Ever wonder how Amazon gets its packages to customers with same day delivery? They are still trying to figure it out themselves, and in the meantime they have started the Amazon Flex driver program. They say you can earn $18 to $25 an hour, which sounds pretty good, so let’s take a closer look at what it entails.
You can also check out this Amazon Flex Guide which goes into more detail about how the program works and how you can get started.
What Does It Pay?
Amazon lists the pay rate at a guaranteed $18 an hour up to $25 an hour with tips. So the more packages you deliver the more you get paid, but you also have to factor in the wear and tear on your car as well as gas usage. The more packages you deliver the more gas you’ll use and the more wear and tear your car will undergo.
Let’s say you worked at a company that paid you for your mileage. You could expect to be reimbursed $0.55 cents per mile you drive which just goes to show how much the cost of gas and wear-and-tear is a real cost that will add up in the long run.
What Do You Do?
Working as an Amazon Flex driver you’ll be driving to the facility where all of the packages originate from, waiting in line with other Flex drivers and loading up packages for that day’s delivery. Once you’re done delivering the packages you can either go home or head back to the facility and get a new load to take out if there are more packages available.
How Reliable Is It?
Because the number of packages that need delivery will vary and the number of Amazon Flex drivers also varies, it makes it hard to come up with an exact figure of how much you could make on a week-by-week basis.
If you are looking for something that can provide you with a full-time income, it might be hard to scrape together enough deliveries to make it something that can pay all of your monthly expenses every month like clockwork. But it can definitely provide a nice side income to boost your overall monthly income.
What Are The Drawbacks?
There are a lot of benefits to being a Flex driver, including a flexible schedule and the ability to drive around in your car listening to your music while you make money. One drawback is that you’ll have to be the one that pays for the gas, as well as maintenance costs such as oil changes and scheduled maintenance at specific mile markers.
How Long Will This Last?
It is unclear how long Amazon plans to use their Amazon Flex program as the means to deliver their packages. On a long-term scale Jeff Bezos has shown a lot of interest in the ability to deliver packages using drones, but there is still a lot of red tape that would need to be cut in order for that to be a reality.
In the short term,you may see them start to use self-driving cars with a delivery person riding along. Rest assured you can probably rely on this for the next few years, after that it gets a bit blurry as technology changes things so fast.
