The piece below explains the complex system that Amazon uses to deliver billions of packages a year — a system that has also proven effective in insulating the company for responsibility when delivery drivers cause injury or death. This story mirrors key aspects of an older one, often used in business ethics classrooms, involving Domino’s pizza and its delivery drivers. See: “Domino’s Ends Fast-Pizza Pledge After Big Award to Crash Victim” (from 1993). In both cases, genuine questions arise about who is responsible when a driver employed by a big company causes injury or death.
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LINK: Amazon Pushes Fast Shipping but Avoids Responsibility for the Human Cost (by Patricia Callahan for NY Times)
…In January, the 9-month-old was killed when a driver delivering Amazon.com packages crashed a 26-foot rented box truck into the back of her mother’s Jeep. The baby was strapped into a car seat in the back.
The delivery driver, a subcontractor ferrying pallets of Amazon boxes from suburban Boston to five locations in Maine, said in an interview that he was running late and failed to spot the Jeep in time to avoid the crash.
If Gabrielle’s parents, who have hired lawyers, try to hold Amazon accountable, they will confront a company that shields itself from liability for accidents involving the drivers who deliver its billions of packages a year…..
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