The Amazon Mentor app tracks and disciplines delivery drivers

Last week, Amazon raised privacy concerns by confirming that it is launching AI-enabled cameras in vans used by some of its contracted delivery partners. But the company has for years used software to monitor and track the behavior of delivery drivers on the road.

Amazon requires contracted delivery drivers to continuously download and run a smartphone app, called “Mentor”, which monitors their behavior while driving while they are at work. The app, which Amazon considers a tool to improve driver safety, generates a score every day that measures employees’ driving performance.

The delivery service partner (DSP) program, launched in 2018, is comprised of contracted delivery companies that handle an increasing share of the online retail giant’s last mile deliveries. In just a few years, the program has grown to include more than 1,300 delivery companies in five countries, threatening to bring down an industry that has traditionally been dominated by transportation partners such as UPS and FedEx.

Like AI-equipped cameras launched for contract delivery companies, Mentor is framed as a “digital driver safety app” to help employees avoid accidents and other unsafe driving habits while on their way to their destination. But several delivery drivers who spoke to CNBC described the app as invasive and raised concerns that bugs in the app could sometimes lead to unfair disciplinary actions by their manager.

Amazon spokeswoman Deborah Bass told CNBC in a statement: “Safety is Amazon’s top priority. Whether it’s state-of-the-art telemetry and advanced security technology in last-mile vans, safety training programs or continuous improvements in our mapping and routing technology, we invest tens of millions of dollars in safety mechanisms in our network and regularly communicate best safety practices to drivers. “

But Bass did not respond to any of the DSP driver-specific claims made to CNBC about the Mentor application detailed in this story, as well as questions about how the application uses certain behaviors to score drivers.

The scores generated by the Mentor app are used in more ways than just to assess an individual’s job performance, drivers say. Amazon also analyzes the scores, in part, when rating the status of a delivery partner, according to drivers, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of Amazon’s retaliation.

The rating system for DSPs ranges from “Poor” to “Good”, “Fantastic” and the top level, known as “Fantastic +”. A surplus of low Mentor scores among a delivery partner’s workforce could drag down the DSP rating, which could hamper its access to benefits provided by Amazon, such as optimal delivery routes, drivers said.

The app also features a dashboard for drivers to “see how they compare to the rest of the team”. Mentor’s scoring-based system raises concerns that the app intensifies work pressure, pitting competing drivers and DSPs against each other to an unhealthy degree.

DSPs are already under intense pressure due to the ease with which Amazon can cut contracts with delivery partners.

“Knowing that you are under this level of constant surveillance, that even if you are doing a good job, an application or algorithm can make a determination that affects your life or your ability to put food on the table for your children is, I think, deeply unfair, “said Evan Greer, deputy director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future. “It is incredibly dystopian.”

The Mentor app was created by eDriving, a New Jersey-based technology company that develops road safety tools for the automotive and logistics sectors. EDriving representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

Amazon drivers must log into the Mentor app at the beginning of their shift each day. The app calculates a score for each driver, called a “FICO score”, based on performance while driving and should not be confused with the credit rating of the same name.

The app tracks and measures driving behaviors, such as sudden braking, speeding, making cell phone calls or sending text messages, according to a Mentor guide for DSP drivers. The application also tracks seat belt use and reversing steering, but these behaviors do not influence the driver’s FICO score.

Mentor has a tiered scoring system, with a maximum score of 800 to 850 considered “Great”, while a score of 100 to 499 is considered the lowest level, or labeled by the application as “Risky”. It is unclear how many points each offense is worth, but drivers say that some infractions can hurt your FICO score more than others.

Safety violations don’t have to be serious to lower a driver’s score on the Mentor app.

“I got a ding because someone called me and I didn’t answer,” said Devin Gonzales, a former driver who was fired by his Colorado-based DSP last month. The Mentor app wrongly flagged the incoming call as an infraction because it thought the phone was in use while he was driving.

“I had no control over that,” added Gonzales.

