toughest part of the Amazon business.

The “last mile” refers to the final stage from the time an order is placed with a single click to the time it arrives at its destination, from the distribution center to the point of delivery.

Mr. Adachi began delivering Amazon packages in January 2020. Since the spread of corona infection promoted telecommuting nationwide, the use of Amazon.com and other mail-order services has skyrocketed.

The previous year, an Amazon distribution center opened in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Japanese transportation companies joined the market. Mr. Adachi, who had always enjoyed driving and had worked as a newspaper deliveryman on scholarship when he was younger, had the know-how to grasp the lay of the land and make efficient deliveries. When he heard that an acquaintance had started a second subcontracting company, he immediately took on the job of delivering Amazon products.

At first, Adachi, who had the experience and aptitude for the job, says he was “rather overpaid” for his daily work.

His contract as a driver was not an employment contract; he was a freelancer, a so-called sole proprietor. He leases a delivery vehicle from the company for 1,000 yen per day (30,000 yen per month). He knows the delivery routes by heart and delivers packages in the most efficient order. Mr. Adachi, who has experience in this field, was able to deliver an average of 100 packages during his initial working hours when the unit price was 170 yen per package, and 120 packages during the peak season, with enough time for breaks.

In July 2020, the company changed the daily rate to 18,000 yen and the daily delivery workday to 13 hours, or 60 hours per week. Since the daily delivery volume had fluctuated somewhat up to that point, the company was pleased that the fixed daily rate would lead to a stable income.

A year later, however, after Amazon introduced AI, the situation changed drastically. Amid the spread of corona infection, the number of packages to be delivered within 13 hours increased. Before they knew it, the number of packages kept growing, eventually exceeding 200. The unit price of packages was reduced by half.

The company would bring in packages for the morning delivery from the distribution center and deliver them to residences, returning to the center by 3:00 p.m. to load them for the afternoon delivery. Although this is converted into delivery time from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., taking into account the one-hour lunch break, in reality there is no time for lunch or even a break, and the drivers just keep on delivering packages, getting in their cars, and moving on to the next one.

The simple calculation is that it takes about four minutes to move to the next delivery location, scan the package, ring the doorbell, and deliver one package. Of course, the delivery locations are not always adjacent to each other, and sometimes heavy packages must be carried to the fifth floor of an apartment building without an elevator. Mr. Adachi expresses his frustration.

It may be hard to understand when you hear that we deliver for 13 hours a day, but in reality we are constantly getting in and out of the car without a break. We work very hard to finish each load in time.