As vote counting begins March 30 on whether some 6000 workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, AL will join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, a key factor in the move to organize are worker concerns relative to the level of scrutiny and productivity tracking to which they are subject.
Supply Chain Digest Says...
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| In a statement given to The Verge, an Amazon spokesperson said that the camera's only purpose was "to help drivers and the communities where we deliver safe." |
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It doesn't matter that hundreds of distribution centers, including many unionized facilities, use similar techniques of comparing worker performance against standards – Amazon is consistently called out in the media relative to that employee tracking.
Not surprisingly, a similar philosophy is being applied to its delivery drivers as well.
According to an article last week on the Vice.com web site, Amazon delivery drivers will be continuously monitored by in-cab cameras from a company called Netradyne, part of a broad effort by Amazon to track the behavior of its drivers.
In fact, Amazon delivery drivers in the US now have to sign "biometric consent" forms to continue working for the retailing giant. Exactly what information is being collected seems to vary based on what surveillance equipment has been installed in any given van, but Amazon's privacy policy covers a wide range of data. The data that drivers must consent to be collected includes photographs used to verify their identity; vehicle location and movements (including "miles driven, speed, acceleration, braking, turns, following distance"); "potential traffic violations" (like speeding, failure to stop at stop signs, and undone seatbelts); and "potentially risky driver behavior, such as distracted driving or drowsy driving."
Notably, most of the affected drivers will not even be direct Amazon employees, but instead work for independent companies as part of Amazon's Delivery Service Partners program. The cameras will be pre-installed in the vans these companies lease through Amazon.
Distracted or drowsy driving are identified by AI-cameras seeing drivers checking their phones or yawning. The systems can then provide real-time feedback, such as telling drivers to take a break or keep their eyes on the road – or to terminate the drivers with repeat violations.
This level of constant scrutiny and the potential for the AI systems to get it wrong irritates some drivers in the same way FC workers don't like the monitoring.
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 Vice reports that one driver speaking to the Thomson Reuters earlier this month said the cameras were an invasion of privacy.
"We are out here working all day, trying our best already," the 22-year-old driver told the publication. "The cameras are just another way to control us."
When news of the cameras' installation was announced earlier this year, Amazon touted the safety benefits of the sytem.
In a statement given to The Verge, an Amazon spokesperson said that the camera's only purpose was "to help drivers and the communities where we deliver safe."
Amazon said that pilots of the technology conducted from April to October 2020, involving more than two million miles of driving, "accidents decreased 48% stop sign violations decreased 20%, driving without a seatbelt decreased 60%, and distracted driving decreased 45%, adding that "Don't believe the self-interested critics who claim these cameras are intended for anything other than safety."
With its partners, Amazon currently has 75,000 company delivery drivers – and growing rapidly.
What do you think of these Amazon driver cameras? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.
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