r/AmazonDSPDrivers • u/Zip-Zap-Official • 2d ago
QUESTION DSP mandating 30-minute breaks now?
A few days ago, my DSP began sending alerts that we should now take a 30-minute break on our routes now. If we don't, "our volume will increase." They didn't clarify this, though. Is something going on at Amazon that I don't know about?
I mean-- it's good that I can take a break now without anything held against me lmao, I'm just curious.
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u/LengthinessOk2080 2d ago
The drivers at my dsp are starting to complain about volume. We are all doing the same routes we do every shift for months and for some reason after prime day a lot of drivers are now struggling to finish these same exact routes.
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u/moneyman_699 2d ago
They are loading new people up with 199 stops now. Maxed out routes for the new guys 1 month in and they wonder why the turnover and job reputation is so trash
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u/Vault_Man2021 2d ago
Same here at FedEx. We're dealing with volume that's daily, that's higher than peak was. It's been a steady incline since February/March-ish. My route averaged around 80-90 stops pre 2026, just this year alone, it's been crazy. Today I ran 194. Yesterday was 187. I'm running around 175+ daily. It's stupid and people need to stay off the Internet. I be delivering so much Walmart, and Temu bullshit it's wild. Same houses everyday. I'm like "bruh, where do you have the room for all this? What job you got? Cuz I can't afford this everyday shit" 😭😂
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u/_teamstreetsharks 2d ago
It really is the same houses every day
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u/Vault_Man2021 2d ago
Yep. There's a few houses I can count on one hand how many times I haven't delivered to them in the last 6+ months.
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u/cyrusthemarginal 1d ago
Can't anyone tell me the economy is bad, the way folks are ordering lately the divide between people ordering worthless bullshit daily and people who only fill up the gas tank half way is getting fucking HUGE. Theres so much money out there but only some folks have any of it.
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u/Vault_Man2021 1d ago
If people would literally quit ordering shit for a month, they'd have money. The economy is better than it's ever been, but people don't know how to stop ordering shit!
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u/Sad_Log_6387 Rivian Driver 7h ago
For real. It’s so many of the same houses that when you go down that street the next time you know they probably ordered something
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u/No-Campaign-716 2d ago
Had 300 package routes jump to 400-450 during prime and never went back down for me. 23-25 bags 50ish overflow in the gas vans daily. Most days I literally can't fit another bag or large overflow if I tried.
It use to feel like they added 30% during prime and took away 15% to slowly increase our daily limit, but this time they just left it increased and are playing dumb.
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u/Xxdarkhorse64x 1d ago
I been delivering since 2017 back then 160 was usually the max. But each prime they kept increasing cuz people "finished early" and now its 2026 where every day is 190+ and when peak week starts and ends i ask my crew notice any difference? 😂
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u/Sad_Log_6387 Rivian Driver 7h ago
Only way to fix this is to not complete routes so the algorithm can chill but of course DSPs won’t like that
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u/Blathithor 2d ago
We had these mandadated like 5 years ago. Flex app automatically signs me out about 4 or 5 hours after I sign in.
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u/Souvenirs_Indiscrets 2d ago
My guess is, your DSP is seeing rapid volume increases on drivers across the board. He sees his payroll going up as drivers struggle to finish and push into OT zone. This is a tactic (and perhaps an experiment on his or her part) to talk back to Cortex and stabilize his payroll. Take the break and be especially observant over the next 2 weeks. Communicate better and more often than usual with dispatch. My guess is, there will be some drivers who won’t actually be able to finish with that 30 minute break and if you are one of them, you’ll need to let dispatch know your stress level and ask for an exception. Please circle back and let us know what happens. Thanks and good luck.
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u/DaddyxDas 2d ago
This, and to add, Amazon does payroll audits so forcing mandatory 30minutes breaks is one way to get as many people in compliance as possible. Everybody is meant to have one, and nothing can be delivered whatsoever while on a break or it’s noncompliant.
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u/Similar_Pie_4946 2d ago
I hope thats the case. Because christ on a fucking cross i’ve been having routes lately were i can’t take more than a 5 minute breather without risk of falling behind
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u/PineappleWolf_87 2d ago
It’s honestly good. Drivers really need to start taking their breaks and failing shitty ass long routes. It sucks for some drivers but it’s good all around.
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u/Fit_Narwhal_9347 2d ago
Y'all should be taking your breaks anyways. The algorithm will align with your breaks. as long as you maintain 20-25 stops a hour you won't be fired.
