# Do not accept 1 hour blocks for Prime Now or you will eventually be deactivated.



## kmatt (Apr 25, 2016)

Keep in mind all of this shit is happening with the new off-site route assignments. These devilish dispatchers at Amazon happen to be releasing a ton of 1 hour blocks these days. PLEASE, DON'T TAKE THEM! If you don't take a delivery then Amazon's genius algorithum looks at it like you checked in and purposedly didn't take any deliveries like scammers used to do in the old days. Good drivers have been recently deactivated for this exact reason. They are penalizing us based on if there are any orders to deliver during our block. It's clearly not our fault if there is nothing assigned to us. The system doesn't care and will deactivate your ass eventually. You are taking a huge risk picking up a one hour block and most likely not getting anything to deliver. The new system will not assign you a delivery past 30 minutes into your one hour block. So you have a 50 percent chance of not getting a delivery which could lead to deactivation and a ZERO percent chance of getting a tip since Amazon steals $5 per hour of customers tips to us. Not worth it on so many levels.


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## grams777 (Jun 13, 2014)

kmatt said:


> Keep in mind all of this shit is happening with the new off-site route assignments. These devilish dispatchers at Amazon happen to be releasing a ton of 1 hour blocks these days. PLEASE, DON'T TAKE THEM! If you don't take a delivery then Amazon's genius algorithum looks at it like you checked in and purposedly didn't take any deliveries like scammers used to do in the old days. Good drivers have been recently deactivated for this exact reason. They are penalizing us based on if there are any orders to deliver during our block. It's clearly not our fault if there is nothing assigned to us. The system doesn't care and will deactivate your ass eventually. You are taking a huge risk picking up a one hour block and most likely not getting anything to deliver. The new system will not assign you a delivery past 30 minutes into your one hour block. So you have a 50 percent chance of not getting a delivery which could lead to deactivation and a ZERO percent chance of getting a tip since Amazon steals $5 per hour of customers tips to us. Not worth it on so many levels.


That's a good point.

I'll even take it one step further and say don't take 4 hour blocks. Here the remote dispatchers are jacking a lot of people around who arrive long before others yet making them sit around for 2 hours doing 1 or 2 deliveries. You arrive at 15-30 minutes before the block and people who show up 10-20 minutes after you get routes.

It's not just a timing issue. There's some type of preference system at work unrelated to when you check in. Newbies especially seem to get the routes. Old timers are often benched doing one or two stops during their block now if there are newbies there. Quite a few of the old timer drivers are getting $18 an hour almost all day even for 6-8 hours. One stop per hour only covers the $5 tip to Amazon.

If you know when newbies get blocks, avoid them if your warehouse does that and you want routes. They won't jerk you around intentionally like that if they're busy and are tight on drivers.

So, what you want are 2 hour blocks when mass quantities of newbies don't normally pop in. That way if you get a two hour block with say only one stop, it won't result in the tips getting drained from your full route in another 2 hour block to cover amazons $5 take per hour.

Another thing is the flexibility of the 2 hours. Sometimes you can tell you're going to get screwed in your next block while there's still time to forfeit. Maybe you realize there's no way you'll get back for a route. Or maybe you got a one hour taking you near home. So you can forfeit the next block and make sure to deliver after 30 minutes past the hour and go on your way. If it happens halfway in a 4 hour, you're trapped.


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## iyengar (Oct 7, 2016)

They will assigned you shit routes like sprouts and 4-5 stops where they are not even close together. I knew I was going to be late on my last stop.


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## secretlurker (Jul 31, 2017)

kmatt said:


> Keep in mind all of this shit is happening with the new off-site route assignments. These devilish dispatchers at Amazon happen to be releasing a ton of 1 hour blocks these days. PLEASE, DON'T TAKE THEM! If you don't take a delivery then Amazon's genius algorithum looks at it like you checked in and purposedly didn't take any deliveries like scammers used to do in the old days. Good drivers have been recently deactivated for this exact reason. They are penalizing us based on if there are any orders to deliver during our block. It's clearly not our fault if there is nothing assigned to us. The system doesn't care and will deactivate your ass eventually. You are taking a huge risk picking up a one hour block and most likely not getting anything to deliver. The new system will not assign you a delivery past 30 minutes into your one hour block. So you have a 50 percent chance of not getting a delivery which could lead to deactivation and a ZERO percent chance of getting a tip since Amazon steals $5 per hour of customers tips to us. Not worth it on so many levels.


So absurdly false.



grams777 said:


> That's a good point.
> 
> I'll even take it one step further and say don't take 4 hour blocks. Here the remote dispatchers are jacking a lot of people around who arrive long before others yet making them sit around for 2 hours doing 1 or 2 deliveries. You arrive at 15-30 minutes before the block and people who show up 10-20 minutes after you get routes.
> 
> ...


