And presuming you keep delivering, impressing people, and gaining more skill and experience, it just goes up and up and up.
Like anything else, it is much harder if you are on the bottom rung.
Some people claim it's done intentionally to prevent workers from working other jobs where they might get tired or escape the first job.
The other part might be just the organic result of shoving the complications of varying hourly load and varying worker availability week-to-week onto those willing or desperate to work extra hours.
Schedules get jumbled, work hours get fragmented like a garbage collector's memory management without a compaction step.
Much of the "middle" (or upper middle, however you want to label it) class's luxuries are based on goods and services being cheap enough due to the people at the bottom not having a choice but to deal with unsteady income and changing schedules.
I am actually enjoying stores and restaurants closing early because they do not have enough employees, or prices going up so that people cannot constantly afford to eat out. It means there are people that can finally be home with family at dinner time, or if they are working, they are earning a premium for evenings, nights, weekends, etc and perhaps they themselves will be able to enjoy those services.
FTA: "The incident is notable as it appears to be the first public example in the United States of Amazon delivery service partners, small businesses that deliver packages exclusively for Amazon"
This is the program for Amazon Delivery Service Partners https://logistics.amazon.com/
Seems to me it's basically Amazon Flex but for people with capitol who want to be able to get up and started with their "own business." But when you join you can't contract for anyone else.
I don't really understand this. Amazon can't "strong arm" you unless you let them. If Amazon "requires" you to dump your other clients, you can also "require" that such a clause means they must offer compensating guarantees and more money.
Sheesh.
Don't start a business where the business plan is to have only one customer, or at least if you do, don't complain when they realize they have you over a barrel.
This is great advice, such good advice that it should be given over and over.
Unfortunately, there is someone out there who hasn't heard it yet. Amazon will just shop and shop until they find that person.
[x] - https://xkcd.com/1053/
That's why you READ THE CONTRACT before signing it, because they can't do that unless it is in the contract. It's the whole point of a contract.
Now, if you don't like the terms in the contract, negotiate. Yes, you can negotiate. Yes, you are entitled to negotiate. Yes, you are a sucker if you accept the other party's opening default contract.
But that's exactly the point of the system Amazon set up. They don't want to deal with UPS/USPS/etc.
Contracts work, they're a great leveler.
P.S. The breach was so bad, my lawyer took the case on contingency.
How is anybody supposed to craft a business plan when Amazon can't guarantee what sort of business you're gonna do, and also change it for whatever reason they like?
I am altering the deal... pray I do not alter it further [MANIACAL LAUGHTER emanates from THE FLYING FOX]
It's risky to ramp up the business when the one customer may (and will probably) stop ordering abruptly.
also, why don't consumers spread their amazon purchases evenly throughout the week? :)
What does their contract with Amazon say? Who would sign a contract that permits "constant abusive changes"?
You may have heard the story about the Colo/ISP that signed up a large new customer (you know the name) with 95th percentile pricing for IP traffic and unlimited power to the cage? The ISP signed a contract that said 95th percentile pricing and expected the usual usage curve, the customer made sure the curve was a very different one. And used (much)_more power in the cage than the ISP had ever seen, too.
Common advice is "put the expectations in the contract". For a significant sized ISP, this shouldn't have been the first dance they were invited to.
For example, when I bought an Adjustable Rate Mortgage, I made sure the contract stipulated when the rates would be adjusted, and what formula would be used to adjust them. Not "whenever the bank wanted to change them, and to whatever rate they wanted to."
Sounds miserable. Id shut down too if I was losing money with only 1 client.
If this were freelancing it’d be like having to be always available for one client 40 hrs a week, but not knowing if you’ll get to bill 5 hrs or 50… while your rates constantly decrease. There’s no point in having this business