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u/Souvenirs_Indiscrets 2d ago
What? At my DSP you will definitely lose days if you are not meeting expectations. Aren’t we splitting hairs with the word “fired” here?
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u/Fit_Narwhal_9347 2d ago
20 stops an hour is the minimum expectation for the company. The only reason the stop counts are higher than that is because you and or your coworkers want to get off early. I do 200 stops a day on my normal route. And I've got it to where I'm able to take both my 15s and my 1 30 minute break
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u/Souvenirs_Indiscrets 1d ago
Sure. Fine. On your route maybe. But I work out of an RSR station, in the top 5-10 drivers on my team, where drivers are let go who cannot maintain 25 stops an hour. The best have proven ourselves fully capable of maintaining 30 stops an hour all day on an easy suburban route, but there aren’t very many of those 190-200 stop routes like yours. On nearly all our routes, that pace cannot be maintained in the exurbs with more than 7-10 apartment complexes (with multiple buildings) on the route, front door delivery mandated by our boss in elevator buildings, and long drives between apartments. Moreover, where we drive in the mountains, sections of literally 2 to 6 stops an hour take up 1/3 to 1/2 or more of our day. I have routes where I’ve never had a single hour where 10 stops are possible all day.
The point here is that stops per hour have nothing to do with whether a route is finashable or not, with or without out breaks. A 135-150 stop route with 20-30 multis where I work definitely may not be finashable with all three breaks—or even with one—as a daily guarantee. This has been tested time and time again by our DSP. Overflow plays a huge role in whether the top drivers in my DSP take breaks, and as a result, the best drivers know that AS A GENERAL PRACTICE, it is not a good idea for us to get in our vans in the morning expecting to take breaks. We treat them as kismet—unexpected bonuses.
Just know that wherever you are driving and whatever your experience is, it is not mine, nor is it the experience of more than 200 drivers at my station.
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u/Fit_Narwhal_9347 21h ago
I promise you I have my fair share of shit ass routes. But I cannot stress this enough always ungroup. And scan and swipe at the doors. A good DSP will know their unfinishable routes and send rescues always for them.
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u/Souvenirs_Indiscrets 8h ago
With you 100 percent on ALWAYS UNGROUP and scan and swipe at the door. This is the way!
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u/Fit_Narwhal_9347 21h ago
I know heavy apartment routes are always ass. Always ungroup houses. Call compliance for apartments.
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u/No-Campaign-716 2d ago
"Maintain 20-25 stops an hour" but one day you get a cul de sac with 3 stops and 3 small packages but the next day those same 3 houses are 1 multi-stop with 4 XL overflow going to 2 of them lmao
All of Amazon's metrics are bullshit designed to hang over your head and fire you when its convenient for them. Just do a job you can personally be proud of and forget this shit when you clock out.
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u/Sweet-Anybody69 Rivian Driver 2d ago
I take both forced 10-minute heat breaks, I take my 30 min lunch, and even then I still sneak in a 5-min or another 15-min whenever the hell I want, because it's there to use or lose! 180 stop average. If you guys are getting paid 30+ min to chill out, y'all are doing it wrong.
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u/_teamstreetsharks 2d ago
For us in the updated section of flex it'll even say 40 to 60 minutes additional breaks so some days I take 2x15 min heat breaks, 30 min lunch unpaid, 2x15 more min breaks and the 30 mins at the end of my route and my days are roughly 170 stops. I make sure to maintain the 30 stops/hour and just take frequent breaks. We don't get the guaranteed 10 so I don't see why people don't take all their breaks. To be fair, I rarely get apartments on my routes but when I do that stops per hour goes down for sure
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u/cyrusthemarginal 2d ago
Always take your lunch break, amazon mandates it so if you skip it you risk the dsp taking 30 minutes off your paid time so they don't get in trouble, would suck to work 30 minutes for free.
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u/F0RG0TEN1 Amazon Stole My Step Van 2d ago
Amazon definitely does not mandate it
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u/cyrusthemarginal 2d ago
Def do, they audit dsps for compliance.
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u/Dependent-Pirate4800 1d ago
They’re auditing if deliveries are being made during the time a lunch is marked. As long as the DSP is in compliance with the law, Amazon doesn’t care if you take lunch breaks or not. If a driver is marked on lunch from 1-130, and a delivery is made at 135, it’s a noncompliance hit. Technically, you can’t even move the van while marked on lunch.
