To overcome a deficit of delivery drivers, Amazon is asking its delivery partners to prominently advertise that they don’t screen applicants for marijuana use.
The US is grappling with driver shortages across many industries, from commerce to transportation, and are promoting hiring incentives such as bonuses.
For Amazon’s local contractors, which operate the ubiquitous blue Amazon delivery vans, the delivery giant is now asking them to dangle another, no penalisation for weed use.
Drivers will not be permitted to drive while under the influence, but Amazon thinks that many have been put off applying because they fear a test will bring up previous use of the drug.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the company has told its partners that advertising the fact that they won’t test for pot could boost applicants by 400 per cent, but didn’t say how it arrived at that figure.
Additionally, the company said that THC screening can cut prospective workers by as much as 30 per cent.
Already, some of the advertisements are popping up.
Six days ago Portland, Oregon based, Apcore Logistics put an advertisement on the job posting site Linkedin for delivery drivers.
At the top of the listing, it said in big bold letters, NO THC DRUG TESTING, and on Wednesday, another Portland-based company Lattitude Logistics placed an ad on Indeed with comparable style.
At the top, the posting said NO CANNABIS TESTING with an addendum BONUSES EVERY PAYCHECK.
Bloomberg reported that one Amazon partner said marijuana had been the principal reason drivers failed drugs tests.
After it stopped at the behest of the company and started only screening for amphetamines and opiates, she told the outlet that more drivers began passing.
Others, however, say they’re concerned about insurance liabilities, especially in states where marijuana use remains prohibited.
So far, 19 states have legalised marijuana either for medicinal or recreational use.
The vast preponderance of delivery driver postings by delivery partners on places such as Linkedin and Indeed say they still require operators to pass drug tests.
Other partners have said they worry that ending marijuana testing, it could encourage drivers to get high before getting behind the wheel. Another partner told Bloomberg that if one of their drivers crashed and killed someone and tested positive for marijuana, then that was their problem, not Amazon’s.
It appears now that America is continuing to lower their standards for everything, but hey, things change, but then perhaps this is why packages are taking a week to deliver instead of a day.
Perhaps next Amazon will start delivering weed as well. Now I’m sure that the kind of outside the box thinking some people will get behind.
Perhaps they are thinking of going into the weed game and will start to deliver, although I wouldn’t touch it, particularly if it all comes from China!
Drug tests can detect marijuana for up to 90 days in your hair, anywhere between 3 days to a month or longer in urine, depending on how frequently that person uses it. Up to 48 hours in saliva, and up to 36 hours in blood.
Amazon isn’t saying that they don’t mind if you smoke. What they’re saying is that they don’t mind if you smoke on your day off, and how is it any different from being drunk on Saturday and going to work sober on Monday?
Amazon drivers can’t smoke while driving, just like they can’t drink while they’re driving.
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