Amazon is an American company famous for its business in electronic commerce or E-commerce and as well as in cloud computing. It also manufactures home electronics such as Kindle, tablets, TV, and a smart speaker. They even have certain low-end products under its in-house brand AmazonBasics. It is one of the best-selling private label brands on Amazon.com, which mainly consists of consumer electronics accessories including home and office accessories.
Amazon offers international shipping from its selected products for certain countries. It also launched its Amazon Flex package delivery that gives opportunities to people who are available as an everyday driver to deliver packages using their own car. It can also be a platform for independent contractors to provide delivery services.
The company advertises that drivers can have an income of $18 up to $25 per hour. The drivers can set their own schedule and make as many deliveries as they want, seven days a week. It would be a new way for customers to get their packages.
Interested individuals should meet the qualifications which are 21 years old or above, driver license holder, owns a vehicle, has a clean background, and an Android phone owner. Drivers who joined the program uses a proprietary app from Amazon to finish deliveries. The drivers are not required to wear Amazon-branded apparel and they are allowed to deliver using their own vehicles.
Amazon has been constructing its own fleet of thousands of trucks and a number of airplanes to deal with the middle mile deliveries. The trucks and airplanes transport goods between shipping centers and they carry Amazon logos. The delivery service is mostly handled by the delivery services who work with the company such as FedEx (FDX), United Parcel Service (UPS), United State Postal Service (USPS) and the individual drivers who use their personal cars as part of the Flex program.
Besides the new opportunity to be a delivery driver in Amazon, the known online retailer officially launched its new Amazon Flex program. Amazon Flex was launched to meet the on-demand need of Prime Now. They said that the newly launched Flex program will give an opportunity for people to work with the company. With their new program, people can start up their own business and be their own boss.
It helps people in the United States to start their own businesses by delivering Amazon packages. This program provides Amazon with another way to ship its packages to shoppers aside from relying on the company’s partnership with UPS, FedEx, and USPS. New business owners will be responsible for hiring staff and managing the delivery team, and Amazon would most likely be the customer that will pay for their deliveries.
Launching the newest Flex program is Amazon’s latest attempt to gain greater control over their delivery network. Amazon wants to help launch small businesses in the United States by taking its packages from local Amazon sorting centers to the homes of its customers.
You can start your own small business with the partnership of Amazon. This way, your business will be focused on delivering Amazon Prime with branded Amazon vans and apparels. It will be centered on Amazon’s Prime business which ships almost 5 billion packages a year globally.
Amazon Prime is a paid subscription provided by Amazon for a monthly or yearly fee. It offers members an access to stream video and music, a free two-day delivery or one-day in some areas, and other benefits. The Prime service offers members to have products delivered to them within an hour for a fee of $7.99 or within two hours for no additional fee.
The latest program is open for a partnership with individuals with or without logistics experience. For those who are interested, go to their website, logistics.amazon.com, to apply. Amazon will review applicants and will examine if they are qualified.
They also give three weeks of training which includes a trip to Amazon main headquarters in Seattle. The training is centered on business operations. The owner can learn about shipping operations which they will spend time in the field with an existing delivery provider.
The startup business costs $10,000. The startup business created under the said program will have to operate vans from 20 up to 40 vehicles. The estimated employment will be between 40 to 100 people. For the approved business partnership companies, Amazon can provide discounts such as lower rates on insurance, fuel, and leases for Amazon-branded vans for package deliveries.
The approved business companies are allowed to add their own non-Prime vehicles for delivery aside from the Amazon-branded vans. The drivers’ Android phones will be plugged into Amazon’s software which will determine where the drivers go. Drivers should be full-time workers instead of contractors. In fact, the business owners are required to give them paid time off and other benefits.
Those with existing package delivery businesses are also allowed to join. Approved business partnerships can continue to deliver packages for other companies. They also set aside $1 million towards funding a start-up business for military veterans to be part of the partnership. They also offer $10,000 reimbursements for qualified military veterans to build their own business.
Amazon will still continue to use the courier it has previously relied on for same-day deliveries. They will just have the ability to route some orders through Flex for more convenient deliveries. Amazon claims that the approved business owners can able to achieve a $300, 000 a year in profit for running a full-sized fleet 40 vans and managing 100 employees.
The Flex program will enhance Amazon’s existing shipping delivery service setups while the relationship with its previous partners will remain intact. The newly Amazon program delivery service is just another way to meet the growing number of packages it needs to ship.
The Amazon Flex program has already reached more than 50 cities in the United States.
Amazon’s is growing and it seems unstoppable. It’s great to know that any individual can be part of the leading online retailer business. It provides opportunities to others by helping them to build their own businesses.