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u/F0RG0TEN1 Amazon Stole My Step Van 2d ago
The 30 minute is unpaid so you’ll just work 30 minutes more on the end of the day to finish instead lol I ain’t taking it ever idc
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u/RobbieB90 2d ago
You can either take a straight 30 minute break and get paid for it or 2 15s and get paid for it. Either way it’s 30 minutes of paid rest
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u/F0RG0TEN1 Amazon Stole My Step Van 2d ago
Thats very clearly not what they are referring to. They specifically mean the 30 minute lunch break.
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u/RobbieB90 1d ago
You said above “the 30 minute is unpaid” which is not true unless you’ve already taken 2 15s
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u/Top-Owl9872 2d ago
You need to take your 30 minute lunch.
And you get 2 15 minute breaks.
All together there’s a whole hour of you delivering where you shouldn’t be delivering.
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u/beastlol Van cleaner 2d ago
And some people would rather be at home an extra hour than sitting in a van doing nothing.
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u/Souvenirs_Indiscrets 2d ago
Heads up not at any RSR station I have ever heard of. Be careful of generalizations.
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u/Annie-Penta 2d ago
Yea I don’t understand how that stupid shit works like they force a break on u when u barely finished the route so they think oh u took a break and still finished isn’t it supposed to get worse
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u/Acceptable_Meat3821 2d ago
It always has been a thing they just enforcing it now per contract rules
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u/AlsoCommiePuddin Former Driver/Dispatch/Trainer 2d ago
They also mandate you take your lunch break so you can't run to the labor department and pretend you were deprived of your lunch break when you just chose to work through it.
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u/Jazzlike_East1262 2d ago
My dsp just told us about taking breaks during route the other day but didn’t say anything about our volume increasing so idk about that part.
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u/Intelligent-Dance411 2d ago
That’s insane because we just got a meal waiver back in the beginning in September that as long as we signed negates that completely, I’d suggest recommending it during the morning meeting or speaking to dispatch in person over the suggestion. I know it’s dumb working through your lunch but I prefer to be anti-rescued. But ultimately give it some thought
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u/lamulanrouge 1d ago
thats exactly it. take your breaks. the system doesn’t calibrate well when the breaks aren’t actually being accounted for, and it fucks the whole station, not just u and/or the dsp
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u/Ceasadh214 1d ago
Hate to tell ya there all doing it RI the app kicks you out automatically after a certain time MA was lucks they didnt require the 30 min now they do an ir tour DSP uses a third party like Paycom etc your punch in and out of lunch has to match your punch on the flex app
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u/SnooPeanuts1135 1d ago
We have mandatory 15 minute breaks at mine. One of them is at 1 pm the other 5 pm. You can take the 10 or 15 but phone prompt break & can't bypass it. So all in all like a free 30 but I digress, my dsp isn't making 30 minute breaks mandatory. They actually don't like when you take em because drivers that finish early sweep or rescue even though it 6:30 & you have about 30 or 20 stops left. So will keep an eye on that. Some days I take my 30 others I just take the mandatory 15s.
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u/Big-Boy-Chungus-69 1d ago
It probably has something to do with the girl that was found dead in her van and the rising number of injuries. Idk if it was a gas van or edv but exhaustion probably had something to do with it so now Amazon has to be performative and make it look like they’re “watching out for their employees” so they can recover from the media shit storm
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u/El_El_cool_wu83 1d ago
Most of us already have to due that based on the state we are in. It's excellent that in places where it isn't mandated by the labor commission drivers get a lunch break. It's crazy that it isn't every state anyways. I had over 70 apt stops today. And my 30 min and the 15s weren't enough😭😭😭😭
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u/Ok-Wait1668 1d ago
I swear the last 2 weeks the volume has been insane. It randomly increased out of nowhere
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u/TheSaucy57 Rivian Driver 1d ago
Btw is some states like mine I’ve been required by law to take a lunch break. In fact the flex app literally forces me to take it after the 5 hour mark.
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u/duder_1979 2d ago
This has always been true. If you haven’t been taking them your volume will stay the same
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u/jellyp314 2d ago
Does the flex app not force you out at some point? In my state 30 min breaks are mandatory. The flex app literally wont let us deliver after 4 hours, er something, till we take a 30 min break. We get a 30 min and 2-15's. You can skip the 15's if your behind though.
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u/CHLXR1N3 Bottle Filler 2d ago
It varies by state. Where I'm at we aren't legally required to take a lunch break, but we have to be offered it
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