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!

@pumpkinsoups ha ha! No! The crash wasn’t when I was working. :) I never speed on the job, as it’s not worth loosing all the pay (and then some!) from a speeding ticket just for doing an amazon.

I’m ‘super-quick’ as I pop the parcel in the safe space when requested and then move on, or drop by the door, then knock/ring and return to my car. I always stay long enough to ensure the customer picks up their item (or I see they are in - often customers will be sat in their lounge etc but don’t want to come to the door for some reason, in which case I’m not going to sit about waiting for them!) and I’m prepping to move onto the next drop.

If you wait at the door for customers to come to the door, 9 times out of 10 you have to wait for them for ages to find their keys to unlock the door, or they look at you blankly through the window, trying to work out who you are, but not opening the window so you can tell them, or inevitably get drawn into a conversation - ‘oh - a parcel! What is it? I didn’t order anything...... Is it for my son?’ So I drop, check the door opens and then move on, unless I have to check age ID or get a code from them........

@Christmaselfie yes, the cool/frozen items are delivered in cool bags with ice packs. We remove the paper bag from the cool bags when at the door.

@pumpkinsoups just realised I only half answered....... I’m not sure about that.......

I’ve only ever not delivered if the customer hasn’t answered, there’s no safe space and I can’t leave with a neighbour.

It doesn’t benefit a driver not to deliver, as they have to track back to the depo (inevitably in the opposite direction to home) to drop it off at the end of the shift.

I can only imagine it’s a fault with the tracking app. Sometimes the app tells you that you have parcels that aren’t in the consignment and the app may tell you (the customer) they are out for delivery when they’re still sat in the depo.

One of my friends did Amazon deliveries for a while, she loved it. The hours fitted into a school day and she did it so she could earn just under the amount she was allowed to earn and still keep her benefits (her DH had just left her as single mum to a child on DLA).

She didn't tell many people about it as lots of people are a bit snobby about it, but the money and flexibility worked for her- if her DS had a bad morning and she was likely to get a call from school she didn't sign up for shifts.

@Earslaps does she not do it anymore?
Yes this is what I'm wondering if I can fit it into a school day

What's the bit about customers have a code? I've never come across that. Nice you can work with your dog as co-driver!

Do you know about the requirement for a very specialist business car insurance that's aimed at delivery drivers?
Our local police force posted something about it a few weeks ago. Apparently only a couple of companies offer it (standard business cover is insufficient for delivery drivers). They were specifically mentioning it for the benefit of Hermes / Amazon / Dominos / Deliveroo drivers who use their own cars. It's rather expensive too - almost makes most of these delivery jobs not cost effective if you aren't working close to full time hours.

@Lurkingforawhile I don’t know why some parcels have it - it’s possibly to ensure other householders (parents or flat mates perhaps) can’t take the delivery, as it’s only released to the person that can give the driver the code.

@cautiouscovidity yes, it’s called hire a dog reward. It’s about £30 a month on top of normal insurance I think........ a lot if you’re only working a few hours, but it can be written off as an expense in your taxes of course........

Hire and reward!! 🤣

[quote MondeoFan]@Earslaps does she not do it anymore?
Yes this is what I'm wondering if I can fit it into a school day [/quote]
No, she got another job in an area she is interested in.

I've tried a couple of times to get work with amazon flex but haven't been successful. Do they recruit a lot?

@ArrrMeHearties I was on the waiting list for quite a while before they contacted me. It’s just a waiting game. Some areas are overrun with drivers, others can pay over £100 for 4 hours work due to lack of drivers.

Hi @Spanielmadness

How do you work out the tax on the income? Wanting to do this as a second job for a bit of extra money (currently in maternity leave, unpaid) and for the life of me can't find a straight answer!

Thank you

@njh21 keep track of your miles, additional insurance costs and write that off against the amount you earn. Submit a tax return as usual.
When I started, Amazon covered you for insurance. The work was well paid and worth doing.
They clearly had a business plan to accept a major loss for a time to gain the business and now they have more employee van drivers on much poorer wages/conditions so there is less work available for the car drivers. Also, they no longer cover your insurance and you must provide proof of ‘hire for reward’ insurance which is expensive and in my opinion, not worth it for the part time work you get from doing the job.
I stopped doing it a few months ago. It was a good earner for a couple of years, particularly when covid was bad and they were desperate for drivers and regularly paid the equivalent of £30 per hour for some jobs……..

Oops! Forgot to name change back for my reply!

Thank you! Really helpful information & still very much in two minds (just going through the back ground check to come back)

Is it the self assessment form on gov website that I fill in? I'm worried i fill in the wrong form and then end up owing which I obviously want to happen!

Thanks again for the response 😃