What It's Like To Be An Amazon Flex Delivery Driver

Amazon has offered free two-day shipping for Prime members since 2005. As Amazon rolls out a one-day shipping guarantee for its 100 million Prime members, Amazon Flex drivers help solve the company's last mile problem. CNBC spoke to these on-demand contract workers all over the country to find out what it's really like to deliver for Amazon. Watch the video to hear about the pay, pace of work, and how Amazon Flex works.

Is Amazon Prime worth it? For many members, free shipping is a key Amazon Prime benefit that factors into their decision to pay $119 per year for the service. As Amazon starts offering Prime members the added benefit of one-day shipping they're working with on-demand contract drivers to help with this especially labor-intensive and expensive hand-delivery.

We spent a day with Omar Montes, a Flex driver in the San Francisco Bay Area. Omar helped a friend deliver around 46 packages in 3½ hours, for $105. “These are like the good days that make you want to continue doing Amazon. But, you know, there’s obviously bad days too,” Montes said.

About CNBC: From 'Wall Street' to 'Main Street' to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more.

Connect with CNBC News Online

#CNBC

What It's Like To Be An Amazon Flex Delivery Driver

[ChrisInvests]

How much money do you really make after deducting EVERY single expense?

[voxkine]

“My vehicle got stuck, can you help me?”

“No, can you finish the delivery?”

“Yea, I just finished them all right now. They were delivered to the middle of this muddy driveway in the middle of some random person’s property.”

[aznesthirteen]

Damn Amazon can't even provide them a free flex shirt?

[jimoneprism]

Damn. Amazon is sloppy with their employees. That's why I'll sometimes go out of my way to shop elsewhere

[ChrisJohannsen]

Amazon is a cancer. I moved to Australia where Amazon barely exists and the city still has thriving retail and department stores like North America did in the 90s and prior. It's so much better for everyone.

[jcarter]

I delivered for flex. You really have tell 9pm to finish your route. Faster you finish a route the more routes you can pick up in a day. All Your expenses can be written off on your taxes, cellphone, mileage etc. People have to remember it's a side hussle not a job.

[DynastySheep]

Worked for Amazon as delivery driver before and there was no time to pee and had to deliver 180-220 parcels a day. Nah never again.

[whooelse]

A lot of workers are walking off the job while in transit. Your packages could be sitting on the side of the road somewhere because an employer got fed up working for amazon & said fk it. Thats why i go shopping at the physical brick & mortar store for all of my stuff.

[allaboutthebociofam]

I actually just started doing Flex, my first day was a bit crazy. But the next 2 days were actually good. I finished about 1 hour less than expected

[AskMiko]

Create balance in the delivery model. Incentive consumers to pick up the low-cost products from the lockers or Amazon pick-up centers. Someone driving around to deliver a USB or a mug is very expensive. I feel their delivery options shouldn't be for every nook and cranny. I've seen people order a $15 item expecting it to arrive same day or the next morning. The amount of money spent to get that $15 item to the customer is way more than the cost of the product. As for drivers: I would establish myself as a business, etc. and write off all those expenses vs it being an out of pocket expense that isn't reimbursable. Use the system for its intended purposes. Gather a bunch of drivers as your employees and assign them short-distance routes within the network. This is a card game and just because the rules were set by the one with the most money on the table doesn't mean everyone else suffers. Play within the rules and adjust so it benefits you.

[AnthonyHighley]

