Amazon.com has become known in military spouse employment circles as an awesome work from home option. Their customer care phone lines offer spouses an easy access home based desk job that can even relocate from state to state in the right circumstances.
But not everyone wants to work a call center gig, and now Amazon.com is offering contractor jobs that are even more friendly to military members and even parents looking for ways to work with their kids in tow: delivery drivers.
Amazon delivers Amazon.com, Prime Now, AmazonFresh and Amazon Restaurant orders in about 50 cities nationwide. And to do that they need drivers, hired as contractors for their Amazon Flex service.
The pitch for working the Amazon Flex job is simple: you have ultimate job flexibility because you pick your own hours and days based on when Amazon has available "blocks" or hours available.
And because you're delivering a set amount of packages over the four hour block, there's nothing to stop you from having passengers along for the ride, even if those passengers look a lot like you and use a sippy cup.
Amy Driscoll, a Navy wife in the Virginia Beach area, has been a Flex driver since last year, she said. Over her more than 20 years as a Navy spouse, she has moved 10 times and held countless jobs.
She quickly figured out that the job she went to school for, veterinary technician, was simply going to be too complicated to hold down around deployments, moves and raising her kids. So instead she held part time employment at different odd jobs, including waitressing and other retail gigs.
But the Amazon Flex job is her favorite so far, she said, because she can do it only when her kids are in school or around their Navy life schedule. She said sometimes she takes her kids on blocks with her on the weekends, too.
"Amazon Flex job is the first one I've found that lets me adjust my schedule around my family," she said. "Just the flexibility of being an independent contractor and delivering ... has allowed me to be the mom I want to be while bringing in supplemental income."
Amazon Flex pays between $18 and $25 an hour, depending on when deliveries are made, the size of the vehicle the person is driving and other factors, officials said.
To qualify as a delivery driver, individuals must drive a mid-sized sedan vehicle or larger, be 21 or older, pass a criminal background check and driving record review, have proof of insurance and have a valid driver's license.
Amazon doesn't take rolling applications for all of their delivery locations, but they do have the areas open for new jobs posted here.
This story was updated to include details on what changes the hourly pay rate.
