from the where-there's-a-will-there's-a-way dept.
Amazon drivers hang phones in trees to compete for new orders - Business Insider:
Amazon drivers are hanging phones from trees outside Chicago Amazon delivery stations and Whole Foods stores so that they will have first dibs on accepting new orders, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
The outlet viewed footage of drivers syncing their phones up to the devices that are suspended in trees and then parking nearby to wait. Amazon's system chooses drivers based on who is closest to the pickup location — meaning drivers with access to phones even slightly closer to the stores and delivery stations have a leg up on accepting orders before competing drivers.
There is a coordinated group of drivers that uses the process, Bloomberg reported. By using multiple smartphones suspended in trees that alert multiple drivers, they make it more difficult for Amazon to discover their system.
Amazon foils plot using phones in trees to get more deliveries:
Amazon appears to have stopped a strange plot that used phones in trees to game delivery route assignments. Contract drivers talking to Bloomberg said that they're now getting more routes even when they're miles away from the Whole Foods locations that had been hubs for the scheme. The tree-borne phones have vanished along with the people lurking around them, one Chicago driver said.
The tree-phone move reportedly exploited the behavior of the Amazon Flex dispatch system. Rogue drivers synced their phones with those in the trees, helping them snap up deliveries that would otherwise go to competing drivers. As Flex drivers are gig workers who get paid by the delivery, this was potentially lucrative — much to the chagrin of drivers who weren't involved.
An insider aware of Amazon's order system told Bloomberg that fixing the issue that allowed the effort only required altering a "few lines of code." It could create a "dead zone" around places like Whole Foods to prevent gaming attempts. Your orders could take longer to arrive, but it would also ensure a fairer distribution of work.
The company hasn't confirmed the move, instead saying that waiting in the parking lot or using store WiFi was "not an effective way" to claim delivery orders.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2020, @07:28PM
Yikes. Like an aristarchus submission posted by the editors this is not but a token gesture. Fairness would be for all means of production and wealth to redistributed equally. But systemic racism and the patriarchy himself will never allow it.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2020, @07:34PM (1 child)
Schmuck's version of high-frequency trading.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Monday September 07 2020, @07:40PM
This strange gig economy fruit is just one more step away from the era of stable careers and towards the era of Artilect bosses, UBI and/or widespread sexploitation.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by krishnoid on Monday September 07 2020, @07:35PM (22 children)
"Lucrative"? This sounds more like the first couple minutes of the Hunger Games.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 07 2020, @07:55PM (21 children)
Please report for reeducation, immediately. If a driver can pay for expenses plus a Mickey D meal before he goes home for the evening, that is indeed "lucrative". It is not the company's responsibility to enrich the proles. It is, however, our responsibility to enrich the stock holders.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday September 07 2020, @08:49PM
Eh, just put it on the pile [youtu.be].
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2020, @09:57PM (19 children)
And then you Boomers were born the most selfish most regressive generation in history. You should be ashamed of yourselves for dedicating your entire lives to destroying America.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 07 2020, @10:06PM (18 children)
If, as you suggest, Boomers are the cause of all of the inequalities on earth, then you need do nothing. Soon enough, the Boomers will be gone, and all those problems will just magically fix themselves, with no effort on your part.
Good luck with that, oh Witless Wonder.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2020, @10:27PM
Amazon will go out of business when you expire, Boomer. It's plain to see 100% of Whole Foods shoppers are Boomers who enjoy the illegal ageist discriminatory practice of preferential treatment for Boomers. It's obvious that 100% of Amazon deliveries are made to the giant mansions of Boomers on pensions who are so very important in their own senile minds that they deserve to have everything they want delivered directly to their doors by masked young people living in abject poverty.
Bezos bet the farm on Boomers. He can die with you too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2020, @11:16PM (16 children)
The AC's point is valid. In the US, the Democratic party favors expanding social programs while the Republican party aims to reduce them. Younger people lean heavily toward Democrats while older people like boomers are voting for the GOP in greater numbers. When programs like Medicaid are cut, that reduces the benefits immediately. Social security and medicare are funded differently and have trust funds. Instead of outright cutting those programs, they're attacked by reducing the amount of money paid into them. Because of the medicare and social security trust funds, those programs will remain solvent for awhile. Eventually those funds will be depleted, though, which will require either taxes to be increased or benefits to be cut. Of course, this will happen after many of the people who benefit from social security and medicare have died, leaving the problems to younger people who are paying in but may not see those benefits. Boomers make sure they're taken care of while screwing over younger generations. It absolutely is selfish.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 07 2020, @11:27PM (7 children)
If you are not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at forty, you have no brain. - Winston Churchill
So, let me get this straight. Your generation, right now, today, is experiencing something new and different, that has never been seen in this world before.
