‘Who’s This Random Person at the Door?’ Being an Independent Driver for Amazon

Josh Paredes
Sep 7, 2018 · 5 min read
Amazon Flex drivers are delivering smiles — and confusion.

Amazon is fresh off it’s biggest-selling shopping event ever, selling over 100 million products during its Prime Day event and having its biggest influx of new Prime subscribers in one day than ever before. If you are a human being with access to a computer/phone and some extra money to spend, chances are you have ordered from Amazon before. With Prime orders comes the convenient 2-day delivery that is the exclamation point on the excitement of online shopping. What can be better than having some toilet paper, beef jerky, and a Nintendo Switch delivered right to your door? Coming from someone that was an avid Amazon shopper long before working as a driver, I say nothing. With such high a demand for 2-day deliveries, Amazon has many outlets to get packages to their customers; including USPS, FedEX, UPS, and Amazon Flex Drivers. Many customers don’t bat an eye when they see a uniformed driver emerge from a door-less van and head to their front door, so the first 3 carriers are not an issue. But why is it that every so often, you will look out the window to see a Jeep Compass parking, and a mustached man in a baseball cap and cargo shorts delivers your package? That’s where people like me, the Amazon Flex driver, come in.

‘They Let You Deliver In Your Own Vehicle?’

Don’t get me wrong, not having a required uniform to deliver packages in 100 degree heat is definitely one of the perks of the job, but it does often lead to some confusion and interesting interactions with customers. I have been denied access to businesses and questioned at gated community checkpoints because of the unfamiliarity with Flex drivers. I’ve also been barked at by hundreds of chihuahuas, but that is probably unrelated — they’re just a yappy breed. The lack of a recognizable logo either on my vehicle or on myself is the main reason for these issues. Really though Amazon, can you not spare a nice Amazon hat, or maybe a car decal? Fanny pack? Understandably, there have been occasions where this lack of recognition makes the recipient look hesitant and almost scared as I park by their house, until they see me emerge with an Amazon package. Ringing doorbells at apartments can be tricky as well. I know that if I saw someone that looks like me at my apartment door at 8:30pm on a Tuesday night I probably wouldn’t answer either. This is why I developed the Simba strategy. I simply hold the package in front of me as they look through the peephole, and they are much more likely to answer.

The more common reaction to seeing a Flex driver like myself is one of curiosity. Do they help you pay for gas? Do you drive your own car? Can you wear whatever you want? Respectively, the answers to these are: unfortunately not, yes, and sure, within reason. Of course, none of us are out there wearing the Borat swimsuit or anything like that — I mean we do have a good amount of physical work to do and also, no one wants to see that.

The Crapshoot of Picking up Routes

Every seasoned Flex driver has developed a checklist in their head that decides whether their route is going to suck or not. One downside of Amazon having so many daily routes is that we are usually randomly assigned delivery areas to keep things moving, so we don’t normally get a say in what kind we get. Having been working for Flex for almost 2 years, I have found that factors such as number of packages assigned, area of town, and distance being traveled are all significant. No one likes having to drive across town in an unfamiliar area, use up unnecessary gas, or deliver more packages than should be expected in their delivery window. While all these factors are critical, the one that I find really makes or breaks an assigned route in my eyes is:

Delivering to Apartments

That’s right — apartments are the bain of my existence as an Amazon Flex driver. Let me preface this by saying I generally follow the Amazon rule that states we must:

  1. Attempt delivery to the customer at the apartment door
  2. Leave the package in a secure location if tenant isn’t available (meaning an enclosed balcony)
  3. Leave the package at the leasing office if steps 1 and 2 are unsuccesful

I know from experience that not every Amazon driver follows these procedures, as I always see packages left in front of apartment doors. While this isn’t a secure option according to Amazon, I totally understand why drivers do this when I look at how much time the suggested procedure takes. I’ll break it down this way: delivering to 50 houses will easily take less time than delivering to 25 different apartments every single time. The biggest reason apartment complexes take so much time is how different/crazy/unusual/horrible their layouts can be. I kid you not, this is an actual map of an apartment complex in which I had to deliver to building 20:

Alright, so that might just be me having some fun with MS Paint, but you get the point. Building numbers are often out of order, covered by trees, or even non-existent. On top of that, it is discouraging to try 18 different deliveries to an apartment complex and only find 3 people available at the time. When you couple this with leasing offices that don’t accept packages for their tenants; and even worse, ones that openly accuse you of not attempting deliveries, it makes for a rough time.

Is it Worth It?

With everything considered, of course there are some drawbacks to driving for Amazon Flex, as for any job (besides maybe professional pizza taster). The beauty of driving for Amazon Flex is that I’m in charge of making the call. I can accept as little or as much work as I want (provided people keep on ordering). The hourly pay of $18/hr in my area, San Antonio, beats just about any entry-level position or side gig that I’ve researched around here. While it isn’t a substitute for a full-time job, it is a relatively easy way to earn decent money in short amounts of time. As I say to everyone that stops me to ask about the job, it’s not bad for the pay. The link below provides more details about Flex, as well as allows anyone that qualifies to sign up to be a driver. Just be on the lookout for apartments and chihuahuas.

Amazon Flex Website

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