Amazon delivery drivers worldwide complain that the company overworks them. Japan is no exception. Over the past year, local news media has focused increased attention on the plight of drivers asked to deliver over 200 packages a day. Even a new movie, currently sitting at the top of the Japanese box office, is taking the company to task.
The struggle to find delivery workers
Amazon has had a significant presence in Japan since Amazon.co.jp launched in November 2000. The subsidiary reaps an estimated $17.71B in profit every year on $65.01B in business. It has a staggering roster of over 1.5 million employees.
To fuel this growth, Amazon is using not just dedicated delivery drivers but part-time help. A program introduced last year hires local business owners and others to deliver small packages around their neighborhood by bicycle or foot in their spare time.
Amazon Japan needs the help. Like all industries in Japan these days, the company and its delivery service providers are struggling to fill open positions. That’s led the company to find new ways to deliver packages in the critical “last mile” between the distribution center and customers.
200 packages a day
Unfortunately, according to several media reports, the labor shortage has also led Amazon Japan to put inhuman pressure on the drivers it does have.
A TBS News Dig story last year showed a 50-year-old female driver, who runs her delivery business as a sole proprietorship, with a van packed full of Amazon packages. Drivers use an Amazon-developed app that plans their route using Machine Learning algorithms. Some deliveries require ascending meters worth of steps that cars can’t even traverse.
“We have no freedom,” she told the news crew. She showed the crew her van of 110 packages – all of which she had to deliver by 3 pm. The only break she gets is a 10-minute bathroom break.
The driver finished her 110 deliveries by 3 pm. Her reward? Another 93 packages she had to deliver by 9 pm.
“Nothing but a robot”
That was a year ago. Has anything changed?
Not according to a July story from NTV News. A driver showed the crew the same packed van the other driver showed the TBS crew. Like her, he had six hours to deliver around 118 packages.
Redeliveries contribute to this time crunch. If someone isn’t home and they haven’t given permission to leave the package outside, the driver has no choice but to attempt redelivery later that day.
Many apartment buildings have secure boxes in which delivery drivers can leave packages. However, space is limited. In that circumstance, some drivers with packages for other residents might be able to get into the building and leave the package outside the recipient’s door. If they can’t, they’ll have to come back later. That eats up precious time that drivers don’t have.
The driver featured in NTV’s story pulled a 12-hour shift. “I have to deliver the same volume no matter the weather,” he said. “I’m nothing but a robot.”
Last Mile: New movie takes Amazon system to task
Amazon Japan isn’t taking flack just from news reports. A new movie by a popular Japanese screenwriter questions everything from how Amazon treats delivery drivers to the “Leadership Principles” that drive the firm.
Last Mile is a new movie starring Mitsushima Hikari and Okada Masaki. It’s the work of screenwriter Nogi Akiko, the talent behind dramas such as Unnatural and Miu 404.
Nogi’s work, while entertaining, also tackles current social issues. (For example, Unnatural addressed the sensitive subject of why Japan performs so few autopsies.) In Last Mile, she tackles Amazon’s business model and its impact on its workers.
The human impact of next-day delivery
In the film, a package explodes shortly after a driver delivers it to a run-down apartment. It’s the first of a dozen packages delivered by Amazon-esque fictional company Daily Fast rigged to detonate. In the film, a Daily Fast distribution center manager – in her first day on the job – and a DC team leader work with the police and medical forensic investigators to find and reclaim the final packages before they explode.
The film focuses not just on Daily Fast’s distribution center employees but also on one of its delivery companies and its drivers. As the story unfolds, we see the human impact that the breakneck pace of delivery has on everyone in the distribution chain.
Nogi obviously researched Amazon well before writing Last Mile. The film attacks key components of Amazon’s work culture. For example, the “12 principles” that Daily Fast’s employees follow in the film echo Amazon’s “Leadership Principles.”
As an ex-Amazon employee (Amazon Web Services from 2014-2019), I was intrigued by moments in the film that seemed lifted from daily life at my former employer. For example, several scenes discussed how Daily Fast employees used the 12 principles as “weapons” against each other to push for their own desired outcome. My colleagues and I would often complain over drinks about how people used the Leadership Principles, not to further discussion, but to shut it down.
Last Mile is currently at the top of the Japanese box office. It’s received favorable reviews not just as a good story but as a sharp critique of Amazon’s failure to do right by its workers.
Japan drivers unionize
Amazon Japan isn’t an exception to the rule. Amazon delivery drivers worldwide report horrendous working conditions, especially around the holidays.
For years, Amazon has distanced itself from the plight of its drivers, whom the company hires through third-party Delivery Service Partners (DSP). The company has claimed that, since the drivers aren’t their employees, they aren’t responsible for their working conditions.
That shell game is starting to fall apart. In the United States, drivers have banded together and are working to form a union. To add further pressure, the US government’s National Labor Relations Board has ruled that employees at two key DSPs are “co-employees” of Amazon. The moves have led Amazon to announce it’ll invest $2.1B into its delivery network to boost driver pay.
In Japan, drivers have already formed a union under the Tokyo Union, which has helped workers unionize across Japan since 1979. Earlier this year, the Amazon Delivery Drivers Union Yokosuka Branch’s lawyers filed suit against the company, asking courts to deem that the company owes its sole proprietor delivery drivers overtime.
Amazon Japan hires sole proprietor drivers because, by law, there are no overtime restrictions or overtime pay requirements for contracts with these independent businesses. The union is arguing that, since these businesses do their work under the explicit direction of Amazon Japan, they should be classified as workers. That would award them the same benefits and protections as other employees.
Amazon Japan refused to comment on NTV’s story. However, as this lawsuit shows, the company can’t run from the subject forever. Iit’ll have to answer for its questionable labor practices sooner or later – whether in the media or in the courts.
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【労働環境】Amazon配達ドライバー「配達終わらない…」荷物は1日200個超、休憩は10分…Amazon「委託した配送業者の責任」労働環境どう改善？｜TBS NEWS DIG
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アマゾンの「自前物流」膨張に佐川やヤマトが反旗！ガマンの限界に達した物流各社の「アマゾン離れ」加速へ. Diamond Online
Last mile (transportation). Wikipedia
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Amazon配達員「残業代支払って」 下請けの運送会社を提訴 「自由裁量なく1日12～13時間労働」. Tokyo Shimbun
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