Working as an Amazon Flex driver - The good, the bad and the ugly!
So, what is Amazon Flex? Amazon Flex is an official Amazon programme designed to pay people a flat rate of between £13 and £17 per hour to work as Amazon Flex drivers, delivering Amazon orders directly to the retailer's customers.
There are two ways to do this: You can work for Amazon Prime (normal Amazon website orders) or Amazon Fresh, which is a food delivery service previously known as Prime Now. Amazon Prime is the next-day delivery service from Amazon, and Amazon Fresh is the same-day delivery service, sometimes delivering your order within one hour. You may find job offers on the app from an Amazon warehouse/depot, an Amazon Fresh depot/warehouse, and a local Morrisons or Co-op store, as Morrisons and co-op also offer Amazon Fresh products in selected areas.
What do I need to be an Amazon Flex driver?
Flex drivers will need their own vehicle, a smartphone with internet access, an email address, reasonable fitness, a bank account, a valid UK driving licence and courier insurance (more on that later), and the willingness to perform a background check on them.
How does Amazon Flex work?
Here's how it works: You sign up for the program and download an app. Every day, a list of available shifts, known as blocks, is made available for you to choose what suits your availability. Blocks usually last between one and four and a half hours, depending on which service you deliver for. The shorter blocks are usually the standard Prime deliveries.
You select the delivery blocks (shift) you want to work, and you are then booked to deliver. You need to arrive before your block starts, scan the parcels using the app on your phone you are delivering and load up your car. The app on your phone will schedule a route to deliver all the parcels in the most logical order.
The number of parcels you will deliver depends on whether you deliver Prime or Fresh orders. Amazon Prime generally means that you are delivering a larger number of parcels; however, this will usually be within a smaller delivery area. Amazon Fresh typically consists of fewer deliveries, but the delivery area can be larger.
The number of parcels you are given to deliver will depend on your block's length. If you have a four-hour block, you will have more deliveries than a 2-hour block!
The hourly rate sounds pretty good; however, this rate also includes your petrol expenses, so if you have a long route, you will be using more fuel, and so the amount you have earned during your block will be less as petrol is expensive. Your car will get more wear and tear doing this job, it does increase your miles, and you could be delivering to a block of flats or a rural farm with a long, bumpy, stone driveway, so your car may take a bit of a beating!
It's worth noting the rates I have mentioned are the base rates, and so are the standard rates of pay for the role. You may get lucky and find an enhanced rate of pay at times when Amazon is short on drivers or very busy, and then Amazon will increase the pay rate to entice drivers to come and do some extra work! You can't rely on or expect to see these enhanced rates of pay; however, with rates as high as around £20 - £22 per hour, they are well worth looking out for, as they can make a difference to your wallet if you are lucky enough to grab one!
The nitty gritty about working Amazon Flex and my top tips
The job is relatively easy to perform. However, it can still be quite stressful, as you need to get all your orders delivered within your block time, and doing this can be difficult if there is lots of traffic, bad weather, etc.
While out, you may get wet or hot and need the toilet. My top tip is to look for a petrol station with an M&S food hall attached, as these always have a bathroom!
If you cannot deliver all the parcels, you are expected to return them to the depot. This is fine unless you find yourself miles away from the depot and have to go back all the way!
If you start returning many parcels, your performance metrics will drop. If they go too low, you may well be terminated from the Flex programme, which happens a lot. I have to say that often, it's because the driver can't be bothered to deliver the parcels, and so takes loads back, and they don't appreciate that!
Although there is no guarantee of shifts, you can generally pick up something, and the extra money is convenient. Many people use this system as a full-time job. Since you're not guaranteed work, this is not necessarily an ideal way to pay your bills, as there is no way to ensure that you will get work from one day to the next. It is designed to make extra cash and is not advertised as a full-time job.
What about the insurance aspect of working for Amazon Flex?
To drive for Amazon, you'll need to pay for top-up insurance from one of Amazon's preferred insurance partners. The price you pay for your insurance is charged hourly, on a pay-as-you-go basis, so if you work for 2 hours, you'll pay for 2 hours.
The insurance partners will quote you for your insurance based on the vehicle you drive and your driving record, just as a normal insurance company would.
Insurance rates: Remember that each driver is quoted a price depending on their circumstances; most drivers seem to pay between 90p and £1.30 per hour for their insurance.
