Amazon: One-time password for personal delivery

Amazon is changing its delivery procedure and introducing a one-time password for selected orders, which is supposed to guarantee a personal handover of the ordered goods.

Delivery to humans is to be guaranteed

With the new function, Amazon wants to guarantee that the corresponding orders are handed over to people in any case and not, for example, left in the hallway or in front of the apartment door. For this purpose, a six-digit numerical code is sent with the order, which the company’s messengers have to accept and store as part of the handover. First and foremost, therefore, this is an instrument that increases the pressure on the delivery people. In this respect, the new function fits in with the previous overall picture of the Amazon delivery service, which has already been criticized frequently due to poor working conditions for the employees, who are mostly employed via subcontractors.

The new function is to be activated for orders that exceed a certain value of goods. However, Amazon does not openly communicate how high this value is. The company’s customers will not be able to activate or deactivate the function for specific orders.

However, the possibility of passing on the password to other people is to be preserved. In future, anyone who is not at home on the scheduled delivery day will therefore have to pass on the code to neighbors in order to receive the order. In this case, the delivery person must be informed in good time where the parcel is to be delivered – after all, only a person who has the code is authorized to accept delivery. If a delivery attempt fails, the code loses its validity, which is limited by Amazon to one day. Accordingly, a new password is required for a new delivery attempt. For customers who do not attach great importance to personally accepting every package selected by Amazon, this increases the effort associated with the order.