Reuters
- Amazon's Prime Day generates a mountain of packages for delivery workers to deliver.
- Amazon Flex delivery workers say they're preparing for it by taking early-morning shifts.
- The Flex model, which relies on independent contractors, has become key to Amazon's fast delivery.
As Amazon's Prime Day approaches, one delivery driver in Texas has a strategy for handling the coming avalanche of packages.
The driver told Business Insider that they're trying to beat delivering during one of the hottest times of the year by claiming shifts that involve dropping off packages as early as 4 a.m. They're also taking plenty of ice-cold water with them in a hydroflask.
Another Amazon Flex driver, located in Alabama, said she's also trying to grab early-morning shifts — though closer to 6:45 a.m. — since she thinks they tend to contain fewer packages than later in the day.
"It is that crazy, like Black Friday," she said. The Flex drivers BI spoke with asked not to be named in this article, citing fear of having their accounts deactivated by Amazon.
Prime Day has become a second holiday shopping season. This year, Amazon is promising new deals on its website every five minutes on July 16 and 17, while rival retailers like Walmart and Target are hosting their own sales events.
And, just like the holidays, all that extra buying requires more people to get purchases to you, the customer.
Amazon relies on different kinds of workers to get you your orders. Amazon's delivery service partners, for instance, use Amazon-owned vans.
Flex workers, meanwhile, are independent contractors who are paid per shift (or "block," as the workers call them) and use their own cars to work. On some deliveries, such as grocery orders from Whole Foods, they can earn tips.
But like all independent contractors, Flex drivers can decide what kind of work they'd like to do. And for some, picking up dozens of packages and delivering them around busy cities or sprawling suburbs isn't worth the money.
Earlier this month, on a Reddit page for Flex drivers, a poster claiming to be a new driver for the program asked whether working during Prime Day meant better pay or more shifts to choose from.
Some commenters pointed to a surge in new Flex drivers who joined the platform just before this year's Prime Day. In the past, lots of new drivers have meant that shifts with surge pricing — those for which Amazon pays drivers more — are rarer, the commenters said.
"Too many new drivers that drive down rates," one wrote.
Another commenter offered practical advice for the new driver. "Bring TP just in case you have to pp and there's no bathroom/service," the commenter wrote, appearing to use an abbreviation for "toilet paper."
Some Amazon delivery workers said they peed in bottles as they faced pressure to complete their routes, BI reported in 2018.
"Amazon Flex delivery partners have the freedom to take breaks and run errands during their delivery window specified in-app," Branden Baribeau, an Amazon spokesperson, told BI. "We design delivery routes so that they are safe and can be comfortably completed within the estimated duration of the delivery block" using factors like distance and weather forecasts, he added.
Baribeau told BI last week that Prime Day "gives individuals the opportunity to set their own schedule and be their own boss, while earning competitive pay."
The Flex model has played a key role in expanding Amazon's delivery abilities, particularly when it comes to fast options like same-day delivery, said Dhruv Grewal, a professor of marketing at Babson College.
"This model gives them the ability to both increase speed and reduce the cost of both owning the merchandise, owning the infrastructure of warehousing and owning the distribution infrastructure of their own fleets or trucks," Grewal told BI.
But one Flex driver in Washington state told BI that she's not planning to make any deliveries for Amazon this week. Instead, she figures that she can make more money by delivering restaurant food for DoorDash in Seattle, where a pay law that took effect earlier this year established a minimum pay for delivery workers equivalent to the city's $19.97-an-hour floor.
"People are going to choose what is most profitable for them," the worker said.
Do you work for Amazon Flex, Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, or another part of Amazon's retail business and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com