Amazon is using an app to track and score delivery workers for bad habits like speeding and phone distraction - here's everything it measures
- Amazon contractors are using an app called Mentor to track delivery workers and score their driving behavior on a scale of 0 to 850, according to interviews with Amazon drivers.
- Mentor is designed to encourage safe driving and penalizes Amazon drivers' scores for hard braking, swerving around corners, rapid acceleration, speeding, and phone distraction. It also tracks seat belt usage, reversing, idling, and other behaviors.
- "Safety is Amazon's top priority," Amazon said in a statement to Business Insider. "Whether it's state-of-the-art telemetrics and advanced safety technology in last-mile vans, driver safety training programs, or continuous improvements within our mapping and routing technology, we have invested tens of millions of dollars in safety mechanisms across our network, and regularly communicate safety best practices to drivers."
- Vehicle tracking features, broadly referred to as telematics, are used by other carriers as well, including UPS. UPS said its telematics system helps identify maintenance problems, among other issues.
- "We now know before a battery dies when it will die," a UPS spokesperson said, adding, "if a driver isn't making seatbelt use a habit, or has formed other bad habits, we use the telematics report as an awareness tool, discussing with the driver issues related to safety."
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Amazon contractors are using an app to track legions of delivery workers and score their driving behavior on a scale of 0 to 850, according to interviews with Amazon drivers.
The app, called Mentor, is designed to encourage safe driving and penalizes Amazon drivers' scores for hard braking, swerving around corners, rapid acceleration, speeding, and phone distraction.
Drivers are dinged for distraction if they pick up or touch their phone while their vehicles are in motion. If workers are driving a branded Amazon van outfitted with a telematics device, the app will track whether they are wearing a seatbelt while their vehicle is moving faster than 6 miles per hour, and record how many times the van reverses more than 5 yards, according to interviews and information available on a support site for Amazon drivers using the Mentor app.
Mentor provides daily reports detailing workers' driving scores and any behavior that earned them penalties, which the app calls "events." Each event is linked to a corresponding map showing exactly when and where the bad behavior was recorded.
Data collected by Mentor is shared with drivers' managers, according to eDriving, the company that developed the app.
"The manager has access to daily, weekly, and monthly reporting for each driver, including the number of acceleration, braking, cornering, distraction and speeding events, number of trips, hours & miles driven, seat belt violations, engine off incidents, reversing incidents, fuel efficiency (MPG), coaching modules assigned, coaching modules viewed, and pre-trip and post-trip daily vehicle condition reports (DVCRs)," eDriving says on its support website for Amazon drivers.
eDriving said it was unavailable to comment on this story.
Amazon has been scrutinized in the past for tracking warehouse workers' productivity and in some cases, using the data collected to support firings. None of the Amazon drivers that Business Insider interviewed for this story said that Mentor scores have been used to fire workers. (Mentor's support site for Amazon drivers warns, however, that improper recording of damage to vehicles through the app can result in termination).
In fact, some delivery workers are rewarded with bonuses for high Mentor scores, drivers said.
"Safety is Amazon's top priority," Amazon said in a statement to Business Insider. "Whether it's state-of-the art telemetrics and advanced safety technology in last-mile vans, driver safety training programs, or continuous improvements within our mapping and routing technology, we have invested tens of millions of dollars in safety mechanisms across our network, and regularly communicate safety best practices to drivers."
Amazon drivers sign into Mentor at the beginning of each shift
eDriving says on its website that Mentor can help managers identify which of their drivers are most likely to be involved in a collision and why.
"Our driver risk management program helps organizations reduce collisions, injuries, license violations, and total cost of fleet ownership," eDriving's site says. The company's site says it is the largest provider of online driver training and driver risk management with more than 10 million US consumer customers and 700,000 fleet drivers globally.
The Amazon drivers who use the Mentor app are employed by third-party companies that Amazon calls delivery service partners (DSPs). DSPs are contracted by Amazon to deliver packages to customers.
