Connect with us

Published

on

In this article

Amazon drivers begin their delivery routes as workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York prepare to walk off their jobs demanding stepped-up protection and pay after several workers at the facility were diagnosed with COVID-19.
Paul Hennessy | Barcroft Media | Getty Images

Amazon delivery companies around the U.S. are instructing workers to bypass daily inspections intended to make sure vans are safe to drive.

Amazon requires contracted delivery drivers to inspect their vehicles at the beginning and end of their shift as a safety precaution. But some drivers say they’re pressured to ignore damage and complete the inspections as quickly as possible, so that delivery companies can avoid taking vans off the road. If delivery companies take a van off the road, they risk forfeiting valuable package routes and drivers may lose a shift.

These inconsistent inspection practices undermine the company’s public messaging around worker safety. They also highlight the tension that delivery partners face between ensuring drivers’ safety and keeping up with Amazon’s aggressive delivery quotas, which can stretch into hundreds of packages per day per driver.

CNBC spoke to 10 current and former Amazon delivery drivers in Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Texas who discovered their vans had issues ranging from jammed doors and tires with little to no tread to busted backup cameras and broken mirrors. They say managers told them to ignore these problems and complete their deliveries as usual. Some of these drivers asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from their employers or Amazon.

“They’d tell us, just make sure everything’s great and go,” said Chastity Cook, who quit working for an Amazon delivery company in Illinois earlier this year. “We just checked down the list. We don’t even stop to read it and make sure everything is there.”

Cook’s former employer, Courier Express One, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Amazon told CNBC in a statement that the company regularly audits delivery companies’ compliance with safety policies, including two vehicle safety checks every day. Amazon takes vehicles out of operation until safety issues are addressed, the company said.

“When safety protocol is broken, we take various actions including ending our relationship with a DSP [delivery service partner] if warranted,” the company said. “We’re actively investigating the experiences in this story and don’t believe they are representative of the more than 150,000 drivers that safely deliver packages every day.”

Amazon’s DSP program, launched in 2018, plays a critical role in the company’s vast fulfillment and logistics operations. The DSP network is made up of at least 2,000 contracted delivery firms and 115,000 drivers in the U.S., often distinguishable by blue Amazon-branded vans, that handle the last mile to shoppers’ doorsteps.  

Because the DSP network is run by partners, drivers and managers operate at arm’s length from the retail giant. The working environment and management quality varies greatly between DSPs, drivers say.

Amazon has previously said it informs drivers of best safety practices and has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in safety mechanisms across the DSP network. Before stepping down as CEO, Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos pledged to make safety and employee satisfaction a greater focus at the company.

The company has increasingly relied on software and in-vehicle technology to monitor driver safety. Amazon in February rolled out AI-enabled cameras in its delivery vans that are designed to detect safety infractions and, for years, it has used an app called Mentor to track drivers’ driving behavior. Drivers and DSPs are scored by Amazon, in part, on their adherence to safety measures, which can determine their eligibility to receive bonuses.

Delivery companies have discovered workarounds to some of these tools. Vice reported in May that some DSPs were encouraging drivers to turn off Mentor while on their route to make sure they continue to hit Amazon’s delivery targets.

Additionally, Amazon continues to face broad scrutiny around the safety and treatment of its warehouse and delivery workforce. Under the pressure of getting packages to Amazon’s 200 million-plus Prime members, drivers are increasingly speaking out about working conditions, including claims that workers routinely urinate in bottles and are pushed into dangerous situations while on the road.

How the inspections work 

CNBC obtained a screen recording of the inspection process, referred to as a Driver Vehicle Inspection Checklist, showing a step-by-step breakdown of how it works. 

Drivers open the Flex app and scan a barcode on their vehicle that pairs it to the app. After that, a window appears in the app, instructing drivers to start the inspection.

Drivers check their vehicle’s front side, passenger side, back side, driver side and cab. Within each category are several subsections that require further inspection, such as the van’s lights, tires, mirrors, steering, cameras and brakes.

If a driver marks issues with the van, the Flex app will immediately prompt them to contact their manager. The app also won’t show drivers their package delivery route. Once the van is repaired, whichever driver is first assigned to the vehicle must verify in the Flex app that any issues were fixed.

Otherwise, a screen at the end of the checklist will say “you didn’t report any issues with the vehicle.” Drivers are required to check a box which states, “I hereby certify that my vehicle inspection report is true and accurate.”

