As usual, I’m late to the game, which is probably a testament to the fact that I’m 50 years old and don’t have any teenagers or twenty-somethings in the house. I usually “discover” music artists about 3-5 years after they are hugely popular, and see movies after I read an article about the digitally-remastered 25th anniversary release. A pop culture aficionado I am not.
Amazon Flex started in 2015, so in pop culture age, it’s already about 70 years old, which seems just about right for me to join this small sector of the “gig economy.” I don’t even know what that term means, and I’m too lazy to figure it out.
There are literally thousands and thousands of articles already out there about Flex. As Lance Armstrong says, “Give it a goog” and you’ll find enough YouTube commentary and blog content to fill your weekend. Just remember, if you jump in the Reddit hole, you may never make it out.
So let’s get to it. Hi, my name is Marc, and I’m an Amazon Flex driver.
Signing up was pretty easy. You do EVERYTHING on the phone app (you can’t do it on the computer even if you want to). I suspect that since actually delivering with Flex is totally dependent on the phone app, requiring completion of the signup process on the app is intentional. If you can’t navigate the application process, the outlook for you as a delivery person is probably not good.
I had to fill in the basic information, including bank account (so they can pay you), vehicle and insurance, driver’s license, etc. Once all of that is processed (it only took a day or two) then they run a basic background check. After you clear that hopefully-not-so-difficult hurdle, there are 8 training videos that you must watch on your phone. Most of them are 5 minutes or less and include titles such as, “What to expect on your first delivery,” “Safety reminders,” “Making Amazon Fresh deliveries,” and “Dog safety tips.”
The videos aren’t very helpful. They aren’t “live” videos with real people. They are kind of cheesy animation videos.
For example, the video “App Overview” doesn’t show the actual app – it’s the same cheesy animation stuff. And it’s a minute and a half long. As I said earlier, the entire delivery process is based on the app, and yet you don’t really get to see any of it until you actually show up for your first pickup.
I wasn’t smart enough to do the YouTube research before I signed up for my first delivery block. That probably would have given me a better comfort level and reduced my anxiety for trip numero uno.
Before I get to that first pickup, a short note about the schedule and blocks. Being in San Diego, there are about 5 or 6 Amazon locations around the county. During sign up I “picked” the one nearest to me. But I didn’t realize that what I am “offered” in the app doesn’t have any correlation to my preferred location. Probably because I’m new, but I’ve never been offered anything other than evening shifts, and they are at the locations most distant from my house. I’ve done all five of my shifts at the Rancho Bernardo location (North county), which is 20 miles away from my house via the slower route, and 30 miles away via the fastest route. I’m a creature of habit, so I keep going back there, although I have been offered blocks in National City (south San Diego) and Carlsbad (even farther North county).
The easy way to explain Flex is to say it’s like Uber for Amazon, but that’s not quite true. The primary way that Flex drivers make money is by accepting “blocks.” Blocks are a set amount of time, normally three hours around here, but I can’t speak to other cities or locations. When you sign up for a time block on a given date and time, you can cancel up to 45 minutes prior to the start with no penalty. If you cancel too late or don’t show, it goes into your “record” and could result in the loss of your authorization to drive.
I feel like I’m backtracking, but let me explain what I mean by “offers” since that was confusing to me when they talked about it in the training videos. As a Flex driver, you don’t have access to a scheduling page where you see the full schedule and sign up for available slots. You can only sign up for blocks that the app presents to you as an “offer.” And they aren’t that abundant. When I finish a block, the app will typically offer me blocks for two days later (sometimes the next day, but not often) in the same Rancho Bernardo location or National City. I stick with what I know. If I don’t find a full-time job soon perhaps I’ll branch out and try the other locations.
This is as boring as replacing the toilet paper on the holder. I can’t believe you’re still reading. Does ibuprofen ever lose its potency? I just took some that has to be 4-5 years old. I digress.
The first block that I accepted was a 5:15 – 8:15 block that paid $66 (all blocks have a pay amount associated with them). When you accept a block, you are expected to arrive at the pickup location within a 20-minute window: 15 minutes prior to block start time to 5 minutes after start. If you don’t arrive in that window and check in on the app, it is reported as a “missed block.” And yes, the app is location enabled, so it won’t allow you to check in unless you are actually there.
