- Amazon’s delivery drivers say that peeing in bottles and pooping in bags is common at work.
- Amazon’s strict time restrictions can make it difficult to find time to use the bathroom, drivers say.
- Amazon denied the “bottle-peeing thing” in a tweet this week.
- See more stories on the Insider business page.
Despite Amazon’s denials, delivery drivers say peeing in the bottles is part of the job. And urinating on baby bottles is not the only “inhuman” situation that drivers face.
A driver told Insider that, in addition to urinating in bottles, they regularly had to poop in bags due to the demands of the job. A second driver said he was aware of two incidents with poop bags discovered in delivery vans.
Another said she struggled to change menstrual products while working. A total of eight current and former drivers told Insider this week that peeing in bottles was a common part of Amazon’s packaging delivery.
Amazon is known for its strict time constraints, as well as tracking drivers, most of which are employed by third-party companies. According to drivers, this expectation can make it difficult to go to the bathroom, despite the company’s policy of offering a 30-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks.
A delivery driver in the Detroit area, who asked that her name not be released to speak frankly about the situation, said that getting her period was “a nightmare” because she didn’t have the time or space to stop and change her menstrual hygiene items. She said that several female colleagues called her crying because they leaked through her clothes while at work.
“I was forced, because I had nowhere to stop, to change my pad at the back of the van,” she said. “I didn’t have time to stop somewhere to change it, so I didn’t have any place to stop to throw it out either. You kind of have to carry these things with you.”
She added: “It’s inhumane, to say the least.”
Insider verified the identity and employment of all drivers interviewed about delivering packages from Amazon.
A former delivery driver, who stopped delivering packages from Amazon in 2020 and wanted to remain anonymous to speak freely about his experience, said that peeing in bottles was a frequent practice, as well as poop in bags. The driver said he started to bring his own
toilet paper
, so that he could lock the doors and poop in the back of the delivery van.
Amazon, the former driver said, needs to “have more empathy and more compassion” for its workers.
“They are making a lot of money,” he added. “They are one of the richest companies in corporate history. So, it’s like … providing basic support and benefits to your workers.”
A driver in Lansing, Michigan, who asked for his name to be withheld to speak frankly, told Insider that he “absolutely” peed in a bottle several times at work and heard of two separate incidents in which bags containing poop were found inside of delivery vans.
“One day, I heard from one of my co-workers that our dispatcher was cleaning a poop bag from the van and I was completely shocked,” he told Insider. “[The company] I never talked about it in the group chat, never told us anything about it or said it was unacceptable. “
It was later discovered that he was a male driver, he said. The second time this situation occurred, the driver said, the company’s dispatcher checked who was driving the van the day before and found out it was a woman in her 50s.
Amazon did not respond to Insider’s multiple requests for comment.
Amazon denied the ‘pee in bottles thing’, despite extensive evidence to the contrary
Amazon started the “pee bottles” discussion on Wednesday, when the company tweeted to Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan: “You really don’t believe in this thing about peeing in bottles, do you? If that were true, no one would work for us . “
Pocan had previously tweeted criticizing Amazon’s anti-union efforts in response to workers at a warehouse in Alabama who were trying to organize.
“Paying workers $ 15 / hour doesn’t make you a ‘progressive workplace’ when you break the union and make workers urinate in water bottles,” tweeted Pocan.
—Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021
However, there is ample evidence that Amazon workers peeing in bottles is a relatively widespread practice, especially among delivery drivers.
Insider’s Hayley Peterson reported for the first time in 2018 that it was a common practice for drivers to urinate in bottles, due to the company’s strict standards and high expectations. Three years later, drivers say the job is increasingly demanding.
On Thursday, The Intercept published documents showing that Amazon is aware of drivers’ practice of peeing in bottles and poop in bags. January documents were leaked to the publication listing public urination and defecation at work as recurring infractions.
Benjamin Nuuvali, a former Amazon delivery driver, told Insider that he quit his job delivering packages from Amazon to a third-party company because of the way he was treated.
“Sometimes, if I drove to the bathroom and there was a queue or anything that made the trip for more than five minutes, Amazon would text me and call me asking why I was standing for so long and why it’s not making deliveries, “said Nuuvali. “I’ve had several occasions when I had so many deliveries to make that I didn’t have time to make any stops in the bathroom and I had to use a bottle,” he added. “They were more focused on getting all packages delivered than on the welfare of their employees most of the time.”
A driver in Oklahoma, who asked for his name to be withheld so they could speak frankly, told Insider that it was common to find a bottle of urine when entering a delivery van at the beginning of a shift.
“I’m not saying that Amazon is encouraging this,” said the driver. “But I can almost guarantee that any driver who has been working there long enough got into a van and saw a translucent bottle full of something that is definitely not apple juice. It happened. It happens.”