SOC: Amazon trades safety for speed, delivery driver injury rate 2.5 times higher than its peers

Amazon’s delivery business is suffering from an “escalating injury crisis”, mainly due to strict quota indicators and pressure to deliver packages as quickly as possible, according to new research.

Nearly one in five drivers delivering goods for Amazon was injured in 2021, a 40% increase from the previous year, the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) said in a report released Tuesday. The SOC, which is made up of a coalition of unions including the International Teamsters Union and the Service Employees International Union, analyzed data submitted by Amazon and delivery partners to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2021.

Today, Amazon increasingly relies on a rapidly growing network of third-party couriers to pick up packages from its warehouses and deliver them to customers' doorsteps. The SOC report found that the injury rate for Amazon's contracted delivery drivers is almost 2.5 times that of the non-Amazon delivery industry. In 2021, one in seven Amazon drivers was injured so seriously that they were either unable to complete their normal work or were forced to miss work completely.

The report said Amazon's "out-of-control high quotas" were the main reason for the high injury rate among delivery drivers. According to a class-action lawsuit filed by an Amazon delivery partner in Wyoming, Amazon expects each truck to deliver 350-400 packages per day, which is equivalent to a delivery every 1 to 2 minutes without a break.

Phoenix Technology