Damaged seat belts, broken backup cameras

In its DSP safety manuals and instructional materials, Amazon encourages drivers not to drive dangerous vehicles. An inspection guide distributed to drivers and viewed by CNBC states, in bold and red font, “Do not operate any unsafe vehicle out on route.”

A separate, 11-page safety manual for DSPs states that, “Drivers must report all vehicle deficiencies, including malfunctions and defects, immediately.” The document, which is undated, also says that pre- and post-trip inspections are necessary to “ensure your assigned vehicle is road ready and doesn’t pose any hazards that prevent the safe operation of the vehicle.”

But drivers say there are persistent safety hazards in their vehicles, from jammed doors and broken backup cameras to bald tires and seatbelts that won’t lock, and managers discourage them from reporting these issues on the checklist.

“They told us not to mark things if they were broken because then the van wouldn’t be drivable,” said Cook, the driver from Illinois. “They said to report damages to management.”

An Amazon.com delivery driver carries boxes into a van outside of a distribution facility on February 2, 2021 in Hawthorne, California.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

One former driver from Austin, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution from their former employer, said a manager told them that if they marked anything wrong with their vehicle, they wouldn’t have a shift that day.

The driver said they noticed numerous safety hazards while working for their DSP. Several vans had broken backup alarms, which alert pedestrians and other vehicles when the van is reversing. Check engine lights and other sensors were often flashing on the vans — enough that drivers joked it looked like Christmas lights, the driver said.

Andre Kirk, a former Amazon delivery driver in Indiana, recalled when he was inspecting his van and noticed the check engine light was on. Kirk thought it meant it was supposed to be taken out of service, but he was forced to drive it anyway.

Concerned for his safety, Kirk drove the van to a nearby Jiffy Lube. The repairman told Kirk he couldn’t work on the Mercedes-Benz sprinter vans used by some DSPs, so Kirk decided to get back on the road and complete his shift as safely as possible.

Kirk said he was confused why his DSP wouldn’t let employees report issues like he experienced during vehicle inspections.

“I felt like something wasn’t right. Why not report this?” said Kirk, who was fired from his DSP in May, in an interview. “If this is not supposed to be in service, why am I still driving it?”

Kirk’s former employer, FAE Distributors, couldn’t be reached for comment.

‘There goes your route’

After drivers flag an issue during inspections, Amazon requires DSP companies to “ground” the vehicle, or take it out of operation for repairs.

Drivers say that managers avoid grounding vehicles because they don’t want to give up delivery routes. For example, if a DSP is forced to ground three vans for repairs, they may not have enough spare vans in their fleet to handle all the delivery routes Amazon assigned them that day.

Forfeiting a delivery route can cost a DSP.

Amazon pays contracted delivery companies for every package delivered each week and for every delivery route they pick up, according to drivers and a former DSP owner, who asked to remain anonymous because they are still in the logistics business.

The former DSP owner said they tried to get vehicle issues repaired as quickly as possible, but they would tell drivers not to mark issues in the Flex app in order to avoid grounding any vans and “dropping routes.”

Dropping a route not only hurts DSPs financially, but it can also affect the score assigned to them by Amazon. Amazon ranks delivery partners on a scale of “Poor” to “Fantastic+,” factoring in things like delivery performance. If a DSP’s ranking falls, it may lose out on bonus payments or receive worse routes in the future.

“The side door could be broken, front door could be broken and you’re not supposed to report it because they’ll ground the vehicle,” said one driver from Indiana. “And then there goes your route.”

Continue Reading

Technology

CNBC Daily Open: There’s a hopeful mood in the Middle East and the markets

Published

on

By

CNBC Daily Open: There's a hopeful mood in the Middle East and the markets

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while World leaders listen during a summit of European and Middle Eastern leaders on Gaza on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

This might not be Christmas, but the war in the Middle East is over — at least according to U.S. President Donald Trump.

On Monday, Trump declared at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, that the “long and painful nightmare” was finally over for both the Israelis and Palestinians. More straightforwardly, Trump gave an unequivocal “yes” when asked by reporters if the war in the Middle East has ended, Reuters reported.

A similarly hopeful mood permeated markets, though for different reasons. After hitting China with 100% additional tariffs and triggering a sell-off on Friday, Trump appeared to walk back his stance, posting on Truth Social that “it will all be fine” with China.

