Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate en route, despite company denial

As an ex-trucker, I absolutely believe Amazon drivers pee in bottles and defecate en route, because it's a sad reality of the industry. The vehicles don't have facilities for that like RVs, they're difficult to get into places where there are bathrooms, and you're on a time limit. Sometimes choices have to be made and necessity overrides dignity.

I'm curious if long haul Amazon trucks or Amazon-hired trucks have humane idle restrictions or Auxiliary Power Units so their drivers can have heat and air conditioning when they're stopped. That is an outrageous issue that always put my jaw on the floor when I first got into trucking. People will break a window and call the police for a dog in a hot car for 30 minutes, but if it's a human trapped in there society ignores it. Drivers are tucked away out of sight in the sleeper units of these trucks, and if a company doesn't provide an APU or has idle restrictions to save fuel, they just get to roast in there. I think a lot of people have just never considered where long haul drivers go when they're not driving. It's not hotels, and it's not home.

I'm kind of off on a tangent here, but California's idle rules were a huge problem when I was in the industry for this reason. APUs weren't on most trucks, so drivers would need to idle to stay cool or warm, but in California this would get you a ticket. You can't afford a ticket (the money or the hit to your license), but you also can't just freeze on a cold night or burn up on a hot day in your little half-insulated box. I understand that the rule was there to put pressure on companies to equip their trucks with efficient APUs, but that implementation was at the mercy of thoughtless companies trying to make a profit and actual humans trapped in inhumane conditions, and those humans were caught facing the consequences. You'd never do it to an animal, but a trucker? Sure.

If we knew and understood the horrid labour conditions behind most mass-market goods and services, we'd be ashamed to be consummers.