The Amazon Mentor app tracks and disciplines delivery drivers

Last week, Amazon caused privacy concerns when it confirmed it is rolling out AI cameras in vans used by some of its contracted delivery partners. But the company has been using software to track and monitor the behavior of delivery drivers on the road for years.

Amazon requires contracted deliverers to download and continuously use a smartphone app called “Mentor” that monitors their driving behavior while at work. The app, which Amazon bills as a tool to improve driver safety, generates a score every day that measures employee driving performance.

The Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program, launched in 2018, consists of contracted delivery companies handling a growing portion of the online retail giant’s last mile deliveries. In just a few years, the program has grown to more than 1,300 delivery companies in five countries, turning an industry traditionally dominated by shipping partners such as UPS and FedEx upside down.

Much like the AI-equipped cameras being rolled out to contracted delivery companies, Mentor is considered a “digital driver safety app” to help employees avoid accidents and other unsafe driving habits while on their way to their destination. But multiple delivery drivers who spoke to CNBC described the app as invasive and were concerned that bugs in the app could sometimes lead to unfair disciplinary action from their manager.

Amazon spokesperson Deborah Bass told CNBC in a statement, “Safety is Amazon’s top priority. Whether it’s the very latest telemetry and advanced safety technology in last-mile vans, driver safety training programs, or continuous improvements in our maps and routing. We have invested tens of millions of dollars in safety mechanisms in our network, and we regularly communicate best practices in safety to drivers. ”

But Bass did not respond to any of the specific allegations DSP drivers made to CNBC about the Mentor app described in this story, as well as questions about how the app uses certain behaviors to score drivers.

The scores generated by the Mentor app are used in more ways than just evaluating someone’s job performance, drivers say. Amazon also partially looks at scores when ranking a delivery partner’s status, according to the drivers, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from Amazon.

The rating system for DSPs ranges from “Bad” to “Good” to “Great” to the highest level, also called “Fantastic +”. A surplus of poor Mentor scores among a delivery partner’s staff can take the DSP’s rank, potentially compromising their access to Amazon benefits, such as optimal delivery routes, the drivers said.

The app also has a dashboard where drivers can “see how they are doing against the rest of their team.” Mentor’s score-based system raises concerns that the app is increasing workloads, causing drivers and competing DSPs to confront each other to an unhealthy degree.

DSPs are already under great pressure for the ease with which Amazon can cancel contracts with delivery partners.

“Knowing that you are under this level of constant supervision, that even if you do a good job, an app or algorithm can make a decision that will affect your life or your ability to put food on the table for your kids. , I think, very unjust, “said Evan Greer, deputy director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future.” It’s incredibly dystopian. “

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

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

The app tracks and measures driving behaviors such as hard braking, speeding, mobile calling or texting, according to a mentor guide for DSP drivers. The app also tracks seat belt usage and reversing, but that behavior doesn’t play a role in a driver’s FICO score.

Mentor has a tiered scoring system, with a top score of 800 to 850 considered “Great”, while a score of 100 to 499 is considered the lowest level, or is labeled “Risky” by the app. It’s unclear how many points each offense is worth, but drivers say some offenses can hurt their FICO score more than others.

The security breaches don’t have to be serious to drag down a driver’s score on the Mentor app.

“I got a call because someone called me and I didn’t answer,” said Devin Gonzales, a former driver fired last month by his Colorado-based DSP. The Mentor app had falsely marked the incoming call as a violation because it believed the phone was in use while he was driving.

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

At other DSPs in the US, delivery drivers said they were experiencing problems with the Mentor app. Adrienne Williams, who drove for Amazon until July last year, ran the Mentor app on an electronic parcel scanner, internally called a ‘rabbit’. Drivers use the rabbit, among other things, to indicate when they arrive at each delivery stop on their route.

Williams said she became frustrated when she picked up the rabbit device to mark her stop while her van was idle, but the Mentor app would log the action as distracted driving. As a result, Williams would see her Mentor score drop every time she arrived at a delivery destination.

“Every time I said I was at the stop, I was given a tap,” Williams said in an interview. “And that’s 150 stops a day, so I got a thing at least 150 times a day.”

Hereafter pushed her score from the “high 700s and 800s” to around 400 “,”[the Mentor app] said my driving was risky, “Williams said.” I was pulled aside and told your FICO score is too low. “

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

DSPs may use data collected by the Mentor App for employment decisions, including disciplinary action such as descriptions. Drivers say that if their score falls below a certain threshold, they could be banned from the work roster for a few days or a week, lose access to bonuses, and banned from certain benefits. For example, some DSPs pay drivers for a full-day shift if they finish their work early, but if a driver’s FICO score is too low, they are only paid for the hours they have completed, drivers said.

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

In a YouTube video, a DSP driver instructs employees to wrap the phone with Mentor in a sweater and place it in the van’s glove compartment so it doesn’t push around while the car is in motion, which the app can mistake as the driver using their device.

“If your device moves at all, it counts against you,” says the driver, Juan Ramos, in the video. “You have a higher chance of your score going down.”

While the Mentor app is intended to help drivers adopt safer driving habits, some DSP employees said it prompts them to take risks, as they are concerned that the extra steps would slow them down and be reprimanded by managers who expect fast deliveries.

The Mentor app can track whether a driver is using his seat belt when driving an Amazon-branded van. Some drivers buckle their seat belts, but place the belt that usually rests across their chest behind them to make it easier for them to move around while driving while avoiding a violation of the Mentor app.

“Most drivers buckle up, buckle up, and drive without seat belts, which is unsafe,” said an Ohio DSP driver.

If a driver finds that the Mentor app has incorrectly flagged him, he can dispute it in the app. But that does not always lead to a solution.

“After you dispute it, they’ll email you and say, ‘We’re sorry,’ and that’s it,” said the Ohio DSP driver. “It’s not a very robust system. I don’t think so [eDriving] understand the importance of a driver’s score. “

The Mentor app is central to the daily life of DSP drivers at work to maintain their safety score. But the app can also track drivers home outside their delivery van.

Some DSPs provide drivers with a company-issued phone where they can download and run Mentor, but several drivers told CNBC they didn’t get a separate device from their company, so they had to download the app on their personal device.

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

“When this message appears, you will be presented with two options: ‘Change to while using only’ or ‘Always allow’,” states the Mentor guide to DSP drivers. “This setting should remain ‘Always allow’ for rides to be accurately recorded.”

Williams said her DSP in Richmond, California, did not provide the drivers with a phone, so they were expected to download Mentor on their own device. Williams said she declined and the DSP gave her another phone, but most of her colleagues were too anxious to voice their concerns, so they agreed to let Mentor track their location without any restrictions.

“Many of my colleagues said it scared them off, but they didn’t know what to do,” Williams said. So you say, ‘I allow my employer to track me on my personal phone at any time. ” ‘