Can't wait to see how awesome the work environment will be for these couriers! Probably much like Uber's drivers: under constant pressure to meet a quota (in this case, probably minimizing the number of missed 1 hour marks), and if you're injured/hit/cause an accident, it's on you and the employer will be nowhere to be found.
That depends: is the average distance between Amazon warehouses and recipients higher than the distance between a neighborhood pizza shop and it's customers?
Well 1 hour delivery leaves at least 15-20 minutes to actually cook the pizza. I suspect the fact that they're doing this one a few limited parts of Manhattan indicates that they have some kind of courier depots especially for this.
We tech folk would do well to remember that relatively few people have the good fortune of working in a labour market where demand outstrips supply. Being able to just quit with a comfortable buffer in the savings account and confidence that a better option is just around the corner is a rare privilege.
In a market where there is an oversupply of labour, a free-market race to the bottom results in significant suffering over a large number of workers while benefitting a small number of the already-wealthy. It is difficult to view this as a socially desirable outcome.
