IamA Amazon Prime Now 1-hour, 2-hour and Amazon Fresh same day delivery driver. AMA!

What happens if you accidentally damage the merchandise? You return for new stuff or notify the customer? You have to pay for damaged goods?

It happens quite often actually, and we don't need to pay what was damaged. Sometimes the packers will put 20 pounds worth of items in a brown bag and it will just break. When this happens, I call the customer and let them know that the bag is broken but the items are sill in good conditions, if I notice that an item has been damaged I will tell the customer and return it to the warehouse, if it's just the box of the item that broke, most often the customer won't care, but if they do, we just issue a refund. I also tell them that if the item is damaged because the box is closed and I can't open it, to call support and tell them, but before they call support, I already told them so they know whats going on.

I'm actually a TOC agent that you or the customer would talk to when something like this happens. I've noticed that drivers usually seem frustrated at having to call us and I was wondering why that is

Man, with all due respect, YOU GUYS ARE THE WORST! Literally, you guys are just a middle man that work from home and issue tickets to dispatch between with us delivery drivers and Amazon Dispatch. If Amazon would add a feature to our apps to contact dispatch and leave notes, it would make our lives WAAAYYY easier. I am not saying you exactly, but 99% of the time whatever we say or do even though it's only on-road support, it's out of your reach except trying to contact the customer, you guys do have a better way or more numbers to call from to reach the customer, but besides that the same exact answer is: I am doing the notes to send to the station.

And telling us if it's an attended delivery and we still have to do other deliveries to wait for the customer or re-attempt delivery is something that we don't have the time to do. The other day I contacted support, the agent told me to NOT mark the packages as undeliverable and to continue my route and re-attempt, I marked it undeliverable regardless. It counts towards me if I make that delivery late.

Generally speaking this is how every single level of support feels about the level before them, in every call center company, anywhere. The reason these folks have jobs is because they are normally cheaper, and more available to be contacted as opposed to the next tier.

The delivery driver would hate his life if he had to take every call that comes in for them, especially if he had to stop what he was doing to address it. - from another post: " I average between $23-27 an hour, the good this that it's guaranteed pay, even if you don't get a route, you still get paid. " - and you think Amazon is going to pay this for you to be on your phone for an hour? lol

The delivery driver would hate his life if he had to take every call that comes in for them, especially if he had to stop what he was doing to address it.

Boy, when Dispatch or even Amazon from Seattle calls me, I better stop what i'm doing and answer that phone immediately.

I doubt TOC gets paid what we get paid, and if I didn't explain, we get in my market $18 an hour guaranteed. the $23-27 includes tips.

Have you ever spent a day with the TOC people? The majority of support people, who spend time with lower tiers, have a whole different level of appreciation for them, even if they are terrible. Those terrible people often filter out a huge percentage of calls that would otherwise take up your day. - Statements like "YOU GUYS ARE THE WORST!" are almost always solved by a day or 2 of ride alongs with another group. The world looks very different from the front line rep compared to the person behind the scene: source - have held just about every job at call center and behind the scenes and have heard this exact same thing daily for years

*ps: not a TOC person, or Amazon employee, its just a very common view of front line agents, especially tier one / outsourced ones

Actually yes, I used to work for DirecTV call center with customers and installers, AT&T, XM radio before the merger with Sirius, Sprint before the Nextel merger, and other call center related jobs.

Do you make enough if i only tip $1 or $2? I have struggling college student friend that wants to ask.

We make a minimum guaranteed. If the driver is using a 2007 Prius then he's making good money, but if the driver is using a BMW X5 to deliver packages, well maybe he might need the tip. Tip as much or as little as you feel like. The Amazon app will tell you the recommended amount depending on what you are ordering. If you are only ordering $20 worth of stuff I know it doesn't make sense to leave a $5.00 tip. So yeah you could leave $2. I also might add, we can't see who left tips or not.

I know that your example was to highlight the fact that a Prius will be achieving better gas mileage than an X5, but you literally could not have chosen a more backwards example to portray someone who is struggling and "might need the tip."

A Hummer could beat the X5.

Edit: And believe it or not, people do deliver in Suburbans, Ridgelines, Dodge Durango R/T, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Charger Hemi, BMW 5 series and 3 series, Mercedes E350 and other high end/gas guzzler cars.

