He’s a real tyrant. Flex is Amazon’s algorithm for controlling delivery uberization. The e-commerce giant also uses the same arguments as Uber: “Be your boss, deliver when you want, where you want”, or “Use your own vehicle to deliver packages for Amazon to earn money and get closer to your goals. »
Once again, the entrepreneurial dream would be within reach of a mobile application. They are 2.9 million in the United States where Flex was launched in 2015, and the phenomenon is spreading, there would be 4 million accounts in all, according to the Bloomberg agency, to meet the requirements of the 200 million Prime subscribers: be delivered within 24 hours. Including in France thanks to the status of autoentrepreneur.
The VTC drivers who found themselves in need of customers during the health crisis logically referred to Flex. The number of downloads of the application thus increased by 21% over the period. Legally, to be entitled to deliver goods, you need a capacity, delivered following paid training, but from that, Amazon washes its hands.
More and more, the parcels flocked with the smile of the brand are delivered by independents piloted by the Flex algorithm, which cost the multinational much less than its original service providers, La Poste in the lead, or than the salaried deliverers, to who to provide vehicle and training.
A ridiculous payroll in the end
A day starts early, because the first to arrive will be able to choose their batch of packages to distribute, by geographic area. The appointment is made at the distribution centers. There are a dozen or so in Île-de-France, which receive each night, by truck from the group’s enormous warehouses, about 50,000 packages each, to be distributed the next day. Lines of rental cars and vans wait to be loaded. Amazon promises between 15 and 20 euros an hour, but that doesn’t really make sense.
The pay is calculated by the number of packages to be delivered and the distance traveled, gross, of course. It is up to the driver to pay any insurance, vehicle and related costs. Flex also doesn’t care about the weight of the packages. Each is allocated between 80 and 200 boxes. In the United States, some testify to having had up to 400 packages to deliver in one day. This implies hellish pace and risk-taking – driving as well as on foot – on the part of delivery people to meet the requirements of the algorithm. Then you have to follow the instructions of it to the letter. And a new challenge begins.
In France, the included guidance system seems completely inoperative. “It’s the crappy GPS that exists: it invents roads for you, makes you go in the wrong direction, the arrow that guides us doesn’t even follow the GPS… What a waste of time! The worst part is that we have to use our own phone and pay our Internet plan ”, testifies a driver. “Every day a new problem. To begin with, the GPS is almost fifteen seconds late, never points in the right direction, has problems locating each entrance in a building… Then, the choice of stopping points is catastrophic, companies that close at 5 pm appear. often at the last delivery point in the race ”, connects another.
In the United States, Flex is proving to be a public danger. “Sometimes we have to deliver six packages on one side of the street and seven on the other side”, explains one of them to the Motherbord site, except that, on the other side, it’s a 4-lane highway, and you have to cross it on foot so as not to upset the algorithm. “Now, when I have to cross this kind of highway, I prefer to park on the central reservation”, he continues. As a result, the number of fatal accidents of delivery men and drivers in light vehicles has doubled since 2011 in the United States, according to statistics from the Department of Labor, making it one of the most dangerous occupations. . Another study by the Strategic Organizing Center, grouping together four large American unions, points out that it is twice as dangerous to be a delivery person for Amazon Flex than for UPS. This proportion is also found in warehouses where there are 50% more injuries at Amazon than elsewhere.
Flex, véritable Big Brother
Despite the risks, we must follow the algorithm which now has the power to dismiss delivery people or rather to terminate their service contract by email. Car Flex monitors everything: the time of arrival of the delivery person at the distribution warehouse, whether the delivery route was on time, whether the delivery person took breaks, followed the planned route or made detours …
The algorithm stirs up masses of data thanks to which it constantly assigns marks to the delivery men. These determine who receives the best packages of packages to distribute and who is disconnected. “We have invested heavily in technology and resources to provide drivers with visibility into their status and their eligibility to continue delivering”, Amazon assures us.
Except that Bloomberg has collected, for example, the testimony of a delivery woman from Texas, who, after having delivered more than 8,000 packages for Amazon without the slightest problem, was disconnected overnight because of a tire. punctured. The drivers thus find themselves suspended from their emails, where they receive the sentence of the algorithm. It costs $ 200 to challenge Flex’s decision and demand a human eye on his case.
–
