GigCartel

About the closest thing to a union the gig economy will ever have.

How To ACTUALLY Stay Safe Around Dogs When Delivering For Amazon Flex

From an Amazon Flex Driver who is currently rated Fantastic as of this writing.

Article author has requested anonymity, which GigCartel always respects.

Odds are, if you do Amazon Flex, you'll encounter a loose dog at some point.

• They're hellbent on giving you too many packages to safely be completed in the stated time block. This is a constant complaint of Amazon Flex drivers, and Amazon goes out of their way to overload people. I believe it's intentional at this point. I've gotten to where if I know I'm picking another block up the next morning before 10AM, I simply return anything I don't get finished by the end of my block, because getting Extended Block Adjustments is a pain in the ass, and they're always scheming to weasel out of those too.
• When gas was up to $5.09 per gallon in my area, they did not raise the payout for Flex blocks. There were still 3-hour blocks going for $54, sometimes going up to 60 miles away (120-mile round trip minimum if you have any returns) which in a car that gets 18-20 miles per gallon is just no good. I could get $2 per stop taking every single DoorDash order and becoming a TopDasher (also not happening.)
• ...and the third thing that annoys me the most...

Loose F**king Dogs!

• Now, I admit, I'm not much of a dog person anyway. I can tolerate cats...but it really annoys me how many people REFUSE to secure their dogs when they are expecting a food or package delivery. I have eaten one-star ratings on DoorDash asking people "please secure your loose dog" in a text. I have delivered GrubHub orders to the end of driveways when people would not secure their loose dogs. Don't you dare think for one minute that I'm going to risk getting jumped on in my clean clothes - or licked or bitten - to deliver your food or package.
• I don't have anything against dogs (more against the owner, guardian, or whatever you prefer to call them). Because I'm not totally what you would call "woke" yet, and because the vast majority of the gig economy leans a certain way politically, I'm going to model my language to cater to them and I'm going to use the term "owner" for the rest of the article.

Dog Owners Can Be So Obnoxious

• Every dog owner on planet Earth, I'm convinced, thinks THEIR dog is special...or an angel. That's fine. You're entitled to your opinion. Probably not the vast majority of dog owners, but enough dog owners to be problematic (If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say about 40 percent) just absolutely REFUSE to take responsibility for their dogs. Go to a city park sometime where dogs are allowed and just see how long it takes you to step in dog shit. In my nearest city I do gig work, I'd say it's about 60 seconds or less. They abuse the service and emotional support animal laws in order to force bringing their dogs into spaces where people should normally expect not to encounter any dogs but legitimate service dogs...and I've been jumped on by an alleged "service dog" in the supermarket, hand to whatever gods you believe in if any.
• If you dare try to set some space between yourself and a dog, the owner's immediate response is almost always "He's not going to hurt you." I KNOW YOUR DOG'S NOT GOING TO HURT ME BECAUSE HE'S NOT GOING TO TOUCH ME UNLESS HE WANTS HALT-SPRAYED! NOW CONTROL YOUR F**KING DOG, A**HOLE, BEFORE I DO! YOU WON'T LIKE THE WAY I DO IT!
• Okay, I've only ever responded to someone exactly that way once in my entire four years of gig work, but yeah, sometimes I have a chip on my shoulder about poorly behaved dogs and their even more poorly behaved owners. Usually it's more like "I know your dog's not going to hurt me, because youre dog isn't going to touch me." Usually, they call their dog back, but the begrudgement in their tone is almost always obvious, snarky, and annoying.

Keeping Yourself Safe

• Okay, so the official Amazon Flex suggestion, pretty much verbatim but probably not quite verbatim, is something like this: If you encounter an unsecured dog, contact the customer and ask them if the dog is friendly and/or to secure any loose/unsecured pets, then contact Support for further instructions if you do not feel safe or if you don't hear back from the customer. The problem with this is that Amazon Flex does not give you enough time per stop on your route to do this at even one stop most of the time, let alone more than one. Let's say you've got a 3 hour block with 40 packages, all delivering to a town an hour away from where you picked them up. This is not uncommon, and I have argued repeatedly that this is twice what they should be giving us for a 3 hour block if it's delivering clear out to the edge of the 60-mile radius they can send you from the warehouse. So, assuming you have absolutely no returns and don't have to go back another hour to the warehouse either at the end of your block or by 10 AM the next day (they used to give us 24 hours to return packages, but people abused it, so they cut it back to 10 AM the next day.)
• If you want to get everything done on time (and my rule is actually to set GPS back for the warehouse unless I'm going back that way anyway), you cannot be losing ten minutes on even one stop. I'm mean. I literally do triage during an Amazon Flex route, especially with gas prices not as high as they were, but still higher than I was paying in the not too long ago past.

