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Driving For Amazon Flex: Top 5 Tips To Know Before Joining

Did you know you can deliver packages with your own car? It’s true! Today we have a Amazon Flex review and tips from Kris P. in San Francisco, who is working for Amazon Flex as an independent delivery driver to make extra money to travel with his family. If you’ve been wondering what it’s like to branch out and drive for delivery with Amazon Flex, read on for a review of his experience and tips you should know before getting started.

 

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If you’re interested in signing up for Amazon Flex then you might also be interested in signing up to deliver for Postmates and Doordash. See a full list of sign-up bonuses for rideshare and delivery services here.

Related article: Essential gear every Uber driver should have

What’s Amazon Flex?

What’s it like to be an Amazon Delivery Driver?

Like many people, my family and I love to travel. We’ve set up a travel fund, into which we divert a few hundred bucks a month, but it’s never enough. Since we want to travel more, I came up with the idea of trying out some of the on-demand jobs out there.

I tried out being an Amazon Flex driver, which surprisingly a lot of people don’t know about. The sign-up to become an Amazon Driver was easy, just fill out a simple app and Amazon runs a background on you. The catch is you have to actually wait until there is an Amazon Flex jobs opening (unlike Uber where you can apply at any time). My application was approved in two days, and I began to receive offers on the Flex app on my phone.

From a rookie’s perspective, here are some pointers for you future Flexers to help you maximize your time, which I wish I had known going in. After all, time is money, right? I’m in the San Francisco Bay area and these tips should apply no matter where you are. Most offers here are in the $20 per hour range, although I’ve seen a 4 hour block for $100 a few times in Silicon Valley.

Want more information on driving for Amazon Flex? Get our top 10 Pro Tips Guide below!

Shifts Are Called “Blocks”

Your block time is just an estimate of how long it should take to complete your run. You earn the entire amount whether you finish early or take longer.

For example, on my very first trip with AmazonFlex, I accepted a 3.5 hour block for $70. After 4 hours, with 10 more boxes still to go, I called Flex Support and they told me to bring back whatever I had left to the warehouse. I earned the $70, since the time block was estimated for 3.5 hours, but I went over that. The time block is, as I mentioned, just an estimate on how long Amazon Flex expects delivery to take.

The tips below will help you get started as a new Amazon Flex delivery driver and maximize your time driving, so you can earn more and spend less time on the road.

Find your next ride with FarePilot

FarePilot shows you hotspots to help you get more rides. Download it here.

5 things to know about driving for Amazon Flex before you get started

Amazon Flex Tips

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Rideshare vs Delivery Compared [Infographic]

I get a lot of questions about whether or not delivery is better than rideshare driving, and unfortunately the answer is: it depends. But that’s actually good news, because in some cases delivery might be better for you, or rideshare driving may make more sense. To help break it down, senior RSG contributor Christian Perea presents the following infographic, which compares delivery to rideshare driving.

Like this infographic? You can share with the embed code below!

There are a lot of similarities between rideshare and delivery jobs, so it’s important to examine the differences between the two. It’s interesting to compare and contrast rideshare and delivery since there are actually a lot of little things that make these lesser known side-hustles a little bit different. Personally, I find that on certain days I prefer to do one over the other based on how busy it is, what incentives are being offered and whether or not I want to deal with strangers in my car.

Most of us already drive for Uber or Lyft, but I always recommend having a backup plan by also signing up for a delivery company. If you want to start off delivery with a good company, I recommend checking out Caviar since in my experience I end up spending less time waiting at restaurants and they always have the delivery ready for me when I get there (which minimizes downtime).

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What is it Like to Drive for Amazon Flex in San Jose, CA?

Harry here.  There’s no shortage of companies to work for in the on-demand economy, but one big name that has been gaining a lot of popularity lately is Amazon Flex.  Today, RSG guest poster Laura M shares what it’s been like for her to work for Amazon Flex and compares it to her Uber, Lyft and DoorDash driving experience.

I started in the gig economy in February 2016 with Uber and Lyft.  But for a change of pace, I decided to deliver a little food with DoorDash. Many of the articles I read on this blog suggested diversifying, so I decided to try Amazon Flex after reading about it right here.

It seems like during the winter months, people don’t go out as much, so they use Uber less right now.  Uber has also slowly decreased earnings boosts out here as well as Power Driving Rewards. They did increase the rates, but UberPool is killing us in this area and you really can’t make a lot of money with Lyft out here (most people have never heard of it) unless you drive to San Francisco (an hour away).

I’ve also noticed that DoorDash has over-hired drivers, and when school lets out they really don’t offer as many incentives.  When they do, you often have to jump through hoops to get them, and you still may not get them anyway.  You sometimes get one order an hour (that’s $6 out here) and even with tips, it’s an incredibly low wage. So I decided I needed something more profitable.

Have you ever wondered what it's like driving for Amazon Flex? Laura tells us what it's like driving for Flex in San Jose, CA. Have you driven for Flex yet?

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Amazon Flex vs Amazon Restaurant Delivery

Join us for our next Youtube Live Q&A session with UberMan today at 5pm PST!  You can subscribe to our Youtube channel here and be sure to turn on notifications so you know when we go live.

Harry here.  Our first guest post on Amazon Flex has turned out to be wildly popular so today, RSG contributor Jon Knope is here to give us the lowdown on his experience working with Amazon Flex and how it compares to their new restaurant delivery program.

There are a lot of on-demand companies to choose from these days, but Amazon is one that has been expanding rapidly. Their delivery arm is called Amazon Flex, and it’s always consisted of delivering packages/groceries in two-hour blocks. Recently, they’ve added restaurant delivery similar to services like DoorDash and Postmates.

Here’s the lowdown on what’s new, and what you can expect from the program going forward.

Jon gives us the lowdown on his experience working with Amazon Flex and how it compares to their new restaurant delivery program.

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