.It's far, far worse. Ground will only do business with another business now, and mandates that the contracted business must hire their employees. Contractors are not permitted to subcontract, so someone has to take responsibility for these people even if it's not FedEx.
In Amazon's case, they're not only using the old Ground model that was shredded in court, they're abusing it way harder than FedEx ever did. Contractors operate their warehouses, never mind their delivery services. And the demands the contractors place on their subcontractors are borderline inhumane.
You are correct on the contractor thing,CF. All I have heard in the last few years is how Amazon is buying trucks,and trailers,and hiring all these people,and how people will be lined up to work for them,and blah,blah,blah. And in reality, they do not,”own” any tractors, or employ any truck drivers. Other than some leased trailers,with their name ,and logo on them,all their delivery people are contract people led to believe they will make big money filling their trunk with packages,to deliver to people who will take a selfie of themselves, post it on Facebook,of them wearing that new pair of shoes that was delivered to their house in 2 hours. But they don’t fit,and now have to send them back.....