By Susan Monaghan
Gillette News Record
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

GILLETTE — Inside Amazon’s first package delivery station in Wyoming, which launched in Gillette in early October, there’s a sense of a job done well and to specifications.

The package preparation process, in which warehouse employees stage packages coming in via truck so that local delivery drivers (called Flex drivers) can load them into their cars with maximum efficiency, takes between two and three hours. By 10 a.m., many of the staging employees are done for the day.

For a company that prides itself on employee diversity, as well as job growth opportunities for hard workers regardless of their education or experience, its warehouse employees seem to fit that bill, with backgrounds that are impressively varied.

David Avellaneda, a 36-year-old associate at the warehouse, is from Colombia, and he has lived in Gillette since 2019. Avellaneda has several certifications in sound engineering, and over the past few years, he’s worked with a handful of local musicians, on top of assisting with the Downtown Thursday Nights summer concert series.

“I like Gillette so much because it’s so different, it’s quiet, it’s relaxed. (There’s) not too many people here, so you can get a nice life,” Avellaneda said.

As a bit of a software nerd, Avellanda said he loves that Amazon is a “smart” company, using apps loaded on employee’s phones for some tasks.

“(I) was so excited and was trying to apply to get a job, but it was not easy,” Avellaneda said, citing stiff competition for warehouse associate roles. “In the end, finally they opened a couple positions, and I was getting one. It’s super good to be here, and I’m super excited to grow up in the company.”

The warehouse — with a somewhat mysterious reputation as it still isn’t labeled on Google Maps — sits near the end of the Second Street off of Garner Lake Road and currently employs around 30 warehouse workers, with a pool of around 30 Flex drivers.

Gillette might be more familiar with that growing team of Flex drivers, who have been delivering packages from the Montana border to Wright using their own vehicles since early October.

The Flex drivers also run the gamut when it comes to their cultural backgrounds.  The whiteboard outside the driver loading dock has instructions written in three languages. With package delivery routes planned by Amazon’s computer software that are accessible via smartphone, it seems like a job with built-in equity for anyone willing to work for the few extra hours’ pay.

But after a series of routing mishaps on the part of Amazon’s software, it’s clear the drivers will bear the brunt of Amazon’s growing pains.

It’s good business

Gillette’s warehouse is the first of two delivery stations that Amazon has opened in Wyoming. A delivery station in Casper began operations on Oct. 24. If Amazon’s presence in Gillette signals anything, it may boil down to a strong buyer’s market.

Michael Hackney, the warehouse’s site leader, said Gillette is a “hub” for a high volume of package orders in the area, including the surrounding small towns.

“There were tons of packages that were getting here, and they were just taking a long time to be delivered by the various shipping organizations,” Hackney said.

The volume of packages landing at the Gillette warehouse has grown quickly in its first two months of operation. Hackney said there were about 700 packages coming to the warehouse daily.

By the third week of November, that number had risen to up to 2,500 packages a day.

During the holidays, Hackney said that daily number could reach 4,000. During that seasonal peak, the warehouse could hire more than 50 employees, with around 80 drivers in the Flex driver pool, said Scott Senoka, a public relations representative for Amazon.

It’s not surprising Amazon has found both employee supply and demand in Gillette. According to the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, Research & Planning, the unemployment rate in Campbell County is 2.9% — the national average is 4.1% — meaning there’s a high demand for work in the area and a higher rate of spending.

And with relatively high wages, those jobs make for strong consumers. 

Gillette’s median household income, including both single people and families, is more than $90,000 a year, about $10,000 higher than the national average, according to the Census Bureau.

The wages for warehouse associate jobs are set to the standards of that market, even if they’re not as lucrative as the mining, construction and health care wages that drive it. Avellaneda makes $18.50 an hour.

For most customers in Campbell County, the biggest payoff of the new warehouse will be speedier delivery times. Hackney says Gillette will hopefully see delivery times capped at one to two days.

“That is the plan,” Hackney said. “That’s the whole reason we’re here, I’ve heard some stories about what it was (like) before we were here.”

But if Amazon’s presence in Gillette means good things for buyers, the drivers tasked with the last piece of that logistical puzzle — getting those packages to rural Campbell County residents fast — may be handling more than their fair share of the dirty work.

In a tight spot

Senoka couldn’t confirm how much Flex drivers make in Gillette, but according to the Gillette-area Flex driver job description posted on LinkedIn one month ago, their pay is set anywhere between $15 and $25 an hour.

Like the warehouse associates, Flex drivers are far from the most lucrative earners in Gillette, but with a “no prior experience required” policy and flexible scheduling, the job attracts people looking for work who may have few options otherwise, including those with limited English.

That’s been cause for consternation among some Gillette residents.

One Flex driver loading his car with packages outside the warehouse told the News Record he believed Amazon had successfully “filtered out” certain Flex driver employees since the warehouse opened, including Hispanics and Asians, giving him more working hours.

The driver was flanked by Spanish-speaking workers on either side at the loading dock. Senoka said the man was most likely “confused,” and that since Flex drivers are private contractors, he didn’t reflect Amazon’s policies when it comes to fostering an inclusive workplace environment.

Xander Davis, a Senior Regional Manager for Amazon, said Amazon’s measures for protecting employees against discrimination are robust, and that warehouse employees have channels for reporting workplace discrimination anonymously.

He said the multilingual whiteboard set out for the Flex drivers was a good example of the site’s inclusive policies.

“That’s a good example of trying to make sure everyone’s included,” Davis said. “We realize that there’s a culture of drivers here that fall into (those categories). How can we help them, even if it’s just writing out a simple statement … that is easier for them to digest?”

While out on their routes, Flex drivers have been delivering everywhere from downtown Gillette to far-flung ranches, using routing software provided by Amazon loaded on their phones. Senoka said he wasn’t able to release details about the software Amazon uses.

Since early October, that software has put Flex drivers in some sticky situations, with drivers ending up on private ranches and other difficult-to-navigate areas. To make matters worse, drivers are typically required to get within a certain distance of the entrance of the address they’re delivering to, and take a photo of the package at the delivery site.

Undersheriff Quentin Reynolds said the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office has helped handle some of those calls. Ranchers who’ve fielded wayward Flex drivers on their property have helped them find their way back to public roads.

“We’ve just had … calls out in the county where … whatever mapping program they’re using is not accurate and they’re ending up on private property,” Reynolds said. “It’s usually out in the remote areas out in the county.”

He remembered an incident from several weeks ago when a Flex driver’s car ended up stuck in the mud on a two-track in a rancher’s pasture.

The owner of the ranch drove the Flex driver to the street, where deputies met her and took her to a hotel to stay overnight. A tow truck was able to pull the car free the next day when the mud had frozen over.

Senoka wasn’t able to comment on the software, so he could not say whether Amazon is aware of the navigation issues, or if it planned to make any changes to its delivery process.

As the upcoming Christmas season brings ballooning package volumes to the warehouse, that 80-person Flex driver pool will most likely see some of those same navigational issues. How Amazon — and Gillette — will respond is still up in the air.