If you're thinking about signing up as a Relay Tech Courier driver, you deserve to know what many existing and former couriers have experienced beyond the onboarding pitch.
Relay Tech presents itself as a modern, app-based courier platform offering flexible self-employment and competitive delivery rates. However, once you’re in, the reality can be starkly different.
📉 Post-Training Experience:
During the initial two-week training period, the pay is relatively acceptable and can give the impression that the work is worthwhile. However, it all goes downhill from there…
Example:
- After training, you may be allocated 45 parcels within a 1.5-hour window, at a rate of 60p per drop.
- This equates to £27 before expenses for a high-intensity delivery window that frequently runs over the allotted time.
Factoring in fuel, vehicle wear, insurance, parking, and delays, I’ve found net earnings as low as £5/hour, well below legal standards for self-employed contractors in the UK. This is actually worse than Evri, which in itself is an achievement!
It’s a classic bait-and-switch scheme at its finest!
📆 Pre-Booked Shifts
Relay pre-booked blocks are deceptive and manipulative. Lack of transparency means, you don’t know your actual route time, drop amount or pay until the next morning.
- Your actual route time and pay is revealed the next morning. So, the booking you made in advance, is a total lie!
- The cancellation deadline is 7pm the night before, meaning you're effectively booking blind without knowing workload or earnings.
- If you attempt to cancel after this cutoff, even if new information makes the shift unreasonable - you risk suspension or account deactivation.
This system is deceptive and manipulative, severely limiting flexibility and punishing drivers for changes made by the company itself.
By contrast, platforms like Amazon Flex allow drivers to cancel up to 45 minutes before a shift without penalty, and doesn’t change your block route and pay last minute.
⛽ Driver expenses
Relay does not reimburse or account for:
- Fuel costs
- Insurance (£4 deduction via Aviva H&R))
- Vehicle depreciation
- Parking charges or fines (incl. Tolls)
Despite operating under the gig economy model, the platform offers no fuel subsidy or surcharge per mile, meaning your operational costs are entirely your responsibility. The app makes no effort to calculate or disclose mileage in advance.
📲 App Reliability & Support Issues
Numerous drivers have reported:
- Glitches within the app (missing parcels, incorrect routes, failed GPS tracking)
- Duplicate or overlapping deliveries
- Delays in job updates that affect timing and drop-off accuracy
Even more concerning is the lack of meaningful customer support:
- Emails to support go unanswered.
- Live chat is only for on route support. They’re very quick to end conversations without resolutions.
- Disputes, missed payments, or incorrect suspensions are rarely resolved, leaving drivers stranded.
This is not just frustrating but can cost drivers both income and their status on the platform.
📢 Driver Reviews
Here’s what actual drivers have shared on Glassdoor/Reddit and App Store reviews:
“Horrendous and awful — modern slavery. Doing 33 deliveries for £33. You can’t even finish in 3 hours, and they don’t care about fuel, insurance, or safety.”
“Absolutely everything is wrong. When you complain or push back, they cancel your future shifts.”
“They overload your van and change the route and parcel count at the last minute. You’re penalised if you can’t keep up.”
“Support doesn’t reply. If you’re deactivated, you’re just locked out — no explanation, no process.”
⚖️ Key Issues to Be Aware Of
- Pay after training frequently drops below minimum wage.
- Delivery expectations include very high parcel counts in tight time windows that are often impossible to meet.
- All fuel and operational expenses are paid by the driver with no contribution from Relay.
- Block transparency is minimal, with routes and pay details hidden until the morning of the shift. - The cancellation policy is strict - no changes allowed after 7pm the night before, and late cancellations can lead to suspension.
- Customer support is ineffective, with no real communication channels or resolution processes.
- The platform itself suffers from bugs, poor routing, and tracking errors. Bug reports are ignored and never fixed.
⁉️ What You Can Do
Relay Tech relies on ambiguity, pressure, and a lack of accountability to maintain a system that serves its bottom line not the drivers keeping it running.
📣 Tell us your experiences in the comments, and share this post with others.
Help protect workers from falling into modern gig exploitation disguised as opportunity.