Woman who ran package delivery for Amazon files lawsuit over its labor standards

On Monday, former Amazon delivery contractor Ahaji Amos filed a lawsuit against Amazon over fair standards of labor.

According to Protocol, Amos had filed the lawsuit after setting up a corporation in North Carolina to deliver packages for Amazon and alleged that Amazon made it impossible for her corporation to become profitable or independent due to its unrealistic performance standards.

Amos was a Delivery Service Partner (DSP) for Amazon, meaning that she ran her own full-time business and was in charge of a team of employees and a fleet of vans. Amazon first launched its delivery partnership program in 2018, enabling entrepreneurs to start last-mile courier companies that drop packages off at your door.

The startup cost for running a DSP was around $10,000, according to Amazon Logistics. The attorneys involved in the lawsuit said that Amazon advertised to people that they could make as much as $300,000 per year, says Protocol.

However, Amos alleges that drivers were held to unrealistic standards and continuously monitored for "delivery completion rate, safe driving scores, seatbelt off rates, speeding event rate, distractions rate, picture quality, door scan rate, and attended delivery rate" as well as "customer complaints, picture opportunities, and customer contact opportunities," according to Insider.

Based on those metrics, Amazon would rate DSPs as "Poor, Fair, Great, Fantastic and Fantastic Plus," and only if those companies reached "Fantastic" or "Fantastic Plus" could they turn a profit, Insider says.

Amazon has been hit with multiple lawsuits regarding its practices with DSP.

According to Bloomberg, two delivery contractors in Oregon sued Amazon for $15 million over setting unreasonable expectations for drivers and creating burdensome requirements for their business.