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Yeah, and forget on getting tips if you arrive in a car that's nicer to the ones the customers drive.

OP, people can still see personal information from your route sheet. Can you please delete that?

Done. Thanks.

How does one get into this?

Do you think this is more or less lucrative that Uber driving?

Comparing it to Uber, it depends. I average between $23-27 an hour, the good this that it's guaranteed pay, even if you don't get a route, you still get paid.

How much of that is going to gas, insurance, etc?

In my case, the car I drive, is not expensive, cheap to maintain and gives me between 25-29 mpg. I pay $330 every 6 months for insurance and separate around 20% of daily pay towards car maintenance, tires, etc.

Do you have commercial insurance? That 330 seems low for a commercial policy.

Amazon provides us with a $1 million Commercial Liability Insurance with all bells and whistles. If we do get in an accident, our deductible is $1,000.

that deductible is high for an hourly employee.

Thing is that we are not employees. We are independent contractors. We don't get the benefits that employees get nor have taxes done on our behalf.

Why do you have trouble finding my address? Obviously I don't mean "you" but every time I get a confused call from my driver. I would think if any company had a good idea of where people live would be Amazon. Or was the company completely reliant on USPS for deliveries beforehand?

Keep in mind, we probably don't live in the neighborhood that you are located in. The best advice I can give you is to leave notes on the notes section detailing how to get to your house and we will not contact you asking for directions.

Do you not see the special instructions we put in because i have very precise instructions and i get a call every time.

Unfortunately not always.

I've used Prime Now twice and both times they had to call and ask where I was. That's after I left detailed instructions in the notes.. I guess they don't read it?

I don't know if they didn't read the how to see notes on the training videos, or were fairly new.

Sometimes tho, the app will have a minor glitch that won't show the notes until the driver arrives to the destination of where the package needs to be delivered.

At what point do you know if we did or did not tip you? What % are no tips?

We can only see the total amount paid (hourly pay = tip). If the delivery was a one-hour delivery from our warehouse in Springfield, VA. to District Heights, MD. and you were the only stop in that delivery block, then we know who didn't tip. If it's a route with several stops, we don't know who left tips.

I'd say 65% out of 100% of customers do leave tips.

Typically, things like making you wear a uniform would violate independent contractor status. Has there been anything like that that you are expected to do?

Amazon doesn't give us a dress code, actually they tell us that we can wear whatever we want. There's people that do it in suit and tie and woman who wear REALLY shirt skirts and flip flops in summer.

Can you run side businesses or promotions as an independent contractor? (If you're wearing a suit/tie, for example, could you also advertise for a local tailor while performing deliveries?)

I guess you could, but if Amazon finds out, or a customer complains, it can get you in trouble. I'd rather just advice to do the route.

I'm not certain, but I think it would be Amazon that would be in trouble if they have any restrictions or penalties on freedoms allowed for independent contractors. They couldn't for example prevent you from putting a large wraparound advertisement on your own delivery vehicle (like say "BUY BOB'S TACOS") for a different service, right?

I think it's more of ethical stuff.

I've been in Lyft rides where the drivers try to sell me whatever they have a side-gig and it gets a little uncomfortable.

that brings up the idea of using your delivery vehicle simultaneously for lyft and amazon. doable?

There's a dude in our warehouse that does Amazon Restaurants deliveries in Northern Virginia while also doing Uber Eats at the same time. Multi-tasking at it's finest.

Do they explain why drivers can't see the delivery instructions? I live in a gated complex and about half of the drivers have to call, and others somehow figure out the gate code. Typical explanation is that they cant read delivery instructions until the delivery has been made. That makes no sense to me, but I'm sure they have a reason. Is it because they don't want drivers reading their phones while driving?

It happens, the app does have some glitches where sometimes we can't see the notes left until we are actually in the delivery place or at least a quarter mile away from the delivery stop. We have made several feedback notes on that issue and we keep getting the same canned answers over and over again, so I guess that they are actually fixing that issue.

You could, as a last resort, write on the delivery address of Prime Now Orders the gate code before the street address. That way you are guaranteed that we will see the code before the address.

