By last November, Hirotaka Yokota had finally had enough.
He told Yamato Transport that his drivers would no longer ferry packages. The nation¡¯s largest parcel carrier was working them into the ground, with a surging volume of packages from online retailers such as Amazon.com to homes and businesses. And they could get better-paying work elsewhere, without doing 15-hour shifts.
¡°More and more subcontractors were having that conversation,¡± said Yokota, who runs Artpla Ltd., a former delivery subcontractor for Yamato. ¡°Yamato ran out of drivers and was relying on its own employees. And then they couldn¡¯t manage.¡±
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