This insurance is only charged while the driver is actually delivering for Amazon. Billing is controlled via an app on the driver's smartphone, which is tied to the Amazon Flex app. The two apps communicate with each other, so the insurance app knows when you are working and will bill you only for the hours worked.
Your standard car insurance will not usually allow you to use your vehicle to make deliveries or work. You typically need goods in transit insurance, and getting this separately can be very expensive. The Amazon top-up insurance, which allows you to legally drive, may not be acceptable to your insurance company, so you need to check with your insurer first that they'll allow you to use top-up insurance to be able to deliver for Amazon.
Tips for working for Amazon Flex
Working for Amazon Flex can be a really good way to earn some extra cash, but it's not always fun or easy! Here are a few tips to consider when thinking about applying to work for Amazon Flex.
You'll be dealing directly with Amazon's customers, and so you'll be expected to be polite, courteous and professional when delivering. The Amazon customer doesn't know you aren't a regular employee of Amazon and may well give you grief about their order or something else, which mostly will be out of your control, so you'll need to be thick-skinned and able to smile sweetly and respond to the customer in a polite manner, which can be a chore sometimes, but just remember you are representing Amazon and Amazon dio like the motto of 'delivering smiles' and expect you to do just that!
Be aware that you may sometimes deliver reasonably heavy goods. You may need to walk up several flights of stairs to deliver to a property, so you must be fit enough to do this! Many people order cases of water for delivery, and these are heavy packages, and very often they'll live in flats without a lift, and you are expected to deliver to the customer's front door, so bear in mind you'll need to be able to lift at least 15kg to be able to deliver for Amazon realistically.
You'll need a four-door vehicle to deliver for Amazon Flex. You can get a lot of items given to you to deliver, and Amazon won't allow smaller vehicles anymore. Chances are you won't fit everything in, as package sizes can be huge, so bear that in mind!
Work isn't guaranteed! Work is advertised on the Amazon Flex app on a first-come, first served basis, and the jobs go incredibly quickly, so you simply can't rely on the work to pay your bills; it's set up a side hustle opportunity, not as a full-time job.
You'll deliver in all kinds of weather, so if you don't like driving in the rain or the dark, you may want to reconsider if Amazon Flex is for you! If you sign up to deliver but don't want to, you can cancel your block/shift through the Amazon Flex driver app, so long as it's not less than an hour before your shift is due to start.
Often, it is easier to grab early morning shifts or later evening shifts. This is handy as it means you can work these shifts before or after your regular job or can go out and deliver when someone else comes home after work and can look after the kids, etc. I prefer working early in the morning, especially at the weekend, as the roads are quiet and everyone is home in bed, although you have to be prepared to bang on some doors to wake people, especially on a Sunday morning!
In theory, Amazon plans your delivery route for you (the Amazon Flex app guides you from delivery to delivery, so you don't need to plan your route, which makes the delivery process easier) so that you'll be able to deliver in your allotted time (known as a block). However, it doesn't very often mean you'll have delivered and be back in that shift time. I'd say 75% of the time you deliver your last parcel and you're miles away from home, and so you have to get back again, which is unpaid if you've gone over your shift time! I've ended up an hour from home so many times, so don't make arrangements to be somewhere or to do something straight after your shift, as there's a good chance you'll be miles away and so won't make it back in time!
Talking of mileage and potential earnings, you are only paid for the hours you work and this rate of pay not only covers your time, but also has to cover your fuel (this is where electric vehicles can be useful and petrol is a significant expense for Amazon delivery drivers !) and the wear and tear on your vehicle as well as you'll get through tyres and brakes quicker with all the stopping and starting, plus you won't get re-embursed for any parking charges such as parking (worth considering in busy city centres as parking can be a nightmare!), parking tickets, tolls or even the London Emission charge zones (pay rates for delivering in these zones are normally a bit higher to reflect charges you may need to pay). Initially, the rate of pay may be attractive, but you could easily clock up 100 miles or more for your shift, and so that pay rate gets sucked up into what its cost you to deliver, so your actual earnings after costs can be far lower than you expected! Amazon delivery drivers are essentially self-employed couriers, and so what it costs you to deliver the parcels comes off of what is essentially your profit and loss accounts.
