The globe is watching, and the global’s favorite and preferred eCommerce platform’s delivery division, Amazon Flex, has drivers helping keep next-day orders moving.
It’s a tough life in the package delivery business, especially since more and more people are preferring to purchase their essentials online, rather than beating road traffic and stresses on the road and streets to get to shopping malls.
So, at Amazon’s Elkhart delivery station, the online shopping platform has expanded its daily Flex dispatch window from one to four, so customers got until 8 p.m. to place their orders, and still receive these in the next day, rather than the former noon cut-off.
This helps manage the thousands of packages rolling through the station. Resident resource person here on Ridesharing Forum, Lewis Andre, who works for Amazon Flex through a third-party company in Toronto, occasionally receives how-are-you chats from his cousins in other countries, but he has to delay his replies, telling them that he has to finish his deliveries first in the day. He shows images of what’s inside his truck, and it’s a massive load.
Amazon Flex drivers may also use their own vehicles to earn finances through delivering, but the stress is there.
“I did it quite a bit and quite often. And the income was terrific. I’m my own boss. I get to make my own hours, do my own thing anytime I wanted,” a driver told RSF.
At the loadout area, the day of an Amazon Flex driver could start as early as 3 a.m., with hundreds of Flex drivers filling their cars with packages before hitting the road.
“To me, it was just like a normal day every day. I’m usually running on about four hours of sleep a day,” they added.
An Amazon senior station manager, Tara Graff, narrated how Amazon Flex drivers also take the responsibility of making sure stations meet the customers’ demands.
“The Flex Driver program is a huge part of our delivery success here at Amazon. They provide the ability for our station to do just what the name implies — flex up or flex down as customers need with volume,” she said. As to how many steps, “Probably close to probably 30,000 or more. One of my routes I would say was 56 stops with 58 packages. Knowing that I’m providing for my family. Getting those packages out to the customers as they needed them.”
This helping hand from Amazon Flex drivers can make sure that one of the busiest times of the year for Amazon, the holiday shopping season, will turn out to become manageable, and worthy of praise.
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