Amazon delivery drivers on Reddit have created a new archvillain manager to joke about their impossible workload. This all-seeing Amazon delivery service partner (DSP) dispatcher assigns undoable routes and impossible-to-complete package loads, and is generally overbearing and unpleasant. His name is “Wayne.”
“Wayne” the meme is based on a seemingly real dispatch boss that a driver wrote is named Wayne. In the Amazon delivery driver subreddit, one person wrote a scathing complaint about their dispatch manager. “Wayne you are a piece of shit,” the post reads in part. “Telling us not to get infractions. This guy thinks he’s hot shit at dispatch. But the as [sic] soon as he gets out on the road he gets 2 infractions. Yells at us for getting infractions, then gets infractions himself.”
The original post has since been removed. But for the past two weeks, the idea of Wayne has spread across the subreddit and Amazon drivers Discord. “Wayne” and another apparent villain workers have dubbed “Jimmy” have now become the names of every bad Amazon boss and dispatcher across Amazon’s vast network of quasi-independent DSPs.
It is notably impossible for Amazon drivers to maintain a perfect driving record, as Wayne seems to demand. Aside from having to complete a stop every two minutes, drivers are monitored by in-van AI-powered surveillance cameras, which track a driver’s movements and notify their dispatch manager of any infractions. If these infractions pile up, they can lead to drivers being disciplined.
“There’s a in-van camera that sees you every time you do something wrong,” the person who wrote the original Wayne post told 404 Media in an email. “You will get a speed braking ding when it’s not even your fault. Like when a car switches to your lane when you’re close and you slam the brakes, you will get dinged.”
In one post, titled “Wayne b like,” a driver shared a photo of their 48-stop-long route for the day. Their stops are clustered together, but not in a logical order. Their second and third stops are near one another, but their fourth stop is a significant distance away. After the cluster of stops around their fourth stop, however, the driver’s route leads back to the cluster around the second stop, still a significant distance away. Drivers are required to complete stops in order, which can lead them to fall behind if they are required to drive long distances between stops multiple times throughout the day. “Gotta love this crap,” the driver wrote. “Amazon thinks we can teleport.”
Another Reddit post was titled as “Yeah…fuck Wayne.” The driver shared a photo of their package load of 185 stops and 372 packages. “I guess this is what I get for doing 40 stops/hr last week,” the driver wrote. “I had me a nice slow WALK today.”
It’s important to consider a driver’s time restrictions. Drivers are mandated by the Department of Transportation to only work up to 10-hour driving shifts. Assuming the post’s author would work a standard shift of nine hours, they would be required to make an average of 41 packages per hour. That leaves less than two minutes for each package, which would be difficult to achieve if the package delivery locations were ordered in an inefficient manner.
Yet another post sharing a photo of a packed van read, “Wayne! Wayne! Wayne! Here take this I don’t want it, U DOT? Not mee!” One person wrote that “Wayne ruined paradise” and shared a video of Amazon driver photos set to the opening of the 2007 Transformers movie. Numerous posts don’t make a specific complaint, but instead use “Wayne” itself as the joke. Multiple people have flipped off signs for “Wayne Street.” One person said Wayne had rode along with them on their route—the Wayne in question appears to be a 12-Volt battery backup system for a sump pump. “Wayne” the meme can be equated to the idea of every dispatch manager, regardless of location or context. He represents the system, and drivers can complain or joke about him in any condition they face.
Amazon drivers across the U.S. have felt that their routes were impossible to complete with these requirements. Many have had to skip bathroom breaks to meet their quotas. One group of drivers in Colorado has even sued about this. Wayne, the original poster wrote on Reddit, is representative of the manager who “thinks it’s doable to do 160 stops in the country at 11:00 a.m. with no rescue.”
“Delivery Service Partners are able to provide feedback directly regarding routes and we work closely with them to set expectations,” Amazon spokesperson Branden Baribeau told 404 Media in an email. “We also regularly communicate with both DSPs and their DAs [delivery associates] regarding best safety practices.” Baribeau said that drivers were encouraged to take breaks built into their route each day to rest and hydrate, and that they could also use their Amazon delivery route app to find restaurants or coffee shops nearby in which to do so.
Due to identifying information being removed from the Wayne posts, it is not possible to contact Wayne for comment. If you are Wayne and you would like to respond, please email me!