My suggestion, if you even see a loose dog, is to do one of the following:

1. Deliver the package to a safe (for you) alternate location other than the suggested one, if there is an alternate location where you can completely avoid the dog. This is generally your best option if there is any way at all to sanely deliver the package without being bothered by the dog. Put it somewhere they'll find it, take a picture, and text them explaining that this was where you had to deliver the package in order to avoid the unsecured dog. Mailboxes are a no-no, at least in the USA where I work. However, newspaper tubes (including those attached to mailboxes or part of the mailbox unit like those plastic jobs you see everywhere these days) are totally legit. Or at least not illegal. I have delivered packages to newspaper tubes when customers have failed or refused to secure their dogs. I repeat, DO NOT put packages in mailboxes. It's illegal. Also, don't try antics like delivering to their neighbors they might not get along with, or even know all that well, let alone be in communication with.
2. Call or text the customer and ask them to secure the dog. Don't ask if the dog is friendly. That is not relevant. Do you really want to have to stop by Anytime Fitness or a gas station restroom to change your clothes later, or make a side trip to the laundromat after your route if the dog jumps on your clean clothes with muddy paws, so you still look professional to do DoorDash later? I'm really blunt about this. My feeling is that if people are expecting deliveries, they can be considerate enough of the delivery driver to secure all loose dogs (and swans, long story but I've had a terrifying encounter with a swan. Those are mean motherf**kers!)
3. Send the default Amazon text you can send the customer to inform them of your arrival. You can actually notify the customer of your arrival - this comes in great when delivering to rural locations where people don't realize that Amazon packages are sometimes delivered by individuals in cars rather than the blue vans, so you don't get a gun pointed at you. The default text actually asks the customer to secure any loose pets.
4. Send the customer a text that says something like the following:"There is a loose, unsecured dog at your address. I cannot deliver your package if the dog is not secured. Please secure the dog if it is your dog." I have found that 90% of the time most people would rather secure the dog and get their package than argue with you about the dog being loose. If someone refuses to secure their dog, or does not respond, follow through. There is literally nothing they can do to you for refusing to deliver their package, and Amazon will actually have your back on this, whether or not you follow their time-consuming procedure or just return the package and tell the warehouse person you ran out of time.
5. As a last resort, skip the delivery altogether and return it. Frankly, if I was overloaded at the warehouse, I just go ahead and eat the return if there's not a place to deliver the package where I will totally avoid the dog altogether.

I personally don't care how friendly the dog is...you want your package, SECURE THE F**KING DOG!

• Bottom line is, we have to stay safe no matter what. None of the gig work companies, especially Amazon Flex, give a damn about your safety to any further extent than enough to keep them from getting sued. Take a look at your contract some time with any of them, whether it's Grubhub, Doordash, Uber, Lyft, or Amazon. You are not an employee (even if some restaurants have signs up calling you one - a personal pet peeve of mine.) You, and you alone, are responsible for your own safety in the gig economy. Amazon will even tell you in the app, if you don't feel safe making any delivery, feel free to return it to the warehouse by 10 AM the next day. They would much rather deal with a customer complaint than any possibility of a lawsuit you might have a chance at with the right attorney if they were to tell you that you had to make every delivery no matter what. Even the Postal Service doesn't do that. That motto about "neither rain, snow, nor sleet" stopping them from making their appointed rounds, yeah...the Postal Service is unionized in a lot of places. It's just a motto.

Related Articles

• September 2, 2022 - How to ACTUALLY stay safe around dogs when delivering for Amazon Flex, from a Fantastic rated Amazon Flex driver. - it's not what you think or what Amazon tries to tell you (because they care more about the package getting delivered and not getting sued than your safety...)

Disclaimer

Visiting Gig Cartel for any reason whatsoever constitutes your agreement that you are responsible for any activity on your end arising from your use of this website, including the incorporation of any tips or tricks you incorporate into your gig work. In no way, shape or form shall the publisher of Gig Cartel be held liable for any liability of any kind arising from your use of the Gig Cartel website, without limitation, including issues arising from the publisher's own negligence.