Amazon flex driver rip off

jamo2012

Hi guys
I worked as a Flex delivery driver, delivering Amazon parcels. I'm wasnt directly employed by Amazon, I'm whats known as a flex driver, I use the Flex app to take a block (delivery slot time) that suits my daily schedule,these blocks can range from 3hrs to 5 hrs
how they price them is
3hrs £39 around 26 -30 parcels to drop off sometimes more if a customer has 2 or 3 parcels each.
3.5 hrs £45 around 35-43 parcels to drop off sometimes more if a customer has 2 or 3 parcels each.
4hrs £52 around 45-48 parcels to drop off sometimes more if a customer has 2 or 3 parcels each
time slots range between 10.30am - 4.30pm and 5.30pm - 10pm they only allocate around 4-5 blocks a week to you, no more.

Here's how it works and the pitfalls
let say a £45 - 3.5 hr block at 6pm pick up.......
Lets say you live in Falkirk,Scotland Uk and your nearest Amazon station is 20 miles 1 way to Bathgate and 27 miles the other to Eurocentral Motherwell
Using Bathgate Station right away you have a round trip of 40 miles to and fro the pick up point.

When you pick up your route which will be for Edinburgh or ML Airdrie area which will be a distance of around 18 to 28 miles either way to your first drop,they Calculate it will take you around 3.5 hrs to drop your parcels off,but hey ive already used 40 mins to get to my first drop in edinburgh eh15?

you drop off all parcels around 50 - 80 miles travelled on stops/drops and your finished around 10.30pm (if your lucky) then you have your 50 miles journey back home 11.30pm
but hey wait a minute 2 parcels I couldn't deliver and have to be returned to the station?

its now 10.30pm and the app directs me back to Amazon Bathgate station, It takes me around 40-60 mins,I drop off my returns and head home,another 30 mins,I'm home around 11.50pm -Midnight.

How much did i make out of my £45 pay check,It cost at least £20 for fuel for the travelling.

So i got paid £25 ??

To multi-drop 43 diff locations,to walk around with parcels knocking on doors,waiting for people to find there keys to answer or they just aren't in,walking around unsafe locations (in winter dark nights) up closes with no lights on,into farm isolated locations,then there's the abuse my car has just had off these farm roads.
then there's the tax man who will want a cut off my earnings of £45 not to include my car tax, insurance, tyres,wear and tear of my car putting the mileage high and then the speeding tickets and points you could accumulate if your trying to deliver fast

All out of my £25 paycheck, your lucky if that's even £6.50 an hour and not the Big £12 - 15 an hour they advertise.

IS IT WORTH IT ........NOOOOOOOO ............I Should know,I have tried and Tested it.

Who are you Kidding Amazon,this is total slave labour in the highest scale and something needs to be done about this Now :j:T

BoGoF

Surely you knew how far away the depots were when you took the job on? And it's not 20 miles from Falkirk to Bathgate.

These things are only be worthwhile if you live local to the depots and delivery areas. I enquired about Amazon flex when it first came out and decided it wasn't for me.

jonnygee2

Who are you Kidding Amazon,this is total slave labour in the highest scale and something needs to be done about this now

I'm really not a fan of the sloppy use of the word 'slave' or 'slavery'. It wasn't slave labour. You chose to do it. Then you chose to stop doing it.

bugslett

As someone that has been in the delivery business all my life, I do wonder why you did it. In essence you are operating your own business and you need to be able to work out if the job is profitable. Provided they are up front about what they are paying, it's up to you to work the rest out.

As an aside, I've got tired of explaining to people that the costs the pay- and often moan about - - are often shockingly low.

[Deleted User]

Its best to work out the maths first to see if it is feasible for you or not.

Paul_DNAP

It's absolutely nothing like slavery.


It is a lot of work for the money, true, but that's not slavery. And yes, if you live too far from the depot or don't have an ultra-economical car then that can eat into your earnings dramatically.


But it is absolutely not slavery, I recommend you read up on what slaves truly are and then get a sense of perspective.

kpols

Thanks for the warning.

However, you were compensated for the work you did. If its not economical to you, it doesn't mean the work itself is slavery.

Honestly.

Jono111

It is thanks to people like the OP that we can have free delivery. If no one took the work then Amazon would have to pay more and start to charge the customers for it.

ACG

Also dont forget you can claim 40p a mile as an expense on your tax bill, so that should get you the bulk of your petrol/diesel money back.

BoGoF

ACG wrote: »

Also dont forget you can claim 40p a mile as an expense on your tax bill, so that should get you the bulk of your petrol/diesel money back.

The rates are 45p for the first 10,000 miles and 25p thereafter but claiming mileage won't get you anything 'back' when self employed.

jamo2012

I only took this job to try and test it for its workings and wrote what I experienced.

if you want to pick on the 'Slave Labour' words,instead of looking at the bigger picture,under paid workers by Amazon,then that's entirely up to you I suppose.

As for picking on the distance on the example route,its 18.6 miles to fk5 area of falkirk,Its just an example for people to work out if its for them or not

£25 for around 5 hours hard work is Slave Labour for the 21 century in my books.

I Cant understand why you people are sticking up for a company who are underpaying there workforce,Obv Employees of the company :rotfl:

I'm ONLY scratching the surface with Flex Drivers. Wait till I start on the Van drivers and I take a job in the warehouse to see how that works out payment wise and post here.:T