Hamburg, N.Y. (WBEN) - The holiday season is always a busy time of year for delivery drivers across the country, especially in today's age with many people making their purchases for friends and family online.
One of the more busier services throughout the year, especially around the holidays, is Amazon, as they look to third party, independent companies to partner with in order to supply drivers for delivering packages of all shapes and sizes.
At the new Hamburg delivery station warehouse along Lake Shore Road, BMK Logistics - owned by Brad Keysor - is one of five different delivery service partners in the building that service all different areas within the Buffalo market.
"We're what they call 'delivery service partners' (DSPs). Amazon basically assigns me today 37 routes that we own the entire delivery process of that route. It's a good partnership, in terms of they give us the tools [with] routing, everything there," said Keysor with WBEN at the Amazon facility in Hamburg. "The driver walks in in the morning, and they have a tool that gives them their manifest and their routing, so it's GPS where they go all day long, and then we manage that day. If we are ahead or behind, we communicate to Amazon to take care of that. If we're ahead, we try to help others. If we're behind, we bring extra people in to get caught up."
Keysor is also in charge of running the large Amazon delivery trucks out of the Syracuse market. When the Hamburg delivery station was opened back in September of this year, the company was looking for DSPs to come to the region for support.
"We jumped at the opportunity as a way to continue to grow for us," Keysor said. "The preach that I have to our staff is we have a unique opportunity to provide income and a better life for a lot of employees, so expanding gives us the ability to impact more lives."
When it comes to staffing, Keysor says they are actually doing very well with having enough delivery drivers this time of year.
"It's really a growing opportunity for a lot of people," he said. "There's a decent pay rate, so it's a good opportunity for a lot of people who are looking for employment to make a little bit of extra income, whether it's full-time or part-time. It's really a very good flexible opportunity. There's a lot of variation in the schedule that they can create. If you want to work certain days of the week, you have that flexibility to have a life as well. It's a great partnership between Amazon and the local community, in terms of creating a work/life schedule for a lot of people, because everyone has different competing priorities."
While Keysor and BMK Logistics are always looking and hiring drivers, he admits there are some people who may be afraid of taking the chance to become a delivery driver. He says it's about getting in to experience the daily tasks of being a delivery driver.
"We have to say focused on it at all times in order to get the right people. You want people that are very customer driven, because obviously they're handling packages directly from Amazon. But we also want people to have a focus on safety, because living in the Buffalo market, you understand there's snow, ice, weather, wind," Keysor explained. "You want people that really drive the customer experience, but also are safe and take care of themselves and the other vehicles as well."
When it comes to the daily outlook of working with a company like BMK Logistics and Amazon, Keysor says a typical day around the region is targeted to be about a 10-hour shift.
"If they're very efficient - that's a key word there, because it's not about going fast, it's not about breaking policy - if you're efficient and organized, you can get done in just about nine hours. If you're inefficient, you'll take a little bit longer and we've got to find a way to support you," Keysor detailed. "But ultimately, our goal is to keep the shifts right around 10 hours for two reasons: It gets them a good paycheck, but doesn't burn them out as well. If it's too short, it's not worth coming to work. If it's too long, then it's too stressful to be here."
Especially during the holiday season, one concern for drivers and customers alike is the presence of "porch pirates", sweeping in to steal packages either off people's porches, or even out of trucks delivering packages.
Keysor says this is a daily conversation with Amazon and his drivers about finding safe and secure locations for packages, while also educating customers about finding unique or specific locations to drop off packages. In addition, Amazon has a special service for customer with pictures of the delivered packages at their front doors at the moment of arrival.
"We do worry about it, and one of the things we talk all the time with drivers is putting it in a safe, secure location. If the house is right on the street, don't put it on the front porch where everyone walking in the sidewalk can see it," Keysor said.
For anyone who may be interested in a career as a delivery driver, Keysor says there are a few avenues to find more information.
"You can always go to the Amazon site. Amazon is always posting positions within. I know we use Indeed for job postings ourselves, and we also have BMKLogistics.com, where we have job posting on that site as well," he said.
