With decent jobs becoming scarce on the market, many have turned to delivery gigs as a means to earn a living. But with the low barrier to entry, along with the highly competitive nature of claiming orders, the space has become quite a toxic environment, especially for those with prejudiced tendencies. For example, one Oregon Amazon Flex driver claims that he overheard another driver say that “The only way to fix all issues related to Flex is to call ICE.”
While it’s pretty obvious what the message is, the driver posted to Reddit, asking what the suggestor meant by their comment about ICE. “That they are racist and believe they can’t compete in the free market [that] they probably hold as a holy institution. So they want the government to step in and solve their problems for them,” answers an angry-sounding commenter. However, one user indirectly defended the proposal by saying, “There’s a difference between being an honest worker and being a cheat, fraud, and thief…“
Calling ICE Won’t Solve Flex’s Bigger Problem of Mismanagement
Given the current political climate, it seems pretty unlikely OP is oblivious to what the “ICE” remark meant. Other people on r/RealAmazonFlexDrivers have been sharing their own complaints about “Hispanic scammers” stealing orders or drivers who “don’t even speak English” cheating the system with multiple accounts.
One commenter accused drivers from the “Latin American community” of snatching up all the available orders: “at least 50 people…[are] always taking all the good routes and helping each other out,” complained one Flex driver. “What’s happening is the opposite of a free market. Immigrants are flooding the labor pool, so places like Amazon don’t have to raise wages. That’s manipulation,” remarked another.
Of course, the solution to this issue is definitely not getting the federal government involved, especially not the tyrannical ICE. The responsibility falls on Amazon and other delivery services to properly manage their workers and employ higher standards and regulations to ensure drivers can’t cheat the system and receive suitable opportunities. That’s not the current reality, though, so many people, such as the Oregon Flex driver, have turned to making indirectly racist comments, thinking that’ll fix things.
All that being said, the problem with Flex these days is complex and would likely require a lot more resources in management and restructuring than Amazon would be willing to spend. But discriminating against others won’t solve anything.