Ecclesiaster 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2020, @11:41PM (4 children)
That quote is falsely attributed to Churchill. It's incredibly pessimistic in that it proposes an expectation that accumulating experience should cause any intelligent person to abandon aspirations to change and improve the world. That's unfortunate. Also, the tendency for older people to resist change and to become more conservative does not justify the selfishness.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 07 2020, @11:58PM (3 children)
Regardless of attribution, it demonstrates that the concept has been around for much longer than boomers have been around. This crazy idea that Boomers just popped out into the world, in the midst of a vacuum, and arranged everything for their own benefit is simply insane. I get the "OK Boomer" thing, up to a point - what better way to get even for all the denigration of millenials? But, come on, dude, kids born after 1945 didn't just decide "This is how we want things, and that's the way they'll be!" The ponzi scheme known as Social Security, for instance, was set up a couple generations earlier, by a socialist minded administration in the 1930's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Social_Security_in_the_United_States#Origins_and_design [wikipedia.org]
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2020, @12:18AM (2 children)
As I'm sure you know, Trump wants to cut payroll taxes. This will hasten the insolvency of medicare and social security. If we're going to cut the amount of money paid in to medicare and social security, why not proportionally reduce the benefits paid out right now? Why shouldn't boomers share in the burden of cuts they want to pass along to future generations? The fact is, older people are more likely to cast votes for GOP, which is the party that's actively working to reduce or eliminate social programs. But these older people aren't going to share in the effects of those cuts, instead passing them along to future generations. Basically, you'll get yours, but you don't care about what happens to those who come after you.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 08 2020, @12:29AM (1 child)
The bits that you are ignoring, are those bits where the Social Security has already been raided, repeatedly, for funds to do this, or that, or another thing. Oh, those lying politicians tell us that SS funds are in a "trust", and that all the funds are still there. The only "trust" is "trust us". SS, just like so many corporate pension funds, have always been something of an illusion. When the lawyers, politicians, and deep-pocket interests decide to take the money, it's gone.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2020, @12:49AM
Now that's just not true [fool.com]. They money is loaned out to other government agencies in the form of bonds that pay interest. There's a big difference between removing money and loaning it out within the government where it accrues interest.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2020, @03:07AM (1 child)
Why would that be the case? The conservative views are pretty much only appealing to individuals that either benefit from them or are brain-addled. If you were fortunate enough to own a home and have significant amounts invested, then conservative views would directly benefit you. Pretty much all the other conservatives are brain-addled.
Nobody with two neurons to rub together (Brain cells for people that lean Republican), thinks that the GOP stance on really any issue actually involved any deep thinking, it's mostly whatever they think they can get away with doing to benefit their donors at the expense of the taxpayers. That's it.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 08 2020, @03:21AM
*yawn*
Nice little rant. Come back when you have something of substance that you would like to discuss.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2020, @11:30PM (7 children)
Who is going to pay for childless, socialist millennials in their old age? Are you sure you want a debate about selfishness and entitlement?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2020, @11:57PM (6 children)
Medicare, medicaid, and social security are not socialist programs. They are social programs that exist within a capitalist society, with similar programs being found in other capitalist societies like many European countries. Socialism involves public ownership of the means for production and distribution of goods. None of the aforementioned programs come close to satisfying that definition, meaning that you're just fear mongering to toss that word around.
The second point is a bit more complicated. The resources on this planet are finite, meaning that continued expansion of the population is inherently unsustainable. Young people are postponing marriage and having children to a significant degree because they don't have the economic means to support a family. Part of that is due to many jobs requiring college degrees when they're not actually necessary for carrying out the tasks associated with those jobs and the increasing burden of debt that comes with those degrees. Young people have also been adversely affected by two major economic contractions, the Great Recession and the current recession. We have more than enough resources for everyone in this country to live in good conditions with adequate food, housing, and healthcare. The problem is that these resources are not distributed in anything resembling an equitable manner, with growing inequality between rich and poor. It simply isn't accurate to suggest that it wouldn't be feasible for millennials to receive the same standard of medicare and social security benefits as boomers do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2020, @12:33AM (5 children)
How is this the fault of Boomers, do you have any idea how hard times were? [allthatsinteresting.com] Gen X didn't create punk and grunge either side of the 80s because life was easy. Now, stop fucking moaning and get on with on it!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2020, @01:01AM
What happened to wanting to leave the world a better place for those who come after you? It sure seems like you've abandoned that idea.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2020, @03:10AM (3 children)
It was far easier than it is now. Wages haven't kept up with inflation over the last 40 years, if you think things back then were bad, they're far, far worse now. The fact that Boomers like to pretend like they weren't handed damn near everything on a silver plate by their parents is a sick joke. Boomers that have nothing now mostly fucked it up for themselves by not saving what they got and investing it. There were tons of jobs that paid well enough to support yourself without a college degree and even the ones that did wouldn't require racking up tens of thousands of dollars in debt to do so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2020, @11:01AM (2 children)
Wages haven't kept up with inflation because you outsource and import labor. End of. The population was declining, property should have been easily affordable. Is it Boomers attacking ICE facilities? LOL - enjoy your iPhone!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2020, @01:11PM (1 child)
It's mostly Boomers that were doing that. They were established enough that cheaper trinkets were of some value to them. For Gen X and on the cheaper trinkets are often the only things we can afford because of how poorly employers pay and how much of the market is dominated by a handful of businesses that can effectively set rates on their own without any collusion needed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2020, @04:42PM
I am Gen X, I don't waste money on trinkets and I don't blame my parents or grandparents generations for increased life expectancy. You on the other hand believe Government should be involved in redistributive taxation, ignoring their role in creating the mess to be fixed by doing the opposite of what they were elected for.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Bot on Monday September 07 2020, @08:59PM
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Account abandoned.