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The numbers sound tempting.
Under the heading “Become a business owner” you can read that a founder can run his own delivery company with 20 to 40 delivery vans and 40 to 70 drivers with start-up costs of just 15,000 euros.
An annual sales potential of between 1.2 and 2.5 million euros and a profit potential of 60,000 to 140,000 euros would await successful owners, it says in large letters in white on a blue background.
This advertisement cannot be found as a classified ad in a weekly newspaper, nor does the provider hide behind a cipher.
Rather, the world's largest online retailer Amazon is looking for “entrepreneurs across the country who want to start and operate their own parcel delivery company”.
It is advertised with "access to Amazon's exclusive discounts on a number of resources".
Delivery vehicles, devices, fuel cards or uniforms - everything has been thought of.
The pandemic intensifies the parcel boom
In fact, tens of thousands of parcel drivers are missing in Germany.
The online trade is growing unstoppably, in the first three quarters of this year by 15 percent in sales.
The corona pandemic has increased the desire to shop from home.
It is no longer just clothes or electronics that are brought to the front door.
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The market leader among parcel services, Deutsche Post / DHL, delivers up to eleven million parcels every day in December.
The BIEK association calculates that it should be around 420 million boxes in total in the run-up to Christmas.
A large part of it comes from the online department store Amazon.
Now, after Christmas, the next boost comes when a lot of unsuitable or unwanted items are returned.
More and more often, delivery is promised on the day of the order.
From Amazon's point of view, the work of the large parcel services DHL, Hermes, DPD or UPS is no longer sufficient for these quantities and this speed.
This is why the online retailer organizes the delivery itself in a number of cities. However, this does not happen with its own staff including delivery vehicles, but via courier services and subcontractors.
But even here things are stuck with the offspring.
This is why the online retailer has started the “Amazon Delivery Service Partner” campaign by looking for delivery service partners - with details as described in the advertising brochure.
According to the information, there have already been "thousands of applications" and more than 100 delivery partners have already started their companies successfully.
A training program lasting several weeks in Berlin and Munich should be enough to then be able to start as a business owner.
Amazon wants to avoid bogus self-employment
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However, Amazon is entering an area with risks.
So no sole proprietorships are to be recruited, but courier companies with several drivers employed there.
The online retailer does not want to let the risk arise that state control authorities investigate possible bogus self-employment.
“In order not to legally run in front of a wall, in contrast to the USA, for example, Amazon has chosen a different approach with independent courier companies in Germany,” says Horst Manner-Romberg, head of logistics consultancy MRU.
If you want to try your luck as a “Delivery Service Partner”, you need the courage of the employer.
But the leash on which Amazon wants to let the delivery company run is short.
“The Amazon system only allows very little leeway,” says Manner-Romberg, industry expert.
The entrepreneurs got into a "blatant dependency relationship", they were dependent on the promised tours and package quantities.
If these orders are not received, there is a risk of losing the foundation overnight.
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“There will be some founders who will do good business for themselves with this independence,” says Manner-Romberg.
The majority, however, will not be.
"Out of ten of these subcontractors, maybe three will be happy with their new job, and seven will have a lot of trouble with it," says Manner-Romberg, assessing the chances of success.
Pay according to the situation on the labor market
It is common at Amazon that delivery companies are paid per tour and not per parcel drop.
According to an entrepreneur, the daily rates in large cities are between 200 euros and 260 euros for an eight-hour tour by a driver including a delivery vehicle.
As a basis for this, Amazon uses figures from the delivery areas - from renting a flat on site to the cost of living up to unemployment figures.
From this socio-demographic data, the online retailer determines what it considers to be appropriate remuneration for the courier company.
“Amazon knows exactly what has to be paid and also what doesn't have to be paid,” says one delivery company.
The online retailer buys “wheels and hands”.
According to information from the industry, the hourly wages that come out for the drivers at the end of this calculation are at least twelve euros, well above the minimum wage.
Parcel delivery should strengthen German inner cities
The Union fraction wants to introduce a parcel fee on goods ordered and delivered online.
This is intended to support retailers and thus strengthen German inner cities.
