Senators question Amazon about using cameras to monitor delivery drivers

Five senators are calling on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to present extra data on the corporate’s current deployment of “surveillance cameras” in autos utilized by contracted delivery drivers.

In a letter Wednesday, Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut requested for extra readability on Amazon’s use of footage collected by the cameras and the scope of their use, with a deadline for Bezos to reply by March 24.

The letter was in response to reporting by CNBC in February, which revealed that Amazon just lately started rolling out cameras from Netradyne in autos at a handful of contracted delivery companions throughout the U.S. The cameras, which Amazon stated document drivers “100% of the time,” have 4 lenses that seize the highway, the motive force, and each side of the automobile. The cameras are outfitted with software program that is able to flagging a sequence of security infractions, together with failure to cease at a cease signal, rushing and distracted driving.

In a coaching video distributed to delivery corporations, Amazon stated the cameras will assist enhance security throughout its delivery community, however drivers and privateness advocates raised issues about the potential for heightened worker surveillance and an absence of privateness.

The senators referred to as on Bezos to tackle these issues, including that the corporate’s use of surveillance cameras in delivery vans “raises important privacy and worker oversight questions that Amazon must answer.”

“While we applaud efforts to improve safety on the roads and decrease the plague of distracted driving, we need a better understanding of how your company will protect against potential new safety hazards stemming from increased worker surveillance,” the senators wrote. “Although Amazon may intend for its use of Driveri cameras to improve safety on the road, this surveillance could, in practice, create significant pressure on drivers to speed up on their routes, which can lead to driver fatigue and decreased safety.”

The Netradyne cameras are only one means that Amazon seeks to monitor and observe its delivery service accomplice program, which refers to the community of Amazon-branded cargo vans liable for a rising share of the corporate’s last-mile deliveries.

As CNBC previously reported, Amazon additionally requires contracted delivery drivers to obtain and repeatedly run a smartphone app referred to as Mentor that screens their driving conduct whereas they’re on the job. The app is designed to enhance driver security, however some delivery drivers have described the app as invasive and raised issues that bugs inside the app can generally lead to unfair disciplinary actions from their supervisor.