Two-day shipping has revolutionized the way we shop, but it appears that speed is coming with some "speed bumps" for delivery drivers in our area. 5 On Your Side Investigators talked with workers out of Euclid who said they weren't getting paid correctly.
"I'm like, 'What's going on here?' She's looking like, 'I don't know,’" said Randy Huggins, who is fed up with getting no answers. "[Another person] is just ignoring our questions. He's not answering us or anything like that," Huggins told us.
Huggins said he used to deliver packages for Inpax Shipping Solutions, but he told us the company had very few solutions for questions about pay problems. "Some people go in [to work] for three days but they might only get paid for two,” said Huggins. “Some people might go in for six days and they might only get paid for two."
Inpax is a third-party vendor hired by Amazon to pick up boxes from warehouses and deliver them to your home. Huggins said he was a driver for Inpax for months, including the 2018 holiday season.
He showed us paystubs he would get every Friday that he said didn't have the right pay. "This next check comes around, they short me a day on my check. It says 24 hours in the system. I got paid for 16," Huggins told us.
He also said he responded to an ad on the job site Indeed.com that Inpax promised delivery drivers $140-$160/day.
"Every Friday was a headache,” said Brian Heavner. “That was one of my worst days of coming in."
Heavner told us he was a manager at Inpax during that holiday time. He said he had to try to handle people's payday problems. "When you look at them, their taxes and the hours that they work, it just doesn't add up to that $140,” claimed Heavner.
He told us it got so bad that another manager at the Euclid location handed out cash from his pocket or transferred money to workers through a cash app. "He would forward them money saying, 'Oh, you just have to pay me back…' like in a certain amount of weeks,” said Heavner.
“So, all of that was sort of under the table then, huh?” we asked.
“Yes…it’s not right,” Heavner told us.
Heavner said he would contact Inpax corporate offices in Atlanta trying to get answers. "They wouldn't respond most of the time,” Heavner told us.
“They wouldn't even respond to their own employees that were getting shorted?” we asked.
“Yes,” said Heavner.
“How did you feel during that time?” we asked him.
“I just felt really bad for the employees,” Heavner responded.
Meanwhile, don't just take Huggins’ and Heavner's word for it. We talked with three other people on camera who said they worked for Inpax in Euclid, they had pay problems, and they were ignored. We also talked with four more people off camera, so, a total of 9 people came forward.
“I felt like I was betrayed. I was lied to. That's how I felt,” said Mary Eberhardt, who told us she worked for Inpax but has since left.
In fact, Heavner said some workers who quit would come back on Fridays to pick up their past checks and he would answer those calls for Inpax. "’No...I don't see no paycheck here,’” said Heavner about what he would say talking to those former workers. “Even though I sent information out to [Inpax corporate] saying, 'Hey, this person is missing this day, and this day, and this day."
And we found several complaints on sites like Indeed from people who make similar claims at Inpax locations around the country. One person from Illinois recently wrote, "Both corporate and management lie to the employees. I had a day missing off a check and it's going on three weeks and I'm still fighting to get my money..." from Inpax. Another in North Carolina wrote, "I can work the same hours every week and my pay changes variously." And even one from a year-and-a half ago in Texas wrote, "I have not gotten paid this past Friday...the Friday before my check was short $120."
As for Huggins, he's still trying to get answers as to why his thousands of dollars weren't there in time for Christmas as promised. "I wasn't able to buy my mother a Christmas present, [or] my little sister, [or] my girlfriend."
After contacting Inpax numerous times, we received this statement from the company’s CEO Leonard Wright.
“We aim to provide a work environment where our drivers feel comfortable raising concerns. When we are made aware of an issue, we work closely with the employee to investigate and, when needed, make things right. We are looking into these claims immediately and will take appropriate action.”
Our 5 On Your Side Investigation has also led to Amazon launching its own investigation into Inpax. We’ve been told the company does regular audits with its business partners to see if they’re abiding by laws and Amazon’s Supplier Code of Conduct. If the partners are not keeping up their end, Amazon will take action.
Here’s Amazon’s official statement:
“We are committed to ensuring that employees of our delivery service partners are fairly compensated and treated with respect. Ensuring drivers have a safe, positive experience is important to us, and drivers have a number of ways to share comments or concerns. We’re working with the delivery service partner to quickly investigate these issues and support drivers.”
