I've got a suspicion that Amazon has been trialling/building this in the UK since their purchase of Yodel, perhaps earlier. A number of times some bloke in a car has turned up and delivered me a package. No uniform, no branding. Just a phone running Amazon software.<p>I can't say it's the greatest experience.
One of the reasons I hesitate to use Amazon Now is that big "suggested tip" field. I don't tip the UPS delivery person, why should I tip my Amazon Now delivery person? What's been the norm for you all?
I guess i was part of trials in Northern New Jersey - a random guy showed up in a beaten up car (i noticed because it had pretty nasty oil smoke coming out of the tailpipes, almost cartoon-like).
He was wearing an "amazon now" t-shirt, but then after having me sign a delivery slip, stuck around awkwardly expecting a tip. Not a good experience.
I see the appeal for people looking to work, but as a customer I strongly prefer UPS, FedEx or USPS.<p>Last week I got a phone call: "Hi, are you home right now?"<p>It turns out it was actually an Amazon Logistics delivery person, but that still isn't a question I really want to answer over the phone to some random person.
So I imagine the question every self employed person with a car will be asking themselves right now is this: will I make more money driving for Uber or driving for Amazon?
Sounds a lot like LaserShip which Amazon already uses sometimes here on the east coast. Minimally trained people delivering last mile packages using their own vehicle. Results are.... mixed.
I'm surprised they aren't launching with cyclists too. Maybe they don't know the size of the backpack / basket that the delivery person has? I kinda just bike around Toronto for fun / exercise (up to 100kms in a day) and if I didn't have to alter my bike I could consider doing it. Plus it is faster in many parts of the city to bike than to take car or transit.
Every time I see Amazon make an announcement, I'm reminded of this quote by Conan O'Brien:<p>"Just remember kids, you can do anything you set your mind to, as long as Jay Leno doesn't also want to do it."<p>Substitute Amazon for Jay Leno in that!
This is a big step for Amazon, and one that I can imagine them eventually offering as a service to other companies that need to provide real-time delivery. And, $18 to $25 an hour represents close to a livable wage, although less than it seems once you take into account depreciation of your personal automobile (which is why the future transit and bike options are particularly intriguing.)<p>But, it also calls out the need for government programs to stop assuming that workers will have a single long-term employer. Obamacare already started this process. We should be developing analogous policies for sick leave, family leave, and retirement savings that are decoupled from your employer.<p>Nick Hanauer has done good work thinking about what these programs will need to look like: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-need-a-new-social-contract-for-the-sharing-economy-2015-7" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-need-a-new-social-c...</a>
I wonder how long it'll take for an online thievery marketplace will pop-up selling Amazon Flex delivery data. For example, if you know you delivered a $10k gold apple watch (hypothetically), I can bet you that a local thief would pay you at least $100 for you to tell him which house it was delivered to.<p>In fact, my neighbour's home was broken into last year. Turns out (unbeknownst to us), he apparently had a safe in his home with nearly half a million in value (watches, diamonds etc. Huge surprise to us because we know him as a chubby, nerdy government worker who drives an electric bicycle to work, never would've expected him to have some kind of tony montana thing going on in his house haha). Anyway so we spoke to him and the police after and apparently a small crew broke into his home and went straight for the safe with specialised equipment, i.e. they knew exactly where to go and someone had told them, and they made a massive, massive haul. Imagine you worked at Amazon Flex and delivered a rolex, that's valuable information.<p>Anyway there are the usual problems with this that you see at eBay or the SR (how do you escrow payments on what obviously must be an illegal online service with anonymous owners, and if you don't have escrow how do you establish trust between merchant and buyer), added to the fact it's pretty easy for the police to trace it back to a delivery man if it happens often enough. Anyway wouldn't be surprised to see it happen within a few years.
Great idea on Amazon's part; they're already set up to handle the logistics for this kind of last-mile delivery stuff.<p>Of course, one could argue that moves like this and pushing us towards the gig economy are a net negative for our future economy. They seem to be compensating fairly (for now?) at least.
Amazon can't even effectively manage their second tier delivery vendors like Lasership in NYC. They dump packages in unsecured areas (I had one stolen last week). They scan packages as delivered to make their SLA with Amazon and then deliver after 9pm. And now Amazon thinks some random folks with cars are going to do great delivering merchandise in one of the country's most congested urban areas. Maybe bricks and mortar aren't so bad after all.
Given that Amazon warehouse jobs include working unpaid time[0] and the standard practice of employers inflating per-hour rate expectations for piecework jobs, I am dubious of the "$18–25/hr" claim.<p>0: See INTEGRITY STAFFING SOLUTIONS, INC. v. BUSK, <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/13-433_5h26.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/13-433_5h26.pdf</a>
This is what the post office should be doing. We'll deliver your mail to wherever your phone is or you want it for that day.<p>I hate buying something from someone online (eBay for instance) and then they ship USPS. If I can't let the mailman into my apartment they won't leave the packages. So then I end up having to sit in line at the post office on Saturday morning and hope they can find the package for me and pick it up.
I like what the Austrian post started to do. You buy a post locker once, place it on the outside of your house/flat and the post starts putting packages in there and throws the one-time use pin into your mail.
<i>Q: Where can I deliver with Amazon Flex?
A: Amazon Flex is available now in Seattle. It will be available soon in New York, Baltimore, Miami, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Portland.</i><p>Smart move by Amazon to refrain from making any Bay-area city one of its test markets. It's like Amazon is saying "we don't <i>need</i> to prove this will work in the bubble; let's base our test data set on realistic markets."
This will be amazing for the 3rd world, if it works, as postal services are notoriously ineffective and there's now way to overlay a trust model on them.
When amazon prime now launched in miami, they were using a temp agency to staff the drivers. Last time they brought me stuff in a city/euro-style-delivery van with amazon branding on it. I've also seen amazon branded shirts on delivery guys in their own cars too.<p>Lots of delivery services will be competing for freelancers (Shyp, postmates, favor, amazon)
So $18-$25 an hour plus tips. To drive maybe 24miles or more per trip not sure and on top of that considering car expense you'd have to pay driving that many miles, gas oil-change maybe tire problems or engine problems driving that far distances everyday could really start to add up.
If they're launching now in major cities, I'm guessing drone deliveries aren't coming anytime soon. (Or this is insurance against the drone plan not working.)
What happens if you get in a car accident delivering Amazon packages and don't have commercial car insurance as I suspect most people don't have not realize they need...
Amazon might be smart enough to deliver packages in the evenings when people are home, something FedEx and UPS just can't quite get their heads around.