And thus was TACO back on traders’ menus: Major U.S. stock indexes rebounded, with technology stocks leading the charge. Quantum computing names popped after JPMorgan Chase announced it will be investing $10 billion in sectors crucial to national interests.

Broadcom, meanwhile, surged almost 10% after it jointly announced a partnership with — who else? — OpenAI to build and deploy custom chips. But where this puts Nvidia, OpenAI’s other near and dear one, and on whose chips the ChatGPT maker relies, remains a question.

Though Christmas has yet to arrive, OpenAI is starting to look like the tech sector’s Santa Claus.

— CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.

What you need to know today

War in the Middle East is over, Trump says. At Israel’s parliament, Trump gave a speech in which he said that the “long and painful nightmare” for both the Israelis and Palestinians was over. He also urged, at a separate event, for leaders to put “old feuds” behind.

Broadcom joins the OpenAI party. The two companies announced Monday that they’re planning to develop and deploy OpenAI-designed chips, amounting to 10 gigawatts, starting late next year. Shares of Broadcom popped almost 10% on the news.

JPMorgan says it will invest $10 billion in critical industries. The four areas of focus — which the bank considers crucial to U.S. security — are: defense and aerospace, “frontier” technologies such as AI, energy technology and supply chain and advanced manufacturing.

Stocks claw back some losses. On Monday stateside, major U.S. stock indexes rose, rebounding from Friday’s carnage. The S&P 500 regained 56% of Friday’s decline. Europe’s Stoxx 600 index climbed 0.44%, lifted by mining stocks.

[PRO] European sectors less affected by trade war. The continent isn’t in the crosshairs of Trump’s latest tariffs, but a weakening U.S. dollar could affect Europe’s exports. UBS picks three sectors more shielded from that — leaving out a notable one.

And finally…

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Argentina’s President Javier Milei during the 80th United Nations General Assembly, in New York City, New York, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.

Alexander Drago | Reuters

The U.S. has stepped in with an extraordinary bailout of Argentina. Here’s what it means

In a move that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday on social media site X, the U.S. is providing a $20 billion currency swap line with Argentina’s central bank — essentially exchanging stable U.S. dollars with volatile pesos.

The move comes amid liquidity concerns in Argentina that threatened stability for the country as it faces key midterm elections. There are equal parts economic and political stakes with the venture, which marks the first U.S. intervention of this nature since rescuing Mexico in 1995.

Jeff Cox

Continue Reading

Technology

Amazon fires employee who was suspended for protesting company’s work with Israel

Published

on

By

Amazon fires employee who was suspended for protesting company's work with Israel

A woman cleans the store window of the Amazon house after activists sprayed paint on its logo during a protest on the opening day of the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 20, 2025.

Yves Herman | Reuters

Amazon fired a Palestinian engineer who was suspended last month after he protested the company’s work with the Israeli government.

Ahmed Shahrour, who worked as a software engineer in Amazon’s Whole Foods business in Seattle, received an email on Monday informing him of his termination. When he was suspended in September, Amazon said the decision was the result of messages Shahrour posted on Slack criticizing the company’s ties to Israel.

Amazon said its investigation found Shahrour had violated the company’s standards of conduct, written communication policy and acceptable use policy, alleging that he “misused company resources, including by posting numerous non-work-related messages pertaining to the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

“In the next 24hrs you will receive an email with detailed information about your termination, including information about your benefits and final pay,” an Amazon human resources employee wrote in a message to Shahrour that was obtained by CNBC. “We appreciate the contributions you’ve made during your time with Amazon and wish you the best in your future endeavors.”

An employee group associated with Shahrour put out an afternoon press release saying that he was fired after a five-week suspension “for protesting Amazon’s $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military, known as Project Nimbus, which he states constitutes collaboration in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

Shahrour had urged the company to drop the contract that involves Amazon providing the Israeli government with artificial intelligence tools, data centers and other infrastructure. He also protested and handed out flyers at Amazon’s downtown Seattle headquarters.

In a statement to CNBC, Shahrour said his firing is “a blatant act of retaliation designed to silence dissent from Palestinian voices within Amazon and shield Amazon’s collaboration in the genocide from internal scrutiny.”