Do you set your schedule like uber or do you have a set weekly schedule??

We have what is called offers. Amazon sends out offers throughout the day and if you are available to work the shift that they are asking you, you just pick it up. When no offers are available it looks like this

When there are offers available it will show up like this

And you can accept or deline the offer if you want to work it or not, like this

Disclaimer: Some markets pay more than others, some pay less than others.

Edit: Messed up imgur pics, fixed.

Why did you post a picture of your bathroom?

Why not post a picture of our bathroom?

I'm English, so my view on tipping is different to Americans.

When placing an order the app adds a recommend tip that would have to be manually removed.

If you're a great driver, on time, friendly, and helpful then you deserve a tip. However if you're late, missing items, generally unhelpful then you don't. However the app asks me to provide a tip before I have received the service.

Is this just a local custom difference?

I'd prefer that the delivered message asks me to rate and tip the driver.

In the U.S., you have up to 24 hours after the Prime Now order was received to change the tip. It's probably the same over in the U.K.

Are you worried about being replaced by drones?

Not really, it will take Amazon quite a while to produce the amount of drones needed. Plus Washington D.C. is a HUGEE No-Fly zone.

Since you're traveling a lot just wondering what you like to listen to? Music, podcasts?

I have SiriusXM, I listen to mostly music and talk shows including news. (Hits1, Hip Hop Nation, Alt-Nation, 90's on 9, Pop2k, CNN News, Fox News and Comedy Channel)

Nice, who have you been listening to as of late?

Honestly, I got the new song from Alessia Cara and Zedd - Stay on repeat in my head. It doesn't go away.

How accurate is this video, in comparison to your job?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu2SG9XExFw

Spot on! Including using the container as a ramp to flip cars over while driving on the other side of the freeway.

Did the people get their dildos by the afternoon though?

At every block we deliver them. Butt plugs were on high demand the first and second week of last month.

Do you think one could do this on a motorcycle?

You can try it, on our terms and conditions it says that you can use any method that you'd like, including public transportation.

Amazon doesn't care how it's delivered as long as the Amazon order is delivered within the delivery window,

what are your typical package sizes?

phrasing.

Regular size brown paper bags, like the ones that you used to get in supermarkets.

If the item doesn't fit inside the bag, like a 12 pack of soda pop, then it goes without a bag and I know what it is.

So I could do this in a miata theoretically? And are you based out of Springfield? I'm in Hoodbridge and may be looking for a career change

If you can fit the packages in a Miata, you can do it.

Our warehouse is in Springfield, VA. off of the Edit: 95 395.

I work for Frito lay in Lorton just down the street and it's killing me. I'll PM you if I apply in case there is a referral bonus in it for you

There's no referral bonus for us drivers, but thanks tho.

How much do you have to lift to be an Amazon driver?

Terms and Conditions claims up to 50 pounds, that said, we might have orders that weigh at total of 200 pounds or even more, so we need to do several trips from the car to the house or apartment.

Do they loan, or can you bring your own dolly to help with that?

They let you use a cart from the warehouse to your car to put everything in the car. After that, you are on your own.

You can get little dollies from Costco for around $20 that fold and are small, but thats up to the driver.

Does it annoy you if I ask you to wait a minute and take the big green cooler bags with you? I hate having them sitting around my house since they are so big.

I can't speak for everyone, but for me, I don't mind. There are Amazon trucks that have set routes every week to go pick up Fresh totes from the customers houses. If you just set the totes outside eventually someone will take it. It might take up to two weeks after your Fresh delivery to get the totes removed from your house.

You can also request the totes to be delivered attended - meaning that there needs to be someone present at the time of delivery and we take the totes back to the warehouse and just leave the stuff that you ordered in plastic bags.

You can also fold the totes by opening the tote and lifting the black pad down below that says Amazon, it i'll fold very slim. If you have totes with insulated bags, you can just fold the insulated bags and put them all inside one fresh tote. Like this

Edit: Imgur keeps putting all pictures into an album automatically.

Yeah, i have a question.

Where's my stuff?

In the warehouse, as soon as you pay for it, we will deliver it!

Why was my package not left at my door step when I checked the box to leave at door step? There were 0 perishables in my order.