The eDribing Mentor support site for Amazon drivers says: "We know that 94% of collisions are not accidents at all, but the result of driver attitudes or behaviors. By addressing driver behavior, we can achieve a target of Zero Collisions. Your managers are committed to your safety and will actively reinforce and reward driving expectations."
When Amazon drivers arrive to work, they are required to sign into the Mentor app on a phone or work device, scan a QR code on the vehicle they will be driving that day, and record any damage to the vehicle, according to eDriving's website.
While drivers complete their shifts, the app is running in the background and tracking their behavior.
"Interact with your phone only when stopped at a delivery locations and NEVER while the vehicle is moving," an eDriving pamphlet states. "Minimize reversing throughout your route. Turn off your vehicle at every delivery location, before exiting the vehicle."
According to eDriving's site, these are some of the behaviors that Mentor monitors and provides feedback on:
- "Harsh Acceleration, Braking and Cornering: These are major indicators of following too closely, aggressive driving, fatigue and distraction
- Speeding: A major indicator of risky driving and increased threat of serious injury
- Reversing: One of the most dangerous driving maneuvers. Drivers have a skill deficit in this area, which results in high frequency of collisions and fatalities
- Seatbelt use: Wearing your seatbelt decreases your chance of death or serious injury by more than 60%
- Idling: Just 6 seconds of idling uses more fuel than turning the engine off and on at each stop
- Distraction from cell phone usage: A major and growing cause of the increasing rate of collisions and fatalities - 52% of crashes involve cell phone use; 70% of severe collisions involve distracted drivers"
A score of 800-850 is considered "great" and 500-599 is considered "poor." Under 500 is considered "risky," the site says.
Some drivers have complained that the app isn't always accurate and dings them for touching their phones even when their trucks are stopped.
"Mentor itself in the mind of the driver is a distraction," said a Denver-based Amazon driver, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. "I actually think it makes me less safe as a driver."
"I'm always concerned that I'm going to get a hard-break ding when the light turns yellow," he added. "I have this huge van that is heavy and I am coming down a hill so I have to brake hard when the light turns yellow. But I am thinking about, 'Oh no, my Mentor score - should I just run the light? Or should I hard break?"
A Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based driver said that the Mentor app can sometimes produce inaccurate "hits," but overall, it has made him a safer driver.
"Now I put my cellphone in a cup holder where I can see the screen without touching it in case I have an emergency call or something," this person said, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. "For me, that's keeping me from being distracted while driving."
UPS also tracks vehicles to spot maintenance issues and drivers' bad habits
Amazon is not the only carrier monitoring its drivers on the road.
FedEx and UPS also use telematics, which broadly refers to fleet monitoring technology, to track its vehicles and drivers.
FedEx didn't provide any specifics on its systems, but said, "Safety is the highest priority at FedEx and, across our vast enterprise, we are enabling the use of modern and emerging vehicle and on-road safety technologies designed to protect our employees, customers, service providers and the communities in which we operate."
UPS Spokesperson Dan McMackin said the company's data collection is geared more towards preventing vehicle maintenance issues than tracking driver behavior.
"Before telematics, all vehicles would get certain levels of maintenance based on time in service," McMackin said. "With telematics, we are getting closer to, 'individualized preventative maintenance,' where each truck and each truck's parts are tracked for wear and performance."
The company has sensors on the engine, brakes, starters, and batteries, he said.
"We now know before a battery dies when it will die," he said. "We can keep track of different manufacturers' parts to see what is outlasting other suppliers' version of the same part, and we can get better warranty claims performance as well."
The company also monitors for excessive backing up, hard braking, and whether drivers are wearing their seat belts and keeping the bulkhead door - the door behind the driver - closed while the vehicle is in motion.
"If a driver isn't making seatbelt use a habit, or has formed other bad habits, we use the telematics report as an awareness tool, discussing with the driver issues related to safety," McMackin said. "If necessary, we have a supervisor go on a methods ride to help the driver improve their adherence to proven UPS best practices."