In other DSPs in the United States, delivery drivers said they had problems with the Mentor application. Adrienne Williams, who drove through Amazon until last July, ran the Mentor application on an electronic package scanner, known internally as “rabbit”. Drivers use the rabbit to indicate when they arrive at each delivery stop on their route, among other uses.

Williams said she was frustrated picking up the rabbit’s device to mark her stop, while her van was idle, but the Mentor app would record the action as a distracted direction. As a result, Williams would see his Mentor score drop each time he reached a delivery destination.

“Every time I said I was on the point, I was slapped,” Williams said in an interview. “And that’s 150 stops in one day, so I got dough at least 150 times a day.”

After that, her score increased from “700 and 800” to about 400 “,[the Mentor app] said my direction was risky, “said Williams.” I was pulled aside and said that his FICO score is very low. “

Williams’ DSP later gave her another rabbit device, just to run the Mentor app. She said she would keep the device locked in the van’s glove compartment to avoid bugs in the app and to preserve her FICO score.

DSPs can use data collected by the Mentor application for employment decisions, including disciplinary actions such as newsrooms. Drivers say that if their score falls below a certain threshold, they may be removed from work hours for a few days or a week, lose access to bonuses and be prevented from receiving certain benefits. For example, some DSPs will pay drivers a full day’s shift if they finish their job early, but if a driver’s FICO score is too low, they will be paid only for the hours they complete, drivers said.

On the Reddit forums and Facebook groups, DSP drivers will share tips on how to play the Mentor app and increase your score. Some of the tips can be particularly complicated.

In a YouTube video, a DSP driver instructs employees to wrap the phone with the Mentor installed in a sweater and place it in the van’s glove compartment so that it doesn’t shake while the car is in motion, which the app you can mistake it for the driver using your device.

“If your device moves, it will count against you,” says the driver, Juan Ramos, in the video. “You have a better chance of dropping your score.”

While the Mentor app aims to get drivers to adopt safer driving habits, some DSP employees say that this leads them to take risks, as they fear that extra steps may delay them and attract reprimand from managers who wait fast deliveries.

The Mentor app is able to track whether a driver is wearing a seat belt if driving an Amazon brand van. Some drivers put on their seat belts, but put the strap that normally sits on the chest behind them, so that they can move more easily while driving, avoiding an infringement of the Mentor app.

“Most drivers wear the buckle, put the seat belt behind them and drive without a seat belt, which is not safe,” said a driver from the Ohio DSP.

If a driver thinks the Mentor app has flagged them incorrectly, he can appeal in the app. But that does not always lead to a resolution.

“After you object, they’ll email you back and say, ‘Sorry,’ and that’s it,” said the Ohio DSP driver. “It is not a very robust system. [eDriving] understands the importance of a driver’s score. “

The Mentor app is the central focus of DSP drivers’ daily lives at work as they work to maintain their safety score. But the app can also follow drivers out of their delivery van and into their homes.

Some DSPs provide drivers with a phone provided by the company where they can download and run Mentor, but several drivers told CNBC that they were not provided with a separate device by their company, so they were forced to download the application on their personal device.

The Mentor app tracks a user’s location using GPS. The privacy features of Apple’s iOS operating system for iPhones prompt users through a pop-up message on the screen to select whether they want an application to run location services in the background only once, only while using the application or all the time. Drivers are instructed to allow the Mentor app to collect location data at all times.

“When this message appears, you will see two options, ‘Change to only during use’ or ‘Always allow’,” says the Mentor guide for DSP drivers. “This setting must remain ‘Always allow’ to record trips accurately.”

Williams said his Richmond, California-based DSP did not provide drivers with a phone, so they should download the Mentor on their own devices. Williams said he declined and the DSP gave her a different phone, but most of her co-workers were too apprehensive to voice their concerns, so they agreed to let Mentor track her location without any restrictions.

“Many of my colleagues said it discouraged them, but they didn’t know what to do,” said Williams. “So you’re under arrest saying, ‘I’m going to allow my employer to follow me around the clock on my personal phone’.”