Amazon wants you to know that it’s really sorry it lied about knowing its delivery drivers pee in bottles

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Last week, Amazon’s social media strategists decided to take potshots at congresspeople, including one Rep. Mark Pocan (D-MI), tweeting “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?” Well, it seems that was incorrect, with Amazon issuing an apology on its official blog on Friday, but only to Rep. Mark Pocan (noticed by GeekWire).

Yes, just to the congressman. The Amazon blog post then went on to say that the tweet “did not contemplate our large driver population and instead wrongly focused on only our fulfillment centers.” The “Amazon Staff” member who penned it also called the tweet “an own goal,” which is possibly fitting as it involved some bad dribbling.

Maybe Amazon could do better with its admittedly “flawed” process when using social media, but first things first. It really needs to do something about the logistical scheduling issues that drive its delivery couriers to such lengths.

Amazon acknowledged that “this is a long-standing, industry-wide issue,” although did try to pin some blame on other shipping partners as well. The thing is, Amazon’s own delivery service is already delivering most of its own packages inside the US, while they’ve grown large enough in the UK that they are rivaling the established delivery companies in bidding for non-Amazon shipping.

Maybe while they’re aggressively building out delivery infrastructure they could partner with local governments to build public restrooms, or semi-public ones opened by security key that other delivery company drivers could also use. The costs involved would be a drop in the bucket of Amazon’s financials and would bring some well-needed PR attention of the good kind.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.