Driving with Amazing Delivery

I thought driving with Amazon Delivery would be a fun. I applied with Amazon delivery partner company and got hired for the position of "Delivery Associate". They offered an online training and two days full day field trainings. First, I was so excited to see the humongous warehouse of Amazon which was located in Scarborough. I packed up lunch and a two litter bottle of water in my bag pack. As I entered the warehouse, I saw people working in the large hall all over the places. They were collecting carts, sorting out the packages and at the same time putting those packages in the large bags. While walking on the hallway, I saw people, most of them were Panjabis with turban and long beards. They were speaking in their native language which I hardly understand although Panjabi language is somehow similar to the Hindi language. I understand Hindi language and also can speak though not fluent. 

After crossing the first hall, there came another huge hall which was fully packed with white vans named "Budget". Amazon might have rented those vans from Budget which was one of the largest vehicle/car renter in North America. They were all lined up in different rows. In one of the corner I saw one group of people standing and listening to the supervisor's briefing. I followed the Panjabis and stood with them listening to the supervisor. "Nobody is allowed to touch the curve while parking. After leaving here, everyone should go to the first stop directly and deliver the package. Then only you can pick up lunch or coffee, I don't care. Nobody is micro managing you." He looked South American by skin. Then he turned to the gentleman standing beside him and said, " tell your people in your language." He was Punjabi for sure and started speaking in his language. I thought some of them could not understand English, but can drive and deliver. I thought driving is very natural for Punjabis as I have seen most of the truck drivers, taxi drivers and Uber drivers are Punjabis. 

After the briefing was over, everyone picked up a pouch and walked off to their vans. Soon the whole hall was echoed with the activated burglar alarm and the horn of the van like a apocalypse. I informed to the supervisor that I was there for the training. He asked me to wait in the loading zone. As I came to the loading zone, I saw everyone dragging tall carts full of Amazon bags and packages and putting in the van. They have to load al the packages within fifteen minutes. While I was looking at them being already frustrated, the supervisor came to me and introduced the trainer named Sagun. He was dark skinned big guy who was born in Canada though his parents were immigrated from Sri Lanka. He was very nice guy who taught me  how to arranged all the bags in the van so that we can deliver in systematic way. 

He also allowed me to drive the van to Downtown. It was my first time driving van, so I was little nervous at the beginning. Due to his trust on me and very cooperative nature, I drove the van via 401 and DVP to downtown Toronto. Our delivery zone was near the water front area where parking was too difficult. It took a while to find the first parking for the delivery. We made three round to get into the loading dock where we have to deliver the packages to each floors using service elevator. We loaded all the packages to the dooly that had a broken wheel and dragged to each floor. Then we went to the second place to deliver where we have to put all the packages in the locker. There were more than sixty packages in the bag and we have to put them each of the locker putting the right unit number and names. It was frustrating as well as time consuming. 

After that we went to one of the tallest skyscraper of Toronto located in Queens and Lakeshore. It was a business setting. As per delivery  instruction, we have to talk to the Security at the back of the hall and use the service elevator to each of the floors. I went to the back of the hall. Around the corner, there was a small room where two security guards were on their cell phones. I asked them to give me access to 7th floor. He asked my full name and the company I work for and issued a scanner key. I went to the 7th floor where I stuck in between the elevator and the entrance door. There was door bell except card scanner. My card did not work. I knocked at the door multiple times, then there came a skinny white guy who picked only two packages. Then I tried to go to another floor, but the floor was locked. And also no network to make a call. 

Those building with concierge at the front desk were easier for the delivery, but not having those, we have to take the picture and attached with the delivered stuff. In one of the building  the front entrance was closed due to construction, and I have to carry all the load to the basement which was a second entrance of the building. In some buildings, there were no parking even for the standing. We parked about five hundred meters away and dragged all the packages. It was so stressful. 

Working hard is not the issue for me as I can work for longer hours. But there was other issues which consume time while delivering. Sometimes, we need to get signatures of the recipients or the people at the front desk. If the person gives the address other then his house, we can not sign out the packages as it shows "out of delivery zone". These issues look not big, but actually are. Sometimes we have to go to the same address three or four times as the packages are entered in the same way in the rabbit app. 

The second day, I had a Philippine guy as a trainer who was already frustrated due to new location and congestion in the roads. He hesitated to let me drive and also he asked me to sit in the car rather then deliver the packages and learn. He was not professional at all and discouraging me saying all the negative aspects of the job. Anyway I survived the second day and realized I wasn't my type of job. I QUIT THE JOB.