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Amazon facility opens for tour

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Six weeks after starting operations, the Amazon "last mile" delivery station in the former General Cable building has 50 employees and is still ramping up -- to perhaps 100 eventually.

Delivery stations like the 20,000-square-foot facility on Pleasant Valley Boulevard are the most local segment of the three-part Amazon distribution scheme, which begins with fulfillment center warehouses of a million square feet or more, followed by sorting centers, according to company spokesman Sam Fisher.

Heading the Altoona operation is Area Manager Rodney Allen, 38, of Indiana, Pa., a Pittsburgh native with a degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in safety, health and environmental compliance.

Smiling and solicitous in leading a media tour Wednesday, Allen touted Amazon's ambition to be the world's best employer and spoke of a company commitment to safety, flexibility, worker development, community involvement, with a "customer-centric" attitude and his own adherence to the Golden Rule.

He routinely tries to persuade friends and family members to apply for work at Amazon, including his sister last weekend, said Allen, who's been with the firm for a little over a year and a half.

The station operates about 16 hours a day, with several full-time managers who get benefits that include health insurance, plus part-time line employees who work four hours a day, up to 22 hours a week, with benefits that include paid time off but not health insurance, according to Allen and Fisher.

Everyone at the station earns at least $16 an hour, Allen and Fisher said.

Many of the workers have other jobs, according to Allen.

Packages arrive at the station from a sorting center in Coraopolis on one or two trucks -- mostly tractor-trailers, sometimes box trucks -- early in the morning.

The boxes are offloaded and sent along a set of waist-high rollers for sorting, based on their destinations.

The sorting process is similar to that used by the U.S. Postal Service, Allen said.

Smaller boxes are put into plastic totes, which are loaded onto carts, along with larger boxes.

Those carts are pushed onto the loading dock by the delivery van drivers, who load the vans and take the packages to their final destinations.

The packages go as far as the State College area to the north and the Ebensburg area to the west, according to Allen.

The van drivers are not Amazon workers. They are employees of a third-party firm, which for the Altoona station is the locally owned Block & Tackle LLC, Fisher and Allen said.

Such a third-party arrangement for drivers is typical for Amazon, they said.

Drivers generally work eight to 10 hours a day and are paid at least $18 an hour, with full benefits, according to Fisher.

There are also individual, independent flex drivers who contract with Amazon for local deliveries, much like Uber drivers, Allen said.

They set their own schedule, work up to 4.5 hours a day and earn money based on the size of their routes.

Dozens of flex routes are generally available on any given day, Fisher said.

The station, which is on the right side of the 200,000-square-foot complex, now known as the Pleasant View Center, includes a break room, an area off the break room where workers can access a grill and an electric griddle, a room for nursing mothers and an "ablution room" for Muslims to conduct ritual foot washing.

On the main floor, there is a training area and a regulated waste area for dealing with spillage, although no hazardous materials are kept at the facility, Fisher and Allen said.

There is a board that shows recommended stretches and preparatory exercises to be done at the beginning of shifts.

Line workers can opt out of time at the end of shifts if their work is completed, without pay, but without compromising their paid time off, Allen and Fisher said.

The company adds seasonal employees during the holidays.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.

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