Again, not true. But, y'all trying to guess how this works with the new changes. With Amazon, the only constant is change.


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## grams777 (Jun 13, 2014)

secretlurker said:


> So absurdly false.
> 
> Again, not true. But, y'all trying to guess how this works with the new changes. With Amazon, the only constant is change.


If you claim these things are false, then enlighten us as to the truth.

There's not much guessing to what I have seen and experienced first hand.

I'd also recommend a different style to your postings rather than just saying what others say is false. Ultimately it won't be received well and will lead to confrontation.


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## secretlurker (Jul 31, 2017)

There is no favoritism, top of the heap gets a one hour or route. Contact support if have questions about tickets. Dispatching is not automated ( for prime now), routes are generated. 

If you ask the supervisor, leads loading the carts, they will tell you the same thing.


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## kmatt (Apr 25, 2016)

secretlurker said:


> There is no favoritism, top of the heap gets a one hour or route. Contact support if have questions about tickets. Dispatching is not automated ( for prime now), routes are generated.
> 
> If you ask the supervisor, leads loading the carts, they will tell you the same thing.


Dude, it's all 100% automated now. Asked the manager today. The only thing not are the one hour deliveries. Those are dispatched by a pack of dancing monkeys.


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## OnlyInTheA (Oct 19, 2016)

Must be a regional thing. I still have shifts where I don't deliver anything and have never been penalized. 

Accepting 1 hour blocks has also been a nono, even more so now then before. Here, we can be sent about 30+ miles away.. to drop of 1 package.

I really wish is was as simple as picking up packages and delivering them lol. Tired of playing this game of Amazon vs Driver. Who can take more advantage of the other.


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## secretlurker (Jul 31, 2017)

kmatt said:


> Dude, it's all 100% automated now. Asked the manager today. The only thing not are the one hour deliveries. Those are dispatched by a pack of dancing monkeys.


Then he/she is misinformed. Most are privy, and are quite up front with you. Mine are, even when off shift.


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## marsmaple (Apr 23, 2017)

None of the route assignments to the drivers are automated. I've read the chat history between a logistics coordinator and the dispatch team while chatting with the logistics coordinator and from what I've read, the assignments are all done manually by the dispatchers.

Now, the addresses or stops that are included in a particular segment are indeed automated beforehand to ensure that all of the packages can be categorized to numbered carts and delivered within two hours. The number of bags contained in each order is known only after the items have been picked, pulled and packaged by the material handlers. Amazon gathers all of the orders that need to be delivered within a two hour block and each address is assigned to a route that can be finished within two hours determined by their algorithm, and the number of route segments gives an estimate of how many drivers are required for the block. This is all done automatically.

But the assignment of the numbered carts to each driver is done by the dispatchers manually based on many unknown factors. I stick by my original assumption that the dispatchers know and recognize some of the full-time drivers by name, they know our location and distance from the warehouse, they know the amount in tips that have already been pre-paid by the customers (just as restaurants do, as I've seen restaurant order receipts that disclose the tip amount shown by the restuarant) so they know how much money we'll likely make, and they know what time we've checked in. Some or all of this information can be used to prioritize routes and because humans are performing this work, bias, favoritism/excluding exist and will continue to exist unless route assignments follow some standard of procedure.

I'm sure at this point there is no set procedure, no oversight, and no accountability for them when they screw up. If only they had a higher authority that looked over their backs to make sure they are doing their job correctly. The satisfactory and security of our work lies entirely on the performance of the dispatchers, and that's a scary thing to realize.


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## marsmaple (Apr 23, 2017)

I'm referring to the dispatch team that's remote from all warehouses. Also, I could see Amazon outsourcing this dispatching job function to anywhere in the world where there are lower wages like in the Philippines. It doesn't necessarily need to be performed in Seattle.


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## secretlurker (Jul 31, 2017)

marsmaple said:


> None of the route assignments to the drivers are automated. I've read the chat history between a logistics coordinator and the dispatch team while chatting with the logistics coordinator and from what I've read, the assignments are all done manually by the dispatchers.
> 
> Now, the addresses or stops that are included in a particular segment are indeed automated beforehand to ensure that all of the packages can be categorized to numbered carts and delivered within two hours. The number of bags contained in each order is known only after the items have been picked, pulled and packaged by the material handlers. Amazon gathers all of the orders that need to be delivered within a two hour block and each address is assigned to a route that can be finished within two hours determined by their algorithm, and the number of route segments gives an estimate of how many drivers are required for the block. This is all done automatically.
> 
> ...


Very close, but, do not know tips anywhere in UI, and time + availability determines assignment. No money exchanges hands.


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