Amazon will tip your delivery driver if you ask Alexa

Anthony Cuthbertson
·2 min read
3
US customers will be able to directly thank their drivers for making Amazon deliveries (Getty Images/ iStock)
US customers will be able to directly thank their drivers for making Amazon deliveries (Getty Images/ iStock)

Amazon customers in the US will be able to thank their delivery drivers this holiday season with a $5 tip paid directly by the retail giant.

For drivers to receive the bonus, customers need to say “Alexa, thank my driver” to their Alexa-enabled device following the delivery.

The tips will go to the first 1 million drivers to receive thanks in this way from 7 December, with the five drivers receiving the most customer “thank-yous” also receiving an additional $10,000.

“Each thank you received from customers, drivers will receive an additional $5, at no cost to the customer,” Amazon said in a blog post announcing the feature.

“We are excited for this new opportunity to thank these everyday heroes and giving our customers the ability to help us do it... While this thank-you is another moment for us to express our gratitude, it certainly will not be the last, and we look forward to finding additional opportunities to celebrate the drivers who deliver smiles for customers.”

The promotion follows criticism aimed at Amazon for the way delivery drivers are treated by the world’s fifth richest company by market cap.

Amazon is currently facing a new lawsuit from the attorney general of Washington, DC, that alleges the company misused customer tips between 2016 and 2019 in order to reduce drivers’ wages.

A similar allegation previously led to a $61 million settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission last year, with the regulator claiming that “Amazon took a sizable portion of the tips customers expressly earmarked for drivers and used the money to reduce its own labour costs”.

Amazon responded to the latest lawsuit by claiming that it had revised its payment model for delivery drivers in order to ensure that all tips from customers go directly to the driver without any impact on their base wage.

“This lawsuit involves a practice we changed three years ago and is without merit,” Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti said.

“All of the customer tips at issue were already paid to drivers as part of a settlement last year with the FTC.”