Amazon drivers say rogues’ scheme to game delivery system has been thwarted

Amazon. com contract drivers have noticed a sudden change in how the company assigns delivery routes, a sign that it has found a way to prevent rogue operators from gaming the system to snatch orders first.

Bloomberg on Tuesday revealed that drivers were putting smartphones in trees outside Whole Foods and Amazon delivery stations in the Chicago area to get a jump on rivals. Drivers in Las Vegas and the Washington, D. C., area also reported spotting mysterious phones outside Whole Foods locations.

Several drivers in cities around the U. S. said they’re now getting more routes even when they’re several miles from Whole Foods locations — an abrupt change from the past several weeks, when they said such work was scarce.

Amazon, which purchased Whole Foods in 2017, declined to say whether it had foiled the operation. But last month, the company pledged in an email to drivers that it would investigate the phenomenon.

The rogue drivers had found a way to game Amazon Flex, an Uber- like app they use to win orders and deliver them in their own vehicles. Someone would place several devices in a tree located close to the station where deliveries originate. Drivers in on the plot synced their own phones with the ones in the tree and waited nearby for an order pickup.

The reason for the odd placement, according to experts and people with direct knowledge of Amazon’s operations, was to take advantage of the handsets’ proximity to the station, combined with software that constantly monitors Amazon’s dispatch network, to get a jump on competing drivers.

In an urban area with good cell tower coverage and plentiful Wi- Fi hot spots, the system can detect a smartphone’s location to within about 20 feet, one of the people said. That means a phone in a tree outside Whole Foods’ door would get the delivery offer even before drivers sitting in their cars just a block away.

Unlike hourly employees who get paid even when work is slow, gig workers only get paid by the job. And Flex drivers earn as little as $ 15 per delivery, plus potentially a tip from the customer.

Amazon could easily address the problem by tweaking its program to create a dead zone immediately around Whole Foods so drivers within a few miles of the store get offered routes but those lingering in the parking lot don’t, according to the person familiar with the system.

The downside is giving the work to those a little farther away increases delivery times, said the person, who requested anonymity to discuss a private matter.