Amazon Flex Driving: How Much Can You Really Earn?

Driving For Amazon Flex—Is It Worth It?

While other businesses and industries struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s fair to say 2020/21 was a good year for Amazon. Shares in the tech giant grew by 75% during the course of 2020, and over the years their business has grown to include computing, AI and the popular Prime Video streaming service.

With Amazon continuing to grow, and the UK home delivery market flourishing as people stayed at home, more and more people looked to courier work as a viable income source, whether as a full-time job or a secondary source of extra cash.

You may be wondering how much you can actually earn as a driver for Amazon Flex UK, and if the rates they advertise are genuinely realistic or unlikely to be the norm—we’ve done the research, and here’s what we found:

How Much Can You Earn Driving For Amazon?

Amazon Flex UK states on its website that drivers can make £13-£15 per hour while driving for Amazon Flex, but our research shows how this may not be the case. While many drivers online speak highly about their earnings potential with Flex, enjoying the flexible hours, weekly pay and “be your own boss” nature of the work, earnings can be inconsistent

For instance, you’re unlikely to make £13-£15 per hour on every shift you work with Amazon Flex, simply due to the way the app works things out. Once they’ve signed up for a shift, drivers are assigned a “block”, which is Amazon’s name for the process of collecting your parcels and delivering them over an estimated time period—this certainly doesn't mean it's impossible (or even uncommon) for your hourly earnings to be in line with Amazon's adverts.

Amazon pays you a flat rate per block, so your hourly rate depends on your income from that block and the amount of time it takes to complete it. On their website, Amazon even states that “time taken per delivery may vary…. occasionally [taking] more time than expected”. So, if you end up stuck in traffic or on a difficult/long route then your hourly rate will be impacted.

Our research indicated that most blocks are between 3-4 hours (but can reach up to 5), and while there isn’t a “typical” number of drops per block it is possible to have over 200 unique deliveries for each one—especially during busier periods, such as the run up to Christmas.

In conclusion, yes, Amazon’s advertised rate of pay seems achievable in the right circumstances, but this is by no means a guarantee for every block. Don’t be surprised if more challenging blocks (more deliveries, traffic issues) have you earning closer to £9-£11 per hour—and that’s before you even take into account your costs.

Amazon Flex Driver Reviews

We scoured review sites and driver forums to find out what Amazon Flex UK drivers think about the job. Here's what some of the most common themes of Amazon Flex reviews:

Positives

"Choose your own hours... be your own boss.."

"Sometimes the pay is amazing... [when you] finish much earlier than contracted

"Support is usually good... [pay] guaranteed for block before you accept"

Negatives

"Hard to find jobs because of bots"

"Wear and tear on your vehicle"

"Pay is really a lot less than you imagine... fuel, wear & tear, insurance, income tax..."

The Costs Of Driving For Amazon

While driving for Amazon can certainly better paying than traditional retail/labour roles, there are a number of costs that a lot of drivers don’t consider while getting started.

1. Courier/Delivery Insurance

2. Fuel

3. Vehicle Depreciation

4. Exhaustion

1. Courier/Delviery Insurance

In order to use your vehicle in return for payment ("Hire and Reward") you’ll require a form of Courier Insurance or Delivery Driver insurance. It’s considerably more expensive than your regular vehicle insurance—monthly Courier Car policies start from £220 per month.

You have to be careful here—many of the UK’s biggest car insurers don’t cover Amazon drivers, and so you could end up getting caught out and driving uninsured.

Many couriers in the UK find insurance a tricky subject to navigate—as so many of the biggest car insurers won’t offer a policy, it can be difficult to get an answer to what you actually need. Our partners at QuoteZone aim to take the hassle out of Courier Insurance—fill out a quote form and they’ll connect you with up to 3 of the UK’s leading Courier insurers.

2. Fuel

Our research into various Flex driver websites and forums revealed it’s common for the total mileage driven for a block to top 100 miles—including your journeys to and from the depot when your shift starts/finishes.

“Sometimes you end up doing nearly a 100-mile drive for a single 3.5-hour route”

“long distances, lots of parcels… support just supporting issues for the parcel [not you]”

As of writing, the average petrol price in the UK is 162p per litre—Nimblefins research estimated an average car on UK roads averages around 36 miles to the gallon. Given that there’s roughly 4.5L to a gallon your 100-mile round journey ends up costing you around £20 in petrol—dramatically reducing your earnings per hour for a 3-5 hour shift if you drive a standard car.

3. Vehicle Depreciation

Everyone’s vehicle is different, so it’s difficult to put an exact figure on how much value your vehicle will lose during your time working for Amazon. But taking a driver who (conservatively) drives 70 miles per day for Amazon, 5 days a week, for an entire year—they’d be clocking in over 18,000 miles annually just from Flex deliveries.

When you consider the average UK driver clocks in under 7,500 miles per year it’s not hard to imagine the potential impact on selling or trading in your vehicle in the future.

4. Exhaustion

While not an immediately obvious financial cost, you should consider that Flex work can be physically demanding at times—especially if you take multiple shifts per day—often lifting heavy packages, climbing flights of stairs and rushing around to meet delivery slots.

Increased packages per delivery, tighter delivery targets and competition for blocks have created an environment that can be exhausting for even the most seasoned of couriers, and stories of drivers chugging Red Bull or skipping toilet breaks aren’t uncommon.

What Next?

We’ve put together a guide to Amazon Flex UK Driver Insurance that covers everything you’ll need to know about protecting yourself while on the road with Amazon Flex.

You might want to consider other courier/delivery businesses instead of or in addition to Amazon Flex—and we’ve got guides for getting covered for them too.

We also compared how much you can earn on the UK's 3 biggest food delivery apps—take a look and see how they compare to driving for Amazon Flex.

Looking for the Amazon Flex app download? Here's the link you'll need (it'll automatically sync to whichever operating system your device is running, whether Android, iOS or otherwise!).

Additional Information

What is the Amazon Flex contact number UK?

Amazon Flex's UK contact number is 080 8145 3757, with lines available from 09:00 to 21:00. If you want to contact them through the Amazon Flex support email, it's [email protected].

Finding an Amazon Flex Depot near me

To find an Amazon Flex UK depot, just download the app, and it'll let you know which depots are nearest your current location.

What's the best Amazon Flex UK Forum?

While there are a few options for Flex drivers in the UK, the Flex section of popular professional driver site UberPeople or the Reddit page AmazonFlexDrivers might be a good first port of call.

How can I find Amazon Flex jobs UK?

To begin the application process, just download the app. Your application is unlikely to be successful if you fail to meet one of the following criteria: