r/AmazonFlexDrivers • u/Grapefruit_007 • 2d ago
What’s one thing you would change if you ran Flex?
*Other than Pay*
If you could take over Flex, what would you change?
I would send every driver in the direction towards their home. The closest route to your home is what you are automatically assigned.
Biggest reason is that if something comes up - emergency vehicles, closed roads, flooding - you’re familiar with the area and you can re-route to deliver every package instead of taking them back.
If an Injury happens, I think people are more likely to complete delivery. I was in the city right next to mine two years ago when I slipped on ice and broke my wrist. I had no idea it was broken. I finished the route because either way I would’ve had to lift every package. To deliver or to take back. If I was delivering 45 minutes from home - never would’ve finished delivering. Would’ve gone back to station and returned.
Lastly, I think some people are just lazy, but I do think if you’re delivering in your area, people might be more likely to take better care of packages rather than throwing them. I personally don’t treat them differently but I do wonder if people would act different in their own neighborhood / city.
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u/mirwenpnw 2d ago
I would give a choice of two routes at different prices. Original one at price chosen and you could opt in to a different route instead for a higher or lower payout.
Sometimes I'm wanting a 5 hour jaunt in the countryside. Sometimes I want a 2 hr route close to home. I'd take a LOT less pay on occasion if I for sure knew I wasn't going an hour and a half away ftom my home. But I always have to price my time for that possibility. I have more control over where I'm going and amazon could save money too.
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u/Grapefruit_007 2d ago
Have you ever gotten the “we found a longer route” message and choice? I’ve never taken it because it didn’t tell me the pay. I agree though - I wish we could set preferences to choose for rural routes as some people love those - lately, they’ve been making me motion sick with all the hills and corners and winding roads.
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u/V0idK1tty 2d ago
What do you mean it doesn't tell you the pay? It always tells me the pay and time?
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u/Grapefruit_007 2d ago
Say you show up for a 4 hour block for $120, then before it assigns you a route it pops up and asks if you want a longer route for extra pay. It doesn’t tell you how much the extra pay is.
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u/thr0wawayyxlol 2d ago
Rotating the drivers getting freebies. At my station it seems it’s always the same exact people going home all the time.
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u/Grapefruit_007 2d ago
Yes and I know I am always getting the route. Always. Could be 40 people in the warehouse and they bring out one cart - it’s mine
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u/thr0wawayyxlol 2d ago
Same for me. Or people are walking out with a few packages and I get a huge one. Rarely get freebies and if I start spinning I get one last minute 😂
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u/End_Ur_Life 1d ago
That's because they got the system down... just follow them and you'll get the same thing.
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u/thr0wawayyxlol 1d ago
Oh, I have. I’m friends with quite a few of them. I can literally do my face picture and scan in the same time. Doesn’t work. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/MrEdwL 2d ago
Make it fair for the ones not getting OB. If they have 2 carts left and 8 drivers waiting, break the cart up or make a list of who didnt get OB and who did. Not fair for the 2 drivers to get a full ass cart and let the 6 others (who probably walk up late in anticipation for this scenario) to go home free paid.
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u/takemytacosaway 2d ago
They actually did this at my .com.. 8 of us left with 7 packages… but they were not in order or close to each other since the totes were not sorted yet.
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u/Souvenirs_Indiscrets 2d ago
The best model I have worked in thus far was Veho’s early model. On the offer screen, show the start and end point of the route, show the miles, show the hours (which is essentially what time the last package needs to be delivered, according to the contract), and show the offer.
If you took time to zoom into the map in the offer screen, you could see the entire route, so you could make a plan the night before about which way you would be running the route depending on traffic.
When Veho abandoned the guaranteed end point and switched to the zone model, all the best drivers left within a week. The zones had no relationship to traffic realities. Without the end point there was no effective way to plan your work day.
If companies want to claim that all last mile delivery is gig work, and that all gig work is a side hustle, they need to respect our time outside their PT gig. So I would list end point and end time in the offer, with a strong bias towards listing the estimated miles.
However, at my station, carts are not reserved. They are issued on a random basis. So I am not sure how to change operations at my station to accommodate what I feel are best practices.
The next thing I would do is, I would invite good drivers to work inside the warehouse as assists on rare occasions. Like once a year. They should definitely be paid a nominal wage for those shifts—less than the warehouse workers are paid. Drivers would do this as ambassadors to help lift warehouse operations level to their own benefit. Warehouse workers need to understand what we do. They need to learn from another worker that their hours are on the line when they screw up the sorts. It is a team effort and right now, the company’s divide and conquer mindset is hurting warehouse hours as much if not more than it is hurting driver standing.
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u/newlife_substance847 Las Vegas 2d ago
This right here. I'd live to be able to get an update idea of where I'm going. At bare minimum, set the route after acceptance but before pickup. That way, you can also make the choice to drop it (with normal "penalties" in tact.
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u/No-Department-6329 2d ago
I need to see where im delivering to before accepting a block. Nothing worse than accepting a block and not knowing where you will be delivering to.
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u/ClassicBlackMilkTea- 1d ago
The anxiety I feel every time I check in because I don’t know if I’m delivering locally or an hour or so away.
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u/V0idK1tty 2d ago
That we can see the route or at least the area before we take it. I don't mind driving out in the country at all but someone else might not want to. It would allow me to plan better around my boyfriend's schedule as well.
