Bookmarked The Cost of Next-Day Delivery: How Amazon Escapes The Blame For Its Deadly Last Mile (BuzzFeed News)

Deaths and devastating injuries. A litany of labor violations. Drivers forced to urinate in their vans. Here is how Amazon’s gigantic, decentralized, next-day delivery network brought chaos, exploitation, and danger to communities across America.

Caroline O’Donovan and Ken Bensinger provide a picture of what is involved in having things delivered the next day. They document the poor state of the vehicles, lack of pay for ‘contractors’ and various strategies to achieve the tight margins.

“You’ve got people chomping at the bit because all they think and see is dollar signs,” said Bythewood, who currently isn’t working. It was hard to say no, she said, because if “you don’t want to do it, someone else will.”