Source: WORLD
When it comes to organizing the tours, Amazon does most of it.
It starts with planning and ends with damage tracking if a package has not arrived.
In its own office centers, the online retailer checks thousands of data from independent delivery companies every day.
Through these evaluations, the inspectors know who is doing what and who is not.
Each individual monthly statement is also carefully analyzed.
If the values do not match expectations, there will be consequences - and the job will wobble.
"It is totally unrealistic to advertise self-employment with such numbers as Amazon does," says Michael Mlynarczyk, owner of the courier company MMK Freight Services.
The entrepreneur from Duisburg is both an author of non-fiction books and a trainer for prospective courier services.
Nobody can make a reliable forecast of an expected profit.
There are too many influencing factors in the courier business such as illnesses, accidents or staff failures.
"It doesn't matter whether the couriers go bankrupt"
Mlynarczyk also takes a critical view of Amazon's own training.
“The prospective couriers have to get unfiltered information.
Everything else amounts to massive manipulation, ”says the entrepreneur.
Amazon wants to use courier services using methods that other parcel services would have done 20 years ago.
“It doesn't matter whether the couriers go bankrupt.
At least that's how it looks to me, ”says Mlynarczyk.
Finding delivery companies who are already on the way for Amazon through the new program is quite possible.
But some of them don't want to talk about their work.
A young entrepreneur from Augsburg first wants to comment, backs down and then asks for a meeting on site - with an Amazon manager as a witness.
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Of course there are also working relationships.
The Munich-based company Delivery Experts, for example, was one of the first courier services to take over delivery work for Amazon in Bavaria.
Up to 300 drivers from the courier company work for the major customer.
"Amazon is run very professionally, but also performance-oriented," says Sebastian Haßler, partner at Delivery Experts.
But the ideas don't go together everywhere.
Then the Munich courier service does not accept an order from Amazon - as it did recently in a large city in northern Germany.
Amazon itself refers to successful founders and offers contacts.
One of them is Matthias Müller, 54 years old, a trained forwarding agent and has been an independent courier company in Berlin for a few weeks as part of the program.
Müller has 24 employees and drives 20 tours for Amazon every day.
The online retailer helps him with almost all things that are necessary for the company, such as the vehicle, work clothing or insurance.
Regarding the business figures promised, Müller says that they are “not unrealistic”.
Is Amazon Passing a Business Risk?
The professional expert Müller lists the following tips for founders: “Be clear about what you can do.
You have to be able to organize and deal with people. ”In addition, one shouldn't“ look at the clock ”on the job.
Working in the parcel industry is not an easy topic in Germany.
"Everyone has to be aware of the risks they are taking," says Müller.
The trade unions are generally skeptical about this type of delivery work.
"As far as income, social benefits and occupational health and safety are concerned, there is a glaring gap between the work in some courier companies and the employees covered by collective agreements in a delivery company," says Stefan Thyroke, head of the specialist group for forwarding, logistics, courier, express and parcel services of the Ver.di.
With the system of independent delivery companies, Amazon wants to keep delivery costs low and get rid of the risk of their own employment.
As the union official reports, authorities repeatedly uncover cases in which courier companies transfer half of their wages to their drivers and pay the other half in hand.
“But this form of undeclared work at subcontractors is certainly not limited to delivery work for Amazon,” says Thyroke.
This deficiency could be remedied by the law on subcontractor liability and increased controls of the financial control of illegal work.
The branch union DPVKOM also refers to risks.
“There is a great danger that such courier companies will employ employees on the verge of legality,” says Christina Dahlhaus, chairwoman of DPVKOM.
In addition, these parcel driver jobs will probably not only be jobs subject to social security contributions, but mostly mini jobs on a EUR 450 basis.
"The announced sales and profits will by no means reach all courier companies," says Dahlhaus.
None of this has anything to do with the free spirit of entrepreneurship as she knows and appreciates it.
How DHL couriers experience the parcel madness before Christmas
The madness begins every morning in the delivery center: the couriers load at least a third more parcels per day into their vans in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Nevertheless, the delivery professionals do not let the fun of their work be taken away.
Source: WELT / Dagmar Boehning