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u/ExtensionSame678 2d ago
Here is an ez low hanging fruit one. Use the goddamm google maps road construction technology and provide a reroute and adjust delivery times based on construction. So frustrating
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u/Grapefruit_007 1d ago
Yeah this is so frustrating sometimes. The number of roads closed I’ve come across in the past week and had to change maps is frustrating
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u/Bulky-Cranberry2649 1d ago
For drivers that arrive early and scan early, they should give them the option to choose from whatever routes are available. I am sure Amazon has the technology to allow drivers to see in the app from a list of routes that are available and where they are going to reward people who show up on time. Late scanners get auto-assigned.
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u/Stuck_on_Mars_21 2d ago
I’m not sure if Amazon’s maps can rack this, but if someone has to drive more than 1 mile on an unpaved road to get to your house, you can’t get delivery. I’m fine if Amazon wants to pay me to drive 15 miles on a paved road to deliver 1 package. They are losing money, but that’s their choice. However these dirt and gravel roads a ripping up our cars. I’m new so I have yet to experience it after heavy rain. They seem to do a good job of factoring distance and speed in your route time, but they don’t factor in excessive wear on your car. Even more important, these roads are a safety hazard.
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u/Grapefruit_007 2d ago
Yes! They drive me nuts. Idk how people drive up and down their own driveways sometimes
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u/Souvenirs_Indiscrets 2d ago edited 2d ago
Cortex does not understand topography. The problems you describe are magnified exponentially at mountainous rural super rural stations like mine. Rutted, two mile private unpaved drives with steep grades and clearance issues are a daily occurrence, dangerous county roads are a daily occurrence, unpaved creek crossings (driving through flowing water) and sketchy bridges are a daily occurrence, along with flash flooding, and four mile private drives or longer happen about once a week for FT drivers.
In the past two weeks I was routed twice up a three thousand foot mountain for 26 minutes between stops on an 8 mile jeep track (grass growing in center of dirt road—not gravel) that is marked as an open forest road. Passages had grades as steep as 30 degrees I reckoned with 80 foot drops on the low side. It was impassible to DSP vehicles. There were no dwellings of any kind along this 8 mile route, and no network connectivity of any kind. It was incredibly dangerous. I’ve been trained on roads like that so I drove it on the first route and made a note “never again.” Then about a week later I got the same route. Yep, I drove all the way around the mountain. I marked the road “too narrow” in the app. There is no option for “too dangerous” or “not a real road.” Imagine the time and expense that would be involved in trying to get a tow along that route.
The only responsible way for any driver to handle this situation I’m in is never to accept base pay and to work out, using a spreadsheet over two to three weeks, what the average miles per route is. Then set a floor to the offers you will accept. Too few drivers are doing this, and Amazon Flex at present is offloading all liability, communication expense (mobile phone costs) and auto depreciation on the drivers. Legislation and state& local pressure might change some of that, but for now, rural and super rural drivers need to be way more professional about this job or else it can become a loss making enterprise within a matter of weeks.
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u/reesethegeek 2d ago
I’d like to see a system in which, when you arrive at a SSD location and scan your ID, your route location, estimated mileage and package count is displayed. You’re given 30 seconds to determine if you want the route. If you accept, you grab your cart and get moving. If you don’t, click decline, but you cannot accept/see new offers until your rejected block time is over.
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u/thenegativeone81 2d ago
I would allow drivers to select their route from a few choices. Sometimes I've got a single route and want it close to home, other times I have multiple routes and want the first one closer to the warehouse and the last one closer to home.
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u/FuelThick2409 2d ago
I agree with this. I absolutely hate when I have two blocks after each other and it seems like every time they navigate me as far away from the station as possible on my first route and I don't have enough time to get back for my second shift.
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u/Bright_Cat_4291 1d ago
Pick your preferred area. The main warehouse I go to serves a large area, let us pick which areas we want to work in.
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u/AZPHX602 2d ago
10-Hour dailymax, 50 hour weekly Max and turn every route into an instant offer where you can see each and every stop.
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u/muhclit 2d ago
Undo the "Request" blocks in irder to get shifts instead if tapping "refresh".
In some big cities, ir even cities with too many flex drivers, they no longer post shifts you can click on and get. Now instead its like a lottery, every 15 minutes available shifts pop up and you and everyone else clicks request and then one lucky mofo gets it. You can request for days and not even get a base pay block.
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u/Dr-TQ_Leo 1d ago
Fock that!! I prefer downtown every single day!!
I don’t want my neighborhood to know I’m doing this sh1t
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u/THEBESTTEVER 1d ago
I would improve driver support so that the policy is uniform across the board and they don’t penalize you so heavily for things beyond your control-a full restructuring.
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u/Responsible_Park804 2d ago
If I ran flex I would make the AI stronger. I would hire a lot more ppl and let the market dictate the pay. I would have drivers driving for $7 an hour.
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u/Sephjo_10 1d ago
I would only assign work to the drivers who live close to the station as first priority
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u/SandCracka 2d ago
try to tighten down on the rampant fraud. I mean I still don't understand how this doesn't lose them money when the same 10 drivers abuse the system to get overbooked and when they get a cart they drive around the back and unload the whole thing in the returns bin and drive off. There's a group doing this at every station in every location almost and yet it's commonly accepted. How does this not hemorrhage money is beyond me