I arrived early, at about 4:55 and discovered that you can’t actually check in prior to the 20-minute window, so I parked in the nearby lot to wait for 5 minutes. At 5:00pm sharp they started to let cars in. It looked to me like there were about 20-30 cars lined up by that time. The gate attendant asked for my name and checked me off the list.
And then I realized that nothing in the training video about pick up was reality. I don’t know why I was surprised.
Video: Roll down all windows and turn on hazard lights when entering the warehouse.
Reality: No warehouse, just a bunch of yellow-vested people directing cars in a parking lot like when you arrive at an amusement park or concert venue.
Okay, if I learned anything from the New Jack Swing era and Tony! Toni! Tone! it was that it never rains in Southern California, but I didn’t expect to be loading packages outdoors in a parking lot. But that’s the way it works at that location. You pull up to something that looks like a luggage rack and that’s where you load.
Video: Warehouse personnel will check you in.
Reality: You check in yourself on the app.
I followed directions and pulled into my spot. I looked on as all the other drivers around me were getting to work loading packages in their vehicles. I stood there like an idiot until I was able to get the attention of one of the yellow-vested workers and sheepishly said, “Uh, I’m a first timer. What am I supposed to be doing?”
He asked, “Did you check in?”
“I gave my name to the person at the gate,” I replied.
“That’s not checking in. You check in on the app.”
I then had to ask him to show me how to do that. He called someone else, probably the supervisor, who was actually really helpful once she found out that I was an idiot newbie. The app asks if you've taken your temperature that day and it's below 100.4. Of course! (Lie. I'm fairly confident that for 99.8% of the Flex workforce answering that question in the affirmative is a lie).
The first thing you have to do is find a piece of blue paper with your rack of packages that has the length of the block (e.g. 3.0 hours) as well as a QR code on it that is the very first thing that needs to be scanned. When you scan that QR code with the app, it loads all the information for that planned route. It includes a listing of the packages that should be on the rack.
Video: Each shelf of the rack that contains packages will have a QR code that allows you to scan all packages on that rack into your phone without having to scan them individually.
Reality: Nope. Not true. Doesn’t exist.
It makes sense that for accountability purposes you have to individually scan every package before you load it into your vehicle. That way the app knows that you actually have taken possession of all of the packages associated with that route and helps you identify any missing or extra packages prior to leaving. Not having any actual experience with the app (there is no demo version or practice area on the app; you don’t have any idea what the interface looks like until you scan a route QR code) it took me awhile to even figure out how to scan the packages. The next time you get a package from Amazon, take a look at the box. It likely has at least two different barcodes and up to four different QR codes. Confusing to say the least.
But the scanning process is not hard once you know what you’re doing. Super easy. But for first timers, well, not so much. Ordering a sandwich at Subway is easy if you’ve ever done it before and you know how it works. Pick your bread, pick the kind of sandwich, which cheese, toasted or untoasted, and then choose toppings. Easy right? But can you imagine someone from another country going into Subway to buy a sandwich and not understanding how it works? It's only easy if you know how it works. Same with the Flex pickup process.
So, with help, I finally got my packages loaded in the Toyota Highlander and was able to figure out how to start the directions to the first delivery point on the app.
I drove into the lot to load or pickup right at 5:00 but didn’t drive out of the lot until about 5:25. Even only having done it five times now, it seems that 10-12 minutes is really long enough to scan and load if you know the process. My five trips have averaged 28-30 packages.
Of course, it’s not a race, but it’s a matter of maximizing your earnings. I was 10 minutes or more into my delivery window when I drove off the lot. Optimally you want to be driving off the lot at the start of the actual delivery window. Unfortunately, you can’t really do that now… more on that in the next edition.
So it really is that simple if you want to call it that. You accept a delivery block, show up, load the route and packages, and then you’re on your way. That’s when the real fun starts.
This still seems to me to be incredibly tedious and boring storytelling. Congratulations if you made it to the end and let me know if this is at all interesting. I gotta be honest, I’m boring myself too. I need a break, so if you want to read about my experiences with the actual deliveries, stay tuned.
But trust me, I understand if you’d rather go back to the Reddit hole or video land.