Where was the package left? Let support know and next time you might want to write on the notes section to leave on top of door step.

It wasn't. The order was cancelled and mark "undeliverable". Not my first order either.

Do you live in an apartment building? I really don't know what might've happened.

Sorry for that inconvenience.

On a personal level, what are a few of your favorite films?

Catch Me If You Can - by far my favorite movie. Wolf Of Wall Street and The Big Short are also great films that I love.

Are you based out of a fulfillment warehouse? I have one minutes away, just curious.

Yes and no. Our warehouse is a fulfillment center but a very small one. If you order items that are not available in our warehouse but still show that you can get it on the same day, just not on the delivery window from 12PM-2PM that means that the item is in a warehouse near Richmond or Baltimore and will get to the out fulfillment center and be sorted to be delivered in the windows from 6-8PM; 8-10PM or 10-12mn.

Do you end up delivering to a bunch of noticelby drunk or high people? I feel like they're prime customers for not having to leave their home

High, yes - Dude was SUPER excited that his Yahoo's had arrived.. Drunk, not that I remember.

This is lazy America at it's finest.

Is there a minimum of required hours that you work each week? Or is it more like Uber where you choose when you want to work?

Yes, you can work when and how long, as long as they have offers or shifts available for you to work. Just because you go to the warehouse doesn't mean that you have stuff to do.

What's your route? What time of day do you start the route? Also, what time do you finish? What kind of vehicle do you drive? What color is it? Are you armed? How can I tell which boxes I should take when I'm robbing you? I mean checking out merch.....

Our routes are not fixed, we move all around town. Send me a GPS and I'll put it in my car for you to track me.

You tell me at what time better suits you for me to start?

I drive a bright orange Pontiac Aztec very hard to miss with a huge Amazon sign on top if it.

You'll gotta find out what I'm packin'.

If the boxes are not heavy don't take it, take the heavy ones.

what is the weirdest combination of things you have ever delivered?

what happens if you dont make it to a customer on time?

On the app we can see what the customer ordered, but it takes a few steps to see them. You need to reach the destination first and then go to Return Packages and then Customer doesn't want a particular item to see the whole order of what the customer paid for. It takes some time and I usually don't do it. I do it only in 1-hour deliveries to see what they are paying the extra $8 on, and oh god, people just want sunscreen and mascara plus Apple juice and a box of Chewy Chips Ahoy really bad.

If we deliver late packages, we better have a REALLY good reason of why the order was late. If there was simply too much demand and not enough drivers to fill the demand then we are good, also with traffic, but Amazon can track us and see everything that we do, including the speed we are doing and if we brake hard. If we stopped for food in McDonalds and got late deliveries because of that, it's our fault and we are screwed.

As an independent contractor are you responsible for paying your own taxes or does amazon deduct before paying you?

Amazon sends us a 1099. Up to us to pay our taxes.

Why do you guys suck so bad? No consistency whatsoever. One day the package is at the front office. Next delivery is to the door. The next delivery agent doesn't knock, leaves package in neighbors bush. On and on it goes..

Sorry for that inconvenience. You can reach out to support and let them know about this.

Also, if you want your packages delivered to your front door every time just leave in the notes to please leave packages in the front door.

Do you guys have to verify age for alcohol purchases? Because you guys kept the party going within one hour when all the liquor stores were closed. We are all 27 or older, but still... is that your responsibility? It seemed way too easy to just have bottles sent to us instantly http://imgur.com/xKXch1P

In Virginia, we can't deliver alcohol; you need to get it from Uncle Sam's Liquor Store aka. VABC. Lucky you that can get it delivered.

We were trained tho, that if the order has alcohol, to check for ID.

Wierdest thing you've delivered?

$200 worth of La Croix Lime 12 pack cases of flavored sparkling water. I know it's not weird weird, but it's weird like who would order $200 worth of sparkling water?

What are you doing answering questions? I need my stuff ASAP bru!!

Pay the stuff bruh, it's already in the cart and waiting for your credit card info.

Will the one and two hour service be coming to the UK soon? That would be great!

I don't know about that, but hey, start it before they get there and make big bucks!

When will you be delivering to stony brook/ any part of Long Island?!

