“Amazon Flex advertises that they pay anywhere in the $18 - $25 per hour range. Unlike a lot of other flex companies, this wage is actually right. Usually it's on the lower end, but you'll always be making at least $18/hr while you're driving for Amazon Flex.
The great thing about it though is that how much you're paid is based on how quickly you're able to deliver the packages. If you're able to deliver everything inside an estimated 4 hour block in only 3 hours, you still get paid for the 4 hour time period. It's rare that this happens but when you know the roads, and get a little lucky with traffic, it feels great.
The downside however is that Amazon Flex doesn't pay for any of your car maintenance fees, or anything at all that involves costs for your deliveries. If you're delivering in downtown New York, you'll have to somehow find parking, and then pay for your parking (which can end up costing $5). None of this money gets refunded to you, so some days if you're unlucky and only go to neighborhoods with paid parking, you'll make significantly less money.
In all, usually the pay will come to about $13-15 an hour once you include gas prices and the delayed maintenance cost of your car. Definitely a great job to make some side money, but don't expect to be making $25/hr every day.”
“The process for joining Amazon Flex is very easy. The only requirements you must have are that you're over the age of 21, you have a valid driving licence in the states, and you have your own car. They only a certain amount of people per distribution center so you have to check on their website to see what cities are hiring flex drivers.”
“The entire training is done through the mobile application. On your first day you drive up to the center, quickly meet the manager of the distribution center, and then watch the training videos on your phone. The videos show you how to pick up packages, how to follow the directions, and how to finish an order. In all there isn't much training needed as the job is pretty straight forward.”
“Honestly there used to be a lot of opportunities to get blocks of work, but they've over saturated their distribution centers so it can be very difficult to pick up shifts. A classic problem of having too many flex workers wanting shifts, but not enough work to give out. I expect to get about 2 blocks per week casually checking the app on weeknights. If you want to bring that up to 5 or 8 shifts, you have to constantly be checking the app.”
“I really wish I knew that absolutely everything about Amazon Flex is done through the mobile application. You have to find your shifts yourself through the mobile app. You have to follow the route that the app gives you. You have to watch the training videos through the app.
Although this definitely makes it easier in some ways because you always know where you have to go for information, it can be extremely frustrating when the it's not working. When you're trying to pick up shifts but your phone is slower than other phones, you depend on the app refresh time to be able to click it first.
Or when you're following the route that Amazon gives you for your package delivery, and then half way through it tells you to turn around and go the way you came from. These small bugs can have a huge impact on you as if you miss a couple deliveries within your block, you might just get instantly let go by Amazon Flex.
In all, I just wish I knew how much of the work is based around the application. I bought a super bad android phone just so that I could work here, but my ability to work effectively through the app because my phone is bad is much worse. I'll have to invest in a new phone so that working here feels better.”
The people I've met at the distribution centers are pretty nice, and the general vibe is pretty relaxed, but you don't really have to interact with other Amazon Flex employees at all (besides the guys who fill up your car with packages). I personally love this, and it lets me keep inside my own thoughts throughout the day.
Because you're not actually an employee of Amazon Flex, and are instead a contractor hired for the work, you get absolutely no benefits for working there. If you want insurance or 401k matching, you'll have to find a full-time job where you're hired as an employee.
One of the great things about working for Amazon Flex is that the parcels you're delivering are mostly same day deliveries. What this means is when you show up at the door, the person is ususally very happy to get the package, and will sometimes tip. Very rare to run into a frustrated customer when you're bringing them their stuff.
“The one thing that needs to be changed at Amazon Flex is the fact that they have absolutely no support for their drivers. You can expect that if you have any problems at all, you will never get worth while feedback from the company. Amazon needs to change this so that they keep their best drivers happy.
When a customer complains about an order not being delivered, even if you scanned the item and know that you left it at the right place, Amazon will instantly side with the customer. If you try and bring up that the customer was wrong and probably just trying to get the refund money, you'll still get no response from a customer support team.
In fact, the only time you ever hear anything from Amazon Flex is through a completely automated robotic email message. If you send an email with a specific complaint about something, you'll get a super vague blanket email response. If you try to follow up after that email, you won't get anything.
If Amazon Flex wanted to keep its best drivers with high fulfilment ratios, they should have at least a couple people who are able to talk to you about your requests, and judge if you should be fired after one mistake.”
Amazon Flex is a delivery service that decreases the time to delivery of Amazon products to the end consumer. Amazon Flex gives people the opportunity for anyone to have a flexible job, become their own boss, and set their own schedule, so they can spend more time working on the things that matter most to them.
Founded in 2015, Amazon Flex spawned out of a need for Amazon to decrease the time and cost associated with delivering their products, while facing growing competition from crowd sourced delivery companies such as Postmates. With over 50 cities available to become a Amazon Flex delivery contractor, the subsidiary has grown quickly since its inception due to the scale of Amazon itself.
Positive reviews from employees report enjoying the flexibility, the decent pay, the lack of dealing with management, and the ease of the job. Negative reviews from employees report being frustrated with the difficulty involved with picking up shifts, the lack of support from Amazon, the entirety of your work being done through the Amazon Flex app, and the lack of reimbursement for vehicle costs.
Amazon Flex is a great job if you want to be your own boss and have a flexible schedule. There are usually 300-400 people accepted per facility, so spots for work are limited. They are currently hiring parcel delivery drivers for their 50+ locations across the U.S..
Amazon Flex believes in 3 core values that drive their drivers to enjoy their time working for the company.
- They believe in work/life balance, the ability to work when you want for however long you want to work.
- They believe in autonomy, that people can be their own bosses and hold themselves to a high level of expectation.
- They believe in having a work environment that lets you focus on what you want to focus on outside of work. Amazon Flex is a flexible job where you're your own boss, you set your own times, and live the life you want to live.
*There is no interview process for becoming an Amazon Flex driver - you must fit their requirement list*
Requirements:
- 21 years old
- Own your own car
- Have valid US drivers liscence
- Have an Android Phone
Apply to become an Amazon Flex delivery driver online through flex.amazon.com/about .
Set up in 2015, Amazon Flex was built to help Amazon decrease their time of deliveries and their high cost associated with shipping. Amazon originally was rumored to be searching the market to purchase an end to end delivery service such as Postmates or a food delivery company such as Foodora, this way they could enter the market leveraging a workforce that already relied on ordinary people to deliver packages and not traditional courier companies.
Amazon recognized that with their size and reputation, they could instead release their own proprietary service and push these competitors out of the space. The app was released in the fall of 2015, and now works within over 50 cities across the states.