- "Make $18–25/hr delivering packages for Amazon with your car and smartphone. Be your own boss: deliver when you want, as much as you want," reads the pitch for Amazon's (AMZN +0.2%) Flex part-time delivery driver network. Flex has launched in Seattle, and will be available "soon" in NYC, Chicago, Dallas, and several other cities.
- For now, Flex is limited to Amazon's Prime Now rapid delivery service (orders delivered in 1 or 2 hours), but could expand to other packages in the future. Drivers need to be at least 21 years old, have an Android phone, and pass a background check. They can "choose any available 2, 4, and 8 hour blocks of time to work the same day, or set availability for up to 12 hours per day for the future."
- Assuming it's able to hire enough drivers, Flex gives Amazon a low-cost way to expand its rapid/same-day delivery footprint, and represents a challenge to ride-sharing giant UBER, which has been hungry to expand into delivery/logistics services. Both Uber and Amazon (the latter via Prime Now) have launched food delivery services.