It was simply after New Year’s when Jonathon Ervin started to really feel that Amazon was turning the screws on him. Ervin owns certainly one of 3,500 small companies that exist solely to ship packages for the retail big. Since launching his firm, Battle Tested Strategies, in 2019, the Air Force veteran and reservist has delivered greater than 10 million packages and earned optimistic efficiency evaluations from Amazon. In a 2020 publication, Amazon championed Ervin as a face of its dedication to Black enterprise house owners.

Last yr, after a summer season of blistering warmth, excessive package deal counts, and malfunctioning air conditioners, BTS’s drivers started organizing a union with the Teamsters. He acknowledged the union—in accordance with Ervin, in opposition to Amazon’s needs—and bargained a contract that took impact in April, making his staff the primary Amazon drivers within the US to ratify a union contract.

The vans that BTS leases are inspected by Amazon for roadworthiness earlier than every shift. After this winter’s vacation rush, often known as “peak,” subsided, Ervin started to really feel these inspections had morphed into hunts for causes to maintain his automobiles off the street. No infraction appeared too minor. A cracked tail mild, an improperly mounted cellphone, a seat belt that retracted too sluggishly—by no means issues earlier than, had been now abruptly excuses to floor his vans. Now, Amazon is making an attempt to sever its contract with Ervin close to the tip of this month, which might put him out of enterprise and his 84 drivers out of labor. 

“We got through peak in January, and boom. All these breaches of contract stacked up,” says Ervin, including, “The breaches were created out of fairy dust and sprinkled punitively.”

Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards writes that BTS has “had a track record of failing to perform,” and that the corporate was terminated for six breaches of contract involving failures to pay insurance coverage suppliers and to finish automobile security audits. Five of these occurred in January, she says. She additionally wrote that BTS had not been truthful concerning the viability of its enterprise, however declined to supply proof. Ervin is contesting the entire breaches. He says these associated to insurance coverage had been resolved final yr, but they remained on his document.

Ervin’s dispute with Amazon reveals how susceptible the businesses that function its fleets of branded vans are to the exacting calls for of their lone shopper. 

“The amount of control they have is incredible,” says Ervin. “You’re really just managing a function.”

BTS is a component of Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners program, a community of small package-delivery companies the corporate launched in 2018 as a part of an effort to interrupt its dependence on FedEx and UPS. The program works very similar to a franchise mannequin, however with out the legal protections of 1. Amazon supplies coaching, help employees, and offers on van leases, handheld units, insurance coverage, and upkeep. It additionally controls what number of routes DSPs obtain. The DSPs shoulder a lot of the liabilities, together with automobile upkeep and restore, employees’ compensation and unemployment insurance coverage, and accountability for any accidents. 

Ervin joined the Air Force straight out of highschool as a ticket out of his hometown of Flint, Michigan, spending 10 years on lively obligation earlier than transitioning to the Reserves, the place he rose to the best rank of Chief Master Sergeant. In 2018, he was working as a subject engineer, testing navy tools for the protection contractor Raytheon, when he noticed a web-based advert for the DSP program. Amazon was on the lookout for veterans to launch small package-delivery companies, and Ervin was clocking the midnight shift and hankering for a change. The program appeared an thrilling alternative to use his talent set at a disruptive firm “on the tip of the spear of technology,” he thought.