The theory is that the incentives to behave properly differ between people who are employed delivering packages full time and those who do it as a gig.

Regardless of the number of times UPS drivers have been filmed just throwing a package over a fence or lobbing it onto a veranda rather than actually walking up the path?

My experience has been far better with Amazon's deliverers than with shipping companies. I even had one who left a package under my doormat early in the morning and then noticed our lights come on so she came back to let us know it was there.

With UPS, it's more likely I check my tracking number after being home all day and see it go from 'out for delivery' to 'waiting for pickup at UPS store' with no notification. They don't even make the attempt to deliver it, and that makes things less efficient (loading the truck up just to unload it again, making me wait all morning just to have to go to the store anyway, etc.)

So yeah, personally it makes much more sense to me from all kinds of angles for Amazon to handle this stuff directly rather than deal with UPS or Fedex. Those companies are fine for getting a package from me to someone in Halifax, but for getting something from Amazon's warehouse an hour away to my doorstep, it makes no sense.

Yes. If my security cam records him throwing the package onto my porch, I have somewhere I can complain to, and I can probably ask my neighbors if they've had the same problems with the same driver. Whereas, when some guy I've never seen before rolls up in a Honda Civic, who do I complain to? I can try complaining to Amazon, but were they even the one who hired the guy? Or did they subcontract that out to a logistics company who subcontracted it to a local company who subcontracted it to the guy with the Civic? Those smaller subcontractors don't have to worry about damaging their brand. If they start losing customers, they simply rebrand or sign up with a different one of their supercontractors and keep on trucking.