Amazon work rules govern tweets, body odour of contract drivers

An Amazon delivery driver carries boxes into a van outside of a distribution facility in Hawthorne, California. For several years, Amazon has sought to bring order to its farflung delivery operations, which were plagued by accidents, complaints about thrown packages and infamous incidents such as the time a contract driver relieved herself in a customer’s driveway. But in exerting more control over these workers, legal experts say, the company has created legal risks for itself. — AFP

The thousands of people driving those ubiquitous Amazon-branded blue vans aren’t employed by the Seattle leviathan. They work for small, independent businesses with contracts to transport packages for Amazon. But that hasn’t stopped the company from dictating the state of their fingernails – and a whole lot more.

“Personal grooming must be maintained at an acceptable level, including but not limited to prevention of unpleasant breath or body odour, modest perfume/cologne, and clean teeth, face/ears, fingernails and hair,” Amazon.com Inc says in a recent version of its policies governing these small delivery companies, or what the company calls Delivery Service Partners.