Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

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One underappreciated aspect of this. They will ignore marijuana at time of hire. But they will absolutely test you if there is ever an accident or if you are injured at work (even if you just strain your back picking up a heavy object) before you see an occupational health doctor. If you come back positive in the course of injury, they won&#x27;t cover your workers compensation bills. They&#x27;ll fire you (for being intoxicated) and you&#x27;ll have to cover your own medical expenses without access to workers comp coverage or the emoyee health plan (because you&#x27;ve been fired).

Damn, I always forget that drug testing is still a thing.<p>If you were under the impression that Amazon &amp; other companies are actually screening for cannabis use, you should realize that in any legal state they basically did everything they could to make sure their employees would not test positive. It&#x27;s extremely hard to find people that would work minimum wage and are completely weed&#x2F;drug free - especially if you need young, physically fit workers. Having higher turnover because you have to fire people after a while because of a drug test just means you have less experienced drivers.<p>It&#x27;s funny that, as the article points out, school bus driver jobs would outbid Amazon since that means that schools are having the same issue but really have no choice when it comes to drug testing and are generally more restrictive.

Of course Amazon is watching out for their business interest, but they are doing the morally right thing here.<p>I do not smoke anything as a personal preference and do not enjoy when second-hand smoke and smell affects me but I support legalization for the simple reason that criminalization of marijuana and stigmatization of pot smokers is much much worse.

&gt;One solution is to raise their wages. But that can happen only if Amazon agrees to pay its delivery partners more for their services, which the company can be slow to do.<p>It&#x27;s not a labor shortage, it&#x27;s just a correction in the price of labor

Some of the comments are assuming that all those who smoke pot are irresponsible or unable to do a job if they do smoke pot (this includes people who may only smoke at weekends&#x2F;parties btw)

One large brown delivery company also rarely drug tests. Drivers of school buses, semi trucks, and similar have federally mandated drug testing, non-CDL delivery drivers don&#x27;t. Particularly when liability is transferred to contractors, the surprising part is that this wasn&#x27;t the encouraged policy from the start.<p>Also, any shortage is entirely self inflicted from offering poor wages.

Amazon&#x27;s delivery time targets are more likely to cause accidents than employing pot smokers. As long as their drivers are sober while they&#x27;re driving, what they do on their own time shouldn&#x27;t be a problem. What&#x27;s likely to cause accidents is incentivizing drivers to ignore stop signs and run red lights so they can meet their delivery target metrics.

The money quote:<p><i>Other delivery companies are continuing to screen applicants, concerned about the insurance and liability implications in the many states where weed use remains illegal. […]<p>“If one of my drivers crashes and kills someone and tests positive for marijuana, that’s my problem, not Amazon’s,” said one</i><p>Amazon is just looking out for Number One and to hell with their so-called “partners.” This isn’t anything new.<p>If I were an ADA prosecuting such a case, I’d charge Amazon as a co-conspirator.

I’m guessing they can do this because they’re big enough to push back on insurance requirements.<p>The drug testing requirement for delivery drivers isn’t necessarily a moral imperative from management. It’s a condition of their insurance requirements. The article touches on this:<p>&gt; Other delivery companies are continuing to screen applicants, concerned about the insurance and liability implications in the many states where weed use remains illegal.

I wouldn&#x27;t work for Amazon even if they gave me weed to smoke.

It is strange to me that the only job I have ever been drug tested for was a movie theater as a janitor.<p>No tech job has ever even mentioned it.

As marijuana becomes increasingly legalized, I&#x27;m not sure why any company would continue to test for it, other than maybe using saliva tests to make sure workers aren&#x27;t getting high on the job.

I wonder if they&#x27;ll eventually introduce some sort of sobriety or reaction-time test on their phone apps to see if you&#x27;re in a state to drive

Other places that don&#x27;t&#x27; drug test and you&#x27;ll probably be paid better and not work in sweatshop like conditions - most office jobs...

I&#x27;m not sure how one might reliably assess&#x2F;assert impairment for a cannabis user. Traces can last for weeks and result in positive tests (blood analysis), even if the user isn&#x27;t remotely stoned at the time. Don&#x27;t know whether there&#x27;s a breath test nowadays that indicates use in the past n hours, which might give a better idea of likely impairment.

My company fixes recruiting process and software problems. Hats off to Amazon for this. I probably have the pot smoker conversation about once a month, usually with a 50-something or older executive that is running a factory short-staffed.<p>Pot is radioactive for many employers because insurance discounts and employment regulations are stuck in the &quot;Refer Madness&quot; era (Refer Madness was a propaganda film about the dangers of pot). So, employers face two surprises: increasing liability, workers comp and other insurance AND potentially, &quot;hi we&#x27;re from a government agency and under regulation XYZ 202 sub paragraph 293888 you need to drug test and immediately fire those that flunk or we will fine you. Have a happy day!&quot;

after all, what&#x27;s the difference between a drunk driver and a stoner driver?<p>the drunk driver runs the red light, and the stoner keeps waiting for the stop sign to turn green!

Recruit the undead

<i>boost the number of job applicants by as much as 400%</i><p>Anybody else think they meant 420% ?

How about just having decent working conditions and paying a living wage? Amazon is cancer.

For warehouse workers, this would not be a problem. Although I imagine that could impact Amazon&#x27;s bottom line.<p>For delivery drivers, it&#x27;s a terrible idea. Driving large vehicles around people&#x27;s neighborhoods while high is dangerous. It&#x27;s a negative externality Amazon is recklessly putting onto the public.<p><i>Cue mental gymnastics of potheads claiming they actually drive better while stoned.</i>

I’m keeping my camera ready for when Snoop Dogg brings me my package.

This company is just a nightmare. Seriously, do we really need more folks that smoke pot on the road?

Well I am all in favor of legalizeing, but there is side effect: those who are smoking in public, cigarette but especially pot, must have harsh consequence. I go to some place in US and it is stinking everywhere on public streets. People can not force everybody to inhale their drug fume only because they want their high.<p>Edit for clarifying: maybe a $200 fine is good point for starting, go up to $500 with repeating. I also think many smoker drop cigarette butts and we need greater fine for that if it will stop.