Make sure you have a torch for evening shifts, and I recommend a fluorescent jacket to be as visible as possible. This helps keep you safe but also helps you stand out to a customer as a delivery agent; you'd be surprised how many people won't answer the door to a stranger without some sort of indication that they are actually a delivery person! Sometimes, Amazon will supply you with a jacket and other safety devices, but it's fairly rare.
You'll be amazed how many people don't have numbers on their doors, yet still expect you to find their house. Sometimes house numbers are tucked away, out of view, may not be lit up at night, or maybe hard to see from the road, so my tip is to look at people's rubbish bins! People seem more worried about someone nicking their bin than making life easy for a delivery driver, and so often, you'll find that the customer has added their house number to their bin, so by looking for their bin as well as their house number, you'll often find the house easier!
The Amazon Flex app will guide you to the customers house, but have another app, such as Google maps on your phone as well for back up. Make sure you download offline maps to Google maps, as then if your away from a decent phone signal, the Goppgle maps will still take you where you need to get. Also, download 'What 3 Words" as some customers who live off the beaten track will add their 'What 3 Words' address to the driver's instructions, and this is a brilliant way to get you straight to the customer's front door.
You'll see more below about taxes and being able to claim for your mileage from the HMRC, and if you are going to earn more significant money working for Amazon Flex (or other driving related side hustles such as being a Deliveroo driver etc.), invest in Driversnote, which is about £10 a month, and this app tracks your total mileage for you and allows you to class your mileage as business or personal mileage, and this information is invaluable when you are putting together your tax return, as it's so easy to see how many miles to claim for, and also is digitally available to show the HMRC, should they query your mileage.
Amazon Flex & the tax implications
One important thing to remember is that you are working for Amazon as a self-employed contractor. Amazon will send your earnings to your bank account on a weekly basis (usually a Tuesday) and send you an invoice showing what you earned, but you are responsible for declaring your income and paying your taxes to the HMRC. Amazon will not make any deductions for tax, national insurance, etc. You are an independent contractor and responsible for your tax affairs.
You can typically earn up to £1,000 per year before declaring your additional income to HMRC. Once you are over this £1,000, you must register as self-employed, submit a yearly self-assessment, and be liable for any tax. As of 2024, Amazon will send your earnings to HMRC, and if you don't declare these earnings to the HMRC, you can expect to find yourself in trouble.
As part of the self-assessment, you can claim some expenses for your vehicle for making the deliveries, the top one being petrol. You can either submit receipts for your fuel claim of 45p per mile to cover your fuel costs and vehicle depreciation; you can't claim the mileage AND put through fuel receipts!
You may find that once you remove your expenses and associated costs, your tax bill may be minimal, possibly even non-existent, but it's best to put away 20% of your earnings, if you can, to cover any tax implications later.
You can be self-employed and also work for another company as well; many people think this isn't allowed. You can work a standard PAYE job as well as work for yourself, so long as you do inform the HMRC and file yearly self-assessments; the HMRC have no problem with you having more than one job; in fact, often, it's in their best interest if you do, as they get more tax from you!
I give more information about side hustles and the HMRC in this blog post.
Is Amazon Flex worth doing?
Amazon Flex can be a good way to earn some extra cash if you own a car. The rates of pay can be okay, just so long as you don't end up driving huge numbers of miles! The work is not guaranteed, so it can't be relied on, but if you do pick up work, it can be a perfectly acceptable side hustle!
There will be shifts that are a nightmare, and you vow to never again deliver for Amazon, often due to traffic, big gaps between delivery addresses, so clocking up lots of miles, or you may struggle to find addresses or find the address and nobody is home, which can be such a pain; equally, you can have a dreamy shifty, and everything is lovely and straightforward, no annoying flats with no lift and an order of 10 cases of water, and a traffic-free experience, and you wonder why you didn't apply to drive for Amazon sooner; it's like most jobs, you have to take the good with the bad!
I have enjoyed working for Amazon. Yes, I had awful days and good days, but the money really helped me out when times were tough so I'd say it's worth a go if you like driving and have a suitable vehicle.
The best part is you work when you want; you are your own boss, pretty much; it's not like a normal job where you have set hours. Amazon offers flexible hours so you can grab shifts for when it is convenient for you and you aren't obligated to work every day, week or even month, so it's a pretty flexible way to earn some extra money, working around your own schedule, it just might not always work out that you've earned minimum wage after your expenses!
You can learn more about Amazon Flex and sign up via the dedicated Amazon Flex website.
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