Updates on Amazon's Investments to Help DSPs Improve the Driver Experience

We just announced an incremental investment of $1.9B in the DSP program – bringing the total to $16.7B over the last 7 years. This year, we are investing $380MM to help DSPs increase driver pay, and we anticipate that Amazon’s investments over the past two years will have helped DSP Owners increase pay by an average of 13% across the same timeframe. Our investments have also helped drivers reduce risky driving behaviors such as sign and signal violations, speeding, and distracted driving by 32%. When it comes to on-road experience, improved routing technology has reduced route backtracking by 54% over the last year, which is one of just many investments to make your day more seamless.

This year’s investment will also support more than a dozen programs, which you can read more about below, to improve the safety and experience of DSPs and their teams, like you. This is just a glimpse into the significant milestones the DSP program has already achieved in just 7 years.  

Safety

Prioritizing safety first: Since 2022, we’ve committed investments of more than $410MM in safety tools, programs, and technology for the DSP program. These include summer and winter safety supplies, fleet improvements, routing technology to prioritize certain deliveries during daylight hours, and more.  

Collision avoidance: Rivian Electric Delivery Vehicles (EDVs) integrate cutting-edge technology, enabling safety enhancements like automatically limiting reversing speeds. For example, when we noticed that a lot of EDV safety events occurred when vehicles reversed, we made software updates to introduce a multi-pane reverse view and reduced the maximum reversing speed. Since January, we’ve seen EDV reverse safety events reduce by over 20%.

Daylight-informed route planning: We’re making improvements to our route-planning systems, identifying areas where it could be more challenging to make deliveries after dark. If you notice changes to familiar routes, it’s because the Delivery App will begin to suggest that some stops occur sooner in your route, so you can complete them before dark. By the end of November, our goal is to reduce stops after dark in challenging areas by 50%, compared to last year.

Improved air conditioning in step vans: We are already an industry leader by being the first to require air conditioning in all Amazon-branded delivery vehicles, and last year, we enhanced this by testing a driver comfort system that delivers high-velocity cool air directly over the driver seat. By the end of this year, we will complete installations of this system in all step vans to ensure that they're ready to go for next summer.

DSP and DA Experience

Sustainable practices: This year, we are launching a pilot program to move away from single-use plastic bottles to filtered water carts in DSP parking lots and launch pad areas, which will be accessible during morning loadout. In the US and Canada alone, this could eliminate 34.7MM 12 oz water bottles annually. If stacked cap to bottom, these bottles would stretch from San Francisco to New York City and down to Miami - that's over 4,400 miles!

Engagement and recognition in the Delivery App: You may have started to notice more information, including a confidence boost and recognition of certain milestones, right in the Delivery App! From birthday celebrations to real-time achievement recognition, we have launched 16 new features since last year and will launch another 4 before Peak.

Rivian software upgrades: Later this year, Rivian will launch software updates to enhance vehicle performance and your experience. You’ll see charging times decrease by about 15% in cold temperatures, thanks to better energy management.

On-Road Experience

Parking detection: Using signals from the delivery device, we can now automatically detect where and when vehicles are parked, instead of depending on you to manually click the "I've parked" button in the app. Our technology achieves 97% accuracy in distinguishing between driving and walking states and significantly improves parking location precision which, in turn, drives better turn-by-turn navigation. We’ll expand this tech to Android devices ahead of Peak!

Delivery location guidance: Later in October, we’ll start to display photos from previous successful deliveries directly in the app, taking the guesswork out of the best place to leave a package. When you arrive at a location, you’ll see an image from previous successful deliveries, helping to guide you to replicate it.

Better guidance for buildings with multiple entrances: We are updating the Delivery App to better consider all entrances of a building when suggesting access points, rather than using a single parking location. With this change, the Delivery App will be able to display various entrance options, which may help in identifying more efficient paths from parking locations to the delivery point.

Translation capabilities: In November, we’ll enhance the Delivery App to include In-App Customer Note and Chat Translation, which will automatically translate customer notes across 33 languages. This feature aims to support communication between you and customers across diverse communities, helping you improve delivery completion rates and even customer feedback scores.

We are proud to double down on our commitment to small business owners, who are, in turn, deeply invested in creating a safe and rewarding workplace for you. We know that you and your DSP Owner go to great lengths to take care of Amazon customers – and for that, thank you.

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