Humanity seems to have a love/hate relationship with Amazon. On one hand, you can get virtually anything in existence delivered to your doorstep the next day. On the other hand, the company is well known for pushing its employees to the breaking point and other anti-worker actions .
Whatever your thoughts on Amazon, the story of a delivery driver being told to continue his route despite suffering an injury on the job should be enough to give anyone pause.
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Amazon’s efficiency is key to its success.
From building a worldwide network of massive warehouses to optimizing delivery efficiency , Amazon has more products, and can deliver them far faster, than virtually any other competitor.
This ruthless drive for efficiency has a human toll, though, as experienced by one driver.
Here’s the video in question.
Justin Baker is an Amazon delivery driver who makes TikToks under the name @jus10star in his free time. He frequently shares short videos showing him at work and, until this video, seemed fairly happy with his job. But after suffering an injury from a dog bite and getting no compassion from his manager, Justin was unimpressed with his employer.
The video shows him calling a few people.
Things pick up after Justin was bit. He calls his local dispatcher, who tells him to call driver support. From there, he was told to call emergency support. He says he waited on hold for ten minutes before an operator finally picked up and answered.
The operator asked Justin how he was.
It’s just a pleasantry, but Justin was in no mood given the circumstances.
“Obviously I’m bad,” he replied. “I mean, how often do you get a response of ‘I’m good’ on emergency support?!”
The operator then asked Justin several questions, which he said were useless, about stuff like the branding on his van and what kind of shoes he was wearing.
Justin then called his manager.
After getting nowhere with emergency support, Justin tried calling someone else: his manager. Unbelievably, his manager asked if he could maybe just finish up his route before seeking out treatment for his injury.
The injury wasn’t life-threatening, but Justin did note in a comment that his hand was punctured in the attack.
It sounds like a common experience.
Amid hundreds of commenters from people who were incredulous that Amazon would do this to its drivers, a few current or former drivers weighed in with their two cents.
At least two claimed to have had the exact same experience as Justin: even though they were bit by dogs on the job, they were still expected to complete their duties before seeking medical attention.
Justin offered a couple of updates.
It sounds like Justin wound up getting support for his hospital bills, but not before jumping through quite a few hoops. He’s since released a few videos showing him in his Amazon truck, so it seems like he’s staying with the job despite his recent experience.
It’s a reminder of the human cost of fast delivery.
We all love receiving low-cost items, lightning fast, at little to no shipping cost. It’s undoubtedly convenient for consumers. But getting items off of shelves, into packages, into trucks and then into mailboxes doesn’t happen by itself. At every step of the way, hardworking people are making it happen.
What do you think of this story?
Do you order from Amazon? If so, do stories of substandard working conditions give you pause? If you don’t order from Amazon, are stories like this the reason why?
Be sure to let us know what you think of this story in the comments.
