Amazon Drivers are Putting Smartphones in Trees

Shelly Palmer

Host of Fox TVs "Shelly Palmer Digital Living"

Contributor's Links: ShellyPalmer.com Advanced Media Ventures Group TV: Shelly Palmer Digital Living Radio: Shelly Palmer Digital Living Book: Overcoming The Digital Divide Book: Digital Wisdom

Shelly Palmer is Fox 5 New York's On-air Tech Expert (WNYW-TV) and the host of Fox Television's monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living. He also hosts United Stations Radio ...more

Shelly Palmer is Fox 5 New York's On-air Tech Expert (WNYW-TV) and the host of Fox Television's monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living. He also hosts United Stations Radio Network's, Shelly Palmer Digital Living Daily, a daily syndicated radio report that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology, media, and entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC an industry-leading advisory and business development firm, as well as Technology Chairman and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). He invented the underlying technology for Enhanced Television (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Monday Night Football), the most popular form of interactive television in the United States. Six-time Emmy® Award-nominated, his professional vitae includes years of experience in television production and musical composition. A prolific composer, Palmer was the recipient of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP's) 12th Annual Film and Television Music Award for ABC's hit series Spin City. He was also recognized the following season in the category of "Most Performed Television Themes". Palmer's music credits include the theme songs for Live with Regis & Kelly, Rivera Live and MSNBC as well as the digital debut of the "real" cat singing the classic "Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow." He is a weekly columnist for the Jack Myers Media Business Report, The Huffington Post and a regular technology commentator for CNN and CNNi. Palmer is the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2nd Edition (York House Press, 2008) the seminal book about the technological, economic, and sociological forces that are changing everything, Overcoming The Digital Divide: How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to Reinvent Yourself and Your Career (York House Press, 2011) and Digital Wisdom: Thought Leadership for a Connected World (York House Press, 2013). For more information, visit shellypalmer.com.less

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Amazon Drivers are Putting Smartphones in Trees

Date: Thursday, September 3, 2020 2:00 PM EDT

Amazon (AMZN) Flex drivers (gig workers who use their own vehicles to deliver Amazon Instant Offers to consumers) are fiercely competitive. To "game" Amazon's automated dispatch system, drivers are hanging smartphones in nearby trees, then syncing their phones with those devices to get a jump on other (less tech-savvy) drivers. Apparently, Amazon's automated dispatch system favors smartphones close to the point of the Instant Offers delivery origin (such as a Whole Foods location).

Here, milliseconds matter. (And you thought that co-location was only a Wall Street thing.) Would a 5G phone do better than a 4G phone? We'll discuss this and other 5G and connectivity issues today from 11:35 to 11:55 a.m. EDT on Zoom. Get your credentials here.

More on the Amazon story below:

Amazon Drivers Are Hanging Smartphones in Trees to Get More Work
By Spencer Soper
September 1, 2020, 8:51 AM EDT

A strange phenomenon has emerged near Amazon.com Inc. delivery stations and Whole Foods stores in the Chicago suburbs: smartphones dangling from trees. Contract delivery drivers are putting them there to get a jump on rivals seeking orders, according to people familiar with the matter.

Someone places several devices in a tree located close to the station where deliveries originate. Drivers in on the plot then sync their own phones with the ones in the tree and wait nearby for an order pickup. The reason for the odd placement, according to experts and people with direct knowledge of Amazon’s operations, is to take advantage of the handsets’ proximity to the station, combined with software that constantly monitors Amazon’s dispatch network, to get a split-second jump on competing drivers.

That drivers resort to such extreme methods is emblematic of the ferocious competition for work in a pandemic-ravaged U.S. economy suffering from double-digit unemployment. Much the way milliseconds can mean millions to hedge funds using robotraders, a smartphone perched in a tree can be the key to getting a $15 delivery route before someone else.

Continue reading on Bloomberg.

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