Recent Flex Driver here, let me tell you how bad this really is. First of all those grey Prime vans you see on the road are dangerous as all hell. Most of those vans are is disrepair and have bare minimum upkeep done to them to the point that they are missing backup/rear view cameras and have balding tires and bad engines. This means when you see one of these vans on the road you should be very careful when passing them or even driving around them as well as when they are in the neighborhood where your children play you should tell your kids to steer well away from them! We are loaded to the point of having to smash boxes and flex totes to fit most packages and then rushed off the lot by 8:30 every morning without any breathalyzer checks or anything and in many cases our mentor apps aren’t even signed into or checked to see if they are working to ensure the drivers are doing the job safely and the scores are rarely if ever even checked by the bosses. We are sent out in single wheel drive vans regardless of weather into some of the scariest situations you could think of some days such as driving straight up mountain sides with deep ravines on both sides and no guard rails or anything again regardless off snow, rain, sleet or even blacktop or gravel. We are sent into situations where the bosses don’t even know how to handle matters such as getting stuck or attacked or wrecking or being robbed ect. People have been attacked by dogs from people ordering packages and not putting up their dangerous animals and flex drivers walk right into these situations unprepared and get injured. People have knives and guns pulled on them sometimes on weekly to monthly bases in some routing areas. The training I personally received was insane, I was on ONE ride along in which We delivered packages in a suburban area and I was not taught to drive the van or familiarize myself with it in any way other than being a passenger. The next day I was cut loose on a route in a rural area in which I was sent so far out that the gps didn’t work in many cases and was basically told DO NOT BRING PACKAGES BACK, if need be we were told to literally just leave them on random doors in the area and the neighbors would figure it out if the gps wasn’t working and support couldn’t figure it out. The main thing they want are numbers numbers numbers, the worker doesn’t matter and the customer doesn’t matter, this was absolutely a talking point during orientation amongst many other things the public would find controversial if they were to know but we aren’t permitted to take pictures or record or in some cases even take notes because (at least in my contractors case) Amazon and its subcontractors don’t want the info getting out to the public. We are also pushed so hard to get these numbers in that in many cases workers are pulling 12 hour shifts with no breaks (you can take a break but if you don’t make your route and they can’t get a rescue out to you then your screwed and will get a write up or a point against you) but yet at the end of the day they will still shave 30 minutes off your hours for a nonexistent lunch. Don’t get me wrong though, some days are excellent, you will see things you never knew were there and meet people and all that, but other days you will be sent unprepared into awful situations that these fly by night contractors Amazon has hired are not prepared nor qualified to deal with. There was a girl working the same route I drive who was hit head on in an area with no service and had broken both wrists and the other driver was unresponsive and they couldn’t get help out to them for over 2 hours because they couldn’t find them! That’s just one incident, another guy was driving one of these vans and the back wheel came off due to shoddy maintenance and flipped his van and because he wouldn’t play ball the way they wanted he was let go. Not to mention the crap I’ve seen out here. There was a guy who had the rabbit gps system route him onto a private road with no trespassing signs and was shot at before his van was blocked on the road by a tractor and a plow truck and the owner chased him up into the back of his van fearing for his life! He also didn’t have signal for good few minutes with this psycho outside his van trying to get in until he managed to get his supervisors to call the authorities and get the situation handled. This is after the supervisors had to stumble over one another on what to do because of amazons policies! The drivers safety is almost NEVER the first thought, the companies don’t care, it’s a quick money venture for the subcontractors and a way to pump more money to Amazon. I was told on day one that regardless of weather conditions and where the customer may live that the drivers safety comes second and that’s why they pay 15$ an hour, you are poorly trained and ignored on the subject of safety period. The bosses that I have seen completely uninterested in feedback and simply want those numbers. That’s not to say that some people don’t enjoy the job because some do, but anyone who’s being honest will tell you that this job is completely unprofessional, unpredictable, unprepared, and unequipped and is already getting people hurt and killed just trying to provide for their families and pay their bills. Mark my words, if Amazon doesn’t hold these subcontractors to a higher standard and start making sure these vans are equipped to do this job before sending them out to these remote stops then it will just get worse. There is a reason so many people rated Amazon a terrible company to work for but these subcontractors are worse. You can take that to the bank.

[nix]

8:36 "As bad as it is, you still kinda want to have that option" Welcome to life kiddo, it's a series of trade offs, pros & cons, good & bad. This ends your life lesson for today... :)

[dJ.kNiGhT]

Wow this job delivering packages is hard and not cool if you have a job that doesn't require delivering packages stay there. I was about to leave my job of 20 years for this job no way keep your good job.

[adamsmindman]

Everybody is following the Walmart way of thinking. Take advantage of the struggling low class workers trying to survive.

[MotoTard]

I drive flex Uk always finish early not hard work. Relaxed always gives you more than enough time

[MrSmallANDLoud]

Contract workers vs employees
*pam from the office*
They are the same thing. Except contract workers get screwed.

[bkallday]

It’s like Uber hustling backwards. You get the money upfront, but in the long run You Lose!

[lt]

amazon should be providing some identifying clothing for there delivery employees, that's crazy

[adilusa]

modern slavery... like Uber, Lyft etc...

[SirIkeMedia]

Bottom line:
Don't do this if you live in California.