President Trump addresses Israel's Knesset as Hamas releases hostages held in Gaza

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told CNBC in a statement that the company doesn’t tolerate “discrimination, harassment or threatening behavior or language of any kind in our workplace.”

“When any conduct of that nature is reported, we investigate it and take appropriate action based on our findings,” Glasser said.

Shahrour’s termination comes on the same day that Palestinian militant group Hamas released the first seven surviving Israeli hostages, marking the first stage of a ceasefire deal brokered with the help of U.S. President Donald Trump. As part of the agreement, Israel was also scheduled to free nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners later in the day.

The war started just over two years ago, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages. Israel followed with a sustained assault that killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, including thousands of civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Across the tech industry, workers have become more outspoken in their criticism of business dealings with the Israeli military.

On Thursday, a Microsoft engineer resigned after 13 years at the software giant, claiming the company continues to sell cloud services to the Israeli military and that executives won’t discuss the war in Gaza. Scott Sutfin-Glowski, a principal software engineer, informed colleagues in a letter that, “I can no longer accept enabling what may be the worst atrocities of our time.”

In the letter, he referred to a February Associated Press article that said Israel’s military had at least 635 Microsoft subscriptions, and he claimed the vast majority of them remain active.

Microsoft fired two employees in August who participated in a protest inside the company’s headquarters. In April 2024, Google terminated 28 employees after a series of protests against labor conditions and its involvement in Project Nimbus.

Amazon hasn’t acknowledged the Nimbus contract beyond stating that it provides technology to customers “wherever they are located.” Google has previously said it provides generally available cloud computing services to the Israeli government that aren’t “directed at highly sensitive, classified or military workloads.” Microsoft said in August that most of its work with Israel Defense Forces involves cybersecurity for the country, and that the company intends to provide technology in an ethical way.

— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

WATCH: Is a ceasefire in Gaza sustainable?

Is a ceasefire in Gaza sustainable? Israel ambassador to UAE talks regional peace

Continue Reading

Technology

Broadcom CEO says generative AI will become a much larger part of global GDP

Published

on

By

Broadcom CEO says generative AI will become a much larger part of global GDP

The main competitor we have is merchant silicon, says Broadcom CEO Hock Tan

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday that artificial intelligence could become a larger part of global GDP as the technology spreads across industries.

Tan said the current global GDP sits around $110 trillion, with 30% of that figure “valued from industries related to knowledge-based, technology-intensive.”

“And you put in generative AI, you create intelligence in a lot of other aspects of society,” Tan continued. “That 30% say will grow to 40% of all GDP. That’s $10 trillion a year.”

If AI grows and becomes responsible for a larger piece of global GDP as Tan predicts, it would be a boon to the nascent tech sector and all the industries it relies on. Broadcom makes chips and networking equipment and has been a huge beneficiary of the AI boom as hyperscalers buy up its products. The stock is currently up 53.86%.

Broadcom and OpenAI announced their official partnership on Monday, saying they would jointly build and deploy 10 gigawatts of custom artificial intelligence accelerators. The move is part of a broader effort to scale AI across the industry. Broadcom shares surged in response to the news, up 9.88% by market close.

Broadcom and OpenAI’s deal is the latest in a slew of pricey partnerships among key Big Tech players related to AI.

Tan said OpenAI is “one of those few players in the forefront of creating foundation models,” and noted that even as a private company, the ChatGPT maker is worth about $500 billion. According to Tan, Broadcom’s “hard-nosed” approach to business doesn’t keep the company from looking several years in the future “at this phenomenon, this wave called generative AI.”

Broadcom is tight-lipped about its customers, but said earlier this year it was developing new AI chips with three large cloud customers. Management announced last month it had secured $10 billion in chip orders from a fourth unnamed client.

Tan told Cramer that Broadcom is working closely with “about seven players,” four of which he defined as “real customers,” or ones “who have given us production purchase orders at scale.”

“We feel very good about it,” Tan said of Broadcom’s partnerships. “Because each of these guys need a lot of compute capacity for them to basically play in this game and eventually win this game of creating the best foundation model in the world.”

Jim Cramer’s Guide to Investing

Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer’s every move in the market.

Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust owns shares of Broadcom.

Questions for Cramer?
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC

Want to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up!
Mad Money TwitterJim Cramer TwitterFacebookInstagram

Questions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? madcap@cnbc.com

Continue Reading

Trending