Amazon is leaving fake packages to see if drivers are stealing them

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Amazon is leaving fake packages to see if drivers are stealing them
This seems like a win-win for Amazon and customers alike.
Bryan M. Wolfe | September 21, 2018

amazon-returns-boxes-CBS-1024x575.jpg

Random “dummy” packages are sent by Amazon to trap drivers who steal. The practice was confirmed by a former Amazon logistics manager who said instructions for the practice came from Amazon’s corporate offices in Seattle, according to Business Insider.

The person, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, noted: “We might pull something out of our pocket and put it in there” to give it some weight. “It’s meant to be a trap … to check the integrity of the driver,” he said. Basically, how it works, is that the company intentionally places labels on fake packages. These bad labels register an error that basically shows that Amazon is unaware of the package in that it hasn’t be registered with the system.

According to Business Insider sources (notice the plural), the practice works like this:

During deliveries, drivers scan the labels of every package they deliver. When they scan a fake label on a dummy package, an error message will pop up.

When this happens, drivers might call their supervisors to address the problem, or keep the package in their truck and return it to an Amazon warehouse at the end of their shift.

Sid Shah, a former manager for DeliverOL, a courier company that delivers packages for Amazon, explains it this way:

If you bring the package back, you are innocent. If you don’t, you’re a thug.

What does Amazon have to say about the program?

In response to this story, Amazon said, “Checks and audits are part of overall quality programs and are administered at random.”

Honestly, this sounds like a reasonable way to check someone in the act of stealing, and that’s a win-win for Amazon and customers alike. And it addresses the shrinkage problem in retail, which is the term the industry uses for losses attributable to theft, error, or fraud. In 2017, that number hit $47 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.

https://knowtechie.com/amazon-fake-packages/
 
Wonder how many drivers got fired after this lol
 
I work for UPS and they do that too. It has caught 1 dude I know of at my hub. Fired on the spot.
 
You can't outsmart Bezos

<seedat>


He's been doing this for decades.
 
This is a shit deal for drivers. Not just thieves, mind you.

I was doing the Amazon Flex thing for a while. Depending on your area, you can be delivering in a radius 60+ miles from the warehouse. So a driver would have to drive 60+ miles only to find a single package (that doesn't contain anything with a fake label) and have to drive another 60+ miles BACK to the warehouse.

Now, Amazon drivers CAN scan in extra packages they find to deliver them. But being a fake package, it won't scan. You'd be FORCED to make the driver instead of attempt delivery.

That's not the driver's fault. It's just a shit deal deal. However, smart drivers will find packages that have no destination and not even take them out of the warehouse.
 
This is a shit deal for drivers. Not just thieves, mind you.

I was doing the Amazon Flex thing for a while. Depending on your area, you can be delivering in a radius 60+ miles from the warehouse. So a driver would have to drive 60+ miles only to find a single package (that doesn't contain anything with a fake label) and have to drive another 60+ miles BACK to the warehouse.

Now, Amazon drivers CAN scan in extra packages they find to deliver them. But being a fake package, it won't scan. You'd be FORCED to make the driver instead of attempt delivery.

That's not the driver's fault. It's just a shit deal deal. However, smart drivers will find packages that have no destination and not even take them out of the warehouse.

How exactly does Amazon Flex work if you're a driver?
 
How exactly does Amazon Flex work if you're a driver?

They very basic gist is that you pick a "block", usually three or four hours, that pays 20 bucks an hour. You show up to the warehouse and they assign you a cart. It's a generally small area radius. It used to a be a ridiculous number of packages, but they've since reduced it to 12 per hour. You deliver the packages, and that's that.

Any more-specific questions?
 
Now they need to find a way to catch the scumbags who follow the delivery trucks and take packages off people’s front porch before christmas.
 
what if i bring it back and some other fool in the warehouse takes it
 
They very basic gist is that you pick a "block", usually three or four hours, that pays 20 bucks an hour. You show up to the warehouse and they assign you a cart. It's a generally small area radius. It used to a be a ridiculous number of packages, but they've since reduced it to 12 per hour. You deliver the packages, and that's that.

Any more-specific questions?

Odd way to end your post there Beer.
 
Now they need to find a way to catch the scumbags who follow the delivery trucks and take packages off people’s front porch before christmas.

  • 2nd unmarked car trailing the delivery one
  • high-powered rifle
 
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