Drivers are either too lazy or unwilling to do legwork to get best possible deal
FORMER Amazon drivers who quit over working conditions say they’ve been ripped off with deductions to their wages.
“Self-employed” Amazon couriers see costs come off their daily pay.
The sizeable wage deductions can include the cost of hiring a van via the courier firms who deliver for the online giants.
The annual cost of leasing the vehicles often runs to the sum needed to buy the van outright.
Unions have blasted the deductions but a courier firm has defended itself saying its drivers are “too lazy” to sort out better deals.
In December, we told how an undercover reporter found gruelling working conditions at an Amazon depot.
With the cost of van hire and long hours eating into his £112 pay, it often meant he was working for less than the minimum hourly rate.
Former Amazon driver Brian Dowling, 33, says he, too, found the cost of leasing a van astronomical.
He was charged nearly £12,000 a year to rent his van via courier firm One Motion Logistics.
The driver, who worked from Amazon’s Eurocentral depot in the run up to Christmas, said: “The charges are outrageous and stressful. I was charged £228-a-week to rent a van via One Motionw Logistics.
“Someone is making a lot of money from the deals. I was told – as everyone I trained with was – that this was the best deal available. But that’s not true. After paying it for two weeks, I sorted my own van with all the right insurance.
“That took me down to around £100-a-week for a van – less than half what the courier firm was charging me.
“I wasn’t paid until nearly two months after starting and even then my wages were down fuel costs. Amazon and the courier firm hold all the cards and the workers are powerless to do anything about it.”
Brian quit before Christmas but says he is still owed money. He added: “The job was horrific. Some days I’d be out from 6.30am until midnight and was falling asleep at the wheel on the motorway.