How to Thank Your Amazon Delivery Driver
Amazon is adding a way for customers to show their appreciation to delivery drivers during the busy holiday season.
Starting Dec. 7, customers who have a package delivered by Amazon can say “Alexa, thank my driver” to their Alexa-enabled device or Amazon app, and the delivery driver will receive a thank you. The first 1 million drivers who receive thanks will also receive a $5 tip at no cost to the customer, Amazon announced.
The five drivers who receive the most thanks will also receive a $1[ads1]0,000 bonus, plus $10,000 donated to charity. The company says it celebrates the hard work drivers do and how they have helped the company deliver 15 billion packages since 1994, building communities with customers along the way.
The announcement comes just as news broke that Amazon is being sued by the District of Columbia for allegedly stealing driver tips.
The suit cites a Federal Trade Commission complaint issued in 2021. The complaint alleged that Amazon changed its payment policies in 2016 in a way that meant drivers earned less than 100% of their tips. Amazon paid a $61.7 million fine to settle the FTC claim, which the agency would give to drivers.
But Amazon has “so far escaped appropriate liability, including civil penalties, for consumer harm,” D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, who brought the new lawsuit, said in a statement. He is asking for the civil penalties in addition to a court order to prevent Amazon from returning to the practice.
“Nothing is more important to us than our customers’ trust,” Maria Boschetti, an Amazon spokeswoman, told CNBC Make It in an email. “This lawsuit involves a practice we changed three years ago and is without merit — all of the customer tips at issue were already paid to drivers as part of a settlement last year with the FTC.”
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