I deliver for Amazon Flex in my own car AMA

[Spanielmadness]

As I’ve seen the other thread, I thought people might be interested from the Flex point of view.

I’ve delivered since about October time in my own car and I do a few shifts a week - between 2 and 5 roughly.
They can be anything from 1.5 hours to 4.5 hours.
As I’m not terribly close to a depo, I tend to go for the 3 hour plus shifts.

I deliver parcels and also Morrison’s deliveries (although I don’t do many of those as it’s heavy and lots of bags for less time).

I enjoy it because I’m self employed, I can take the dog with me (he loves sitting in the passenger seat watching the world go by) and I often finish my shift early so I feel I’m getting a good deal money-wise!

Ask away!

Are you treated well?

How is Amazon flex different to a normal amazon delivery?

Amazon flex is in your own car, not a van and you’re self employed, not contracted.

How is your car is it new or old? Have you thought about buying a van?

I have just started getting prime Morrison’s deliveries!

It looked as if they’d just asked a customer to drop my stuff home as they left the shop!!!!! How many grocery deliveries will you do in a shift? How much do you get paid for a shift?

And thank you ❤️

It’s swings and roundabouts.
The pay is the best for any delivery role I think. £13 to £20 per hour. You’re paid for all the hours you accept and I generally finish before the official finish time as I’m super-quick!

You need to have a fuel-efficient car to make it worthwhile. Mine averages just over 40mpg

Anyone that took 20 hours over December was given a £100 bonus.

However, any parcels that can’t be delivered have to be returned to the depo and that can add miles onto your journey when you have finished which is a pain. Customers that order a parcel with a code and then are never in, or claim they don’t know the code are the worst, as that parcel then has to return to depo.

@MondeoFan I crashed my 09 mini the other week! Now I have a similar age VW Eos.

No, I wouldn’t buy a van as I don’t want to do it full time, plus the van drivers seem to get a worse deal, reading the other thread........

Oh no I feel your pain. I have a 2013 mini but if I did it I'd do it in my mondeo 55 mpg.
Did you have to do any training?

@FTEngineerMFT for a Morrison’s shift you’d get about £26 - 29 for a 2 hour shift and deliver to 3 or 4 customers......

There are 1/1.5 hour shifts offering £13 - £20.50. I imagine you’d deliver to 1-2 customers.

I tend to do very few of these, as it’s very heavy, it takes more time and space in the car and you often have to check ID. Customers can get unreasonably shirty when asked for age ID and I do understand, but we have to type their name and DOB into the app, or we can’t move forward with the delivery.
They don’t seem to understand that this is part of my income, it’s not worth letting it go just because it’s an inconvenience for them to show me their driving licence.

@MondeoFan only training is a series of short videos to watch, then scenario based questions.
E.g. if a customer doesn’t answer the door should you:
a) kick the door down
b) just drive away
c) try to contact them by telephone

😏

Is the 13 to 20 per hour after car expenses?

Have you got business insurance?

Could you work everyday if you wanted to? But you only choose to do 3 days?
I'm guessing there is plenty of work?

@Esse321 it’s before, so you’re not going to get rich doing it, but it’s better than no income and you can choose your hours to an extent.
Plus, as I said, the dog comes with me, so it works for me.......

@DicklessWonder you should have business insurance, but i imagine many drivers don’t. Amazon don’t check.

What is Amazon flex? I've never heard of it.

I’ll take that as a no.

Expensive mistake if you have an accident whilst working as you wont be covered.

@MondeoFan I think the limit you can do with Flex is around 30 hours a week - don’t quote on on that, but it’s just short of full time....... I work less as I don’t rely on the money and I have other sources of income.

During this Corona time it brings in some cash and it gets me out of the house.

Also, as I don’t live close to a depo I only accept longer jobs and as there’s a lot of drivers, I don’t always see or accept in time, the jobs I want to take. Plus, some days I just don’t fancy working - if it’s very rainy, or a lovely sunny day :)

Jobs show up on the app as first come first served and you won’t always see the same available jobs another driver will see. As far as I know, there’s no reason for this.......

@TierFourTears it’s amazon parcels that are delivered to you by a driver in a normal car, not a large van.

Good info thanks.

Yes I know what you mean. It sounds good as it fits in with your lifestyle and the beauty of being self employed.

So do I, as a customer, notice a difference?

They don’t seem to understand that this is part of my income, it’s not worth letting it go just because it’s an inconvenience for them to show me their driving licence.

The ones that deliver Morrison's shopping to us don't ask for proof, they just take my word for it. I'm not sure I'm happy about the implications of that

You’re paid for all the hours you accept and I generally finish before the official finish time as I’m super-quick!

Putting two and two together, you are super quick and you crashed your car - speeding?!

What are the reasons why a delivery doesn't happen? We had a parcel out for delivery one day which was then not delivered even though we were in all day and have a safe place designated for parcels which the regular person delivers to. I've sometimes seen a parcel on the tracking as being a few streets away and then it's not come even though it wasn't later at night.

@TierFourTears only that I arrive in a car. :)

Don't the Morrison deliveries have to be keep frozen or chilled? How do you do that in a normal car?