Amazon's Prime Day sale is over, but many drivers are still working around the clock to deliver packages. Before the major annual sale started, Amazon gave its United Kingdom delivery drivers five tips on how to "keep in top shape" while assuring them that "endorphins are your friend." They included eat breakfast, drink water, take breaks, stay positive and stop for lunch.
One tip read, according to Motherboard: "Keep it positive: Endorphins are your friend! Keep them flowing by staying on the move, and striking up a conversation."
Drivers worldwide took notice of the tips and quickly took to social media to joke about them.
"As for striking up conversations, sometimes customers wanna chat, but we always kinda respond like, 'Haha that's great — anyway we gotta go,'" a Virginia delivery driver said.
"Take your lunch and breaks," one Los Angeles driver wrote. "Sure, if you want [your dispatcher] on your ass saying you're 20 or so stops behind."
A driver in a suburb of London said: "I don't take a break. I eat and drink as I go, as I like to get back to see my kids before they go to bed."
While Amazon supplies its employees with plenty of water, hydrating often leads to other problems. When drivers don't have time to stop somewhere and use a restroom, many resort to urinating in bottles and bags. Some female drivers have resorted to using "she-wees," a portable urination device that can be purchased on Amazon, to relieve themselves, according to Motherboard.
One driver who quit earlier this year said: "I got a lot of routes in the mountains, so I opened a black trash bag in the back of the van and peed over that. ... I'm dehydrated and exhausted, and that's led to my resignation. People are killing their bodies to keep up with the demand, and it has to stop."