Prime Now already delivers to some places of NYC. Long Island tho, I am not too sure about that. Check the Prime Now app and enter your zip code, it will let you know if it's in the NYC delivery area.

How many "offers" do you get in any given day?

Few days ago there were 18 offers listed at the same time. 2-hour blocks, 3-hour blocks and 4-hour blocks.

Most were Washington D.C. Restaurants.

Most drivers in my market don't like doing Washington D.C. Restaurant deliveries, myself included.

from one of the pics you shared, it had "40-54 includes tips"... why the difference? and how often do you get paid?

In that case $40 is the minimum guaranteed for the 2-hour block ($20 an hour) that you are going to get paid and it can go to $54 with the tips included, sometimes it goes even higher depending on how many stops you did and how much tip the customers left.

Why is that?

Parking and traffic is the major key of why most drivers don't want to work restaurants in D.C.

Do you know anything about the AMZL side of the delivery service? I've got some questions about that.

AMZL Is short for Amazon Logistics, the delivery service made for Amazon by Amazon. They deliver amazon.com packages. They are a different entity and warehouse than what we the Prime Now drivers do and have. AMZL will deliver 2 day shipping.

My husband works for Amazon prime now in our city. It seems like he's always searching for shifts and as soon as one pops up, it's gone. Do you have this issue where you are?

Yes, it happens in all markets. Tell him to just keep searching or if he can, to do it mostly from Thursday to Saturday, since a lot of other drivers are already capped with the full hours and can't do more blocks. He probably has better chances of getting blocks on the weekend.

Is it true that only taking right turns and never lefts gets you there faster?

Because our volume sometimes is not as much as Fedex or UPS, USPS, that theory doesn't work for us. We might have a deliveries in Arlington, VA. but they are not within a walking distance, or if they are, it would take a while to walk it.

Sometimes tho, we do have deliveries that are really close by or even on the same building.

You've already answered a question in the same vein, but I have another regarding picking up used totes.

Is there any particular reason why a delivery person would refuse to pick up 3 weeks worth of used totes (12 - 15 total), even after repeated emails to customer service? I eventually had to throw them away, and only had a new set picked up after asking the driver in person to please take them. I was under the impression that if they are left outside, they will be picked up. This hasn't been the case.

They will be picked up sooner or later. And the reason of why the driver can't take 15 totes might be because the driver just started the route and is delivering you 3 totes but doesn't have space for 12 more in the car, if you break them down and drop the number from 15 totes to 5 totes, you can save space and have them removed faster.

Us drivers are not forced to return the totes unless they are attended, but it's a courtesy service that Amazon asks us to do to help the Fresh team in having more totes to send out more orders.

You can always contact support and have them send you someone from the Fresh Team to pick up the totes.

I've been trying to sign up for it for a couple months now. The little application online always says they need it in Los Angeles. How long did it take until they contacted you? It seems like a pretty generic questionnaire. I drive a crv and have an iPhone. Is there discrepancies in those answers for getting hired?

It might be that they have too many drivers for the amount of demand at this time, and I honestly would recommend using an Android, tho now a days Amazon doesn't care what phone you have. CR-V is a great car to do Prime Now.

3 Parter Here...

1. How long have you been doing this?

2. What can you make in a year?

3. Do taxes generally make this not worth it?

1. A long time ago (don't want to say how long because it might incriminate me)

2. You can make I'd say up to $40k a year.

3. If you use a mileage tracker app, you can save quite a few bucks on taxes. I only paid $435.87 on the 2016 1099 for Amazon.

Does Amazon every run out on an item and ask you to pop by a shop for it?

No, if they run out of a product, there is already a truck from a near fulfillment center hauling the product to our warehouse.

Does a good tip mean I bet my order faster? Or are your routes pre-determined for you?

Amazon gives us a suggested route, but I am free to do the route how it best serves me. If it's my last block (shift) and it's an order that is heading to where I live, but the suggested route tells me to start where I live and finish closer to the warehouse, I can start closer to the warehouse and finish near where I live.

Because you leave a $20.00 tip doesn't mean that your package will be the first one to be delivered. If you want your order fast, I'd suggest using the 1-hour delivery option if it's available in your market.