Would you drive for Amazon?

Angel Rajal, 26, is an Amazon delivery driver living in Las Vegas. His interview with a freelance writer has been published by Microsoft News.

How true it is is a question. Certainly, it's likely that 

"You're in a packed-to-the-brim van for more than 10 hours a day, are expected to deliver up to 400 packages, and each package is expected to be delivered within 30 seconds."
"sometimes you go to rural areas where public bathrooms are out of reach."
"during the holiday season, I was targeted in attempted robberies and have had people follow me while out on my route."

The vans have motion activated cameras, which, he says "can tell what the driver is doing. I get a "distracted driver" notification even if I'm changing the radio station or drinking water. Sometimes if I turn my head away from the front of the van, I'll get a ding."

"For every "distracted driver" notification, I'm being docked points from my safety score, which is reviewed by management and can be used to dock my hours or fire me. Amazon said the camera is there to help us with safety, but it feels like an invasion of privacy."

And then, because he travels in rural areas "I've had to pee in a plastic water bottle because there was no bathroom available to me."

Before driving Rajal worked in the warehouse and was judged by - "a productivity metric where we have to process a certain number of packages and items within an hour or risk dropping in rate, being written up, or fired if we fall too far behind. In my department, I was expected to process 40 to 60 returns in a single hour, which was stressful and at times seemed impossible."

Amazon's response:
"Like most companies, we have performance expectations for every Amazon employee and we measure actual performance against those expectations. Associate performance is measured and evaluated over a period of time as we know that a variety of things could impact the ability to meet expectations in any given day or hour. Netradyne cameras are used to help keep drivers and the communities where we deliver safe. We piloted the technology from April to October 2020 on over two million miles of delivery routes and the results produced remarkable driver and community safety improvements - accidents decreased 48%, stop sign violations decreased 20%, driving without a seatbelt decreased 60%, and distracted driving decreased 45%. Don't believe the self-interested critics who claim these cameras are intended for anything other than safety."