AMAZON

Amazon's private fleet drivers are actual employee's. If you wanna drive for Amazon...you have to apply for a "yard specialist" position...which means you'll have to do both yard jockeying or drive terminal tractors. Pay isn't all that great and it can vary anywhere from $15-20 an hour...probably due to cost of living. Full-time employees get paid biweekly, OT after 40 hours and around .50 cent for shift differential. Health, dental, vision and stock shares from day 1, but it's not free. Amazon will also train you to get your CDL for free. It might be another option for someone starting out who doesn't want to go the Mega route and be home every night.

 

For $15-$20 an hour, why not just drive a forklift? Safer, no HOS BS, DOT Physicals, traffic jams, etc..

 

I don’t think the driver knows what they are saying, it would be impossible for amazon to lease out their own trucks to contractors with their logos on the vehicle. Their whole goal is to make sure their responsibility falls on a 3rd party company not them. Plus these are day cabs not equipped to handle overnight deliveries.

 

The reason why the pay is so low is because Amazon uses what's called a "tier" system. Every job at Amazon is placed into a category or tier. Tier 1 & 2 are the lower paying jobs...such as a warehouse worker, picker, forklift driver, etc. Anything above tier 3 are managerial and administrative positions. Amazon doesn't care what the job market pays for similar positions, how many years experience you got or how many degrees you got. If you're job is categorized as a tier 1, than that's what you are gonna be paid for. Remember, you're living in Amazon's world...so they make the rules.

A yard jockey in the past didn't need a CDL, so they were categorized as a tier 1 and paid ridiculously low...around $14 an hour before Bezos made $15 an hour the starting pay rate. Amazon tends to mix job duties to save money. So a warehouse worker can also work as a yard jockey if needed. So can the guard shack, and even a tier 3 manager. If driving a tractor is now categorized into the yard jockey position as a tier 1 or 2, than that's what it pays. There's no negotiating about the pay. It's either take the job or go somewhere else...because there are a hundred more people who are willing to take the job because they get memorized by the name "Amazon", thinking they hit the jackpot, when in reality, it's completely the opposite.

 

No offense to anyone working there,, but Amazon sounds like they are the new transportation and warehousing starter company. The runs on the ladder seem low enough that any unskilled person could work there to gain the skills needed to climb up as long as they leave Amazon at some point.

It just doesn't sound like a gig where I would leave my current job just to work there.

 

Not only is Amazon rolling out daycabs they're also starting to use walk-in vans(same size as UPS package car) as a step up from their huge fleet of Dodge Pro Master and MB Sprinters.

 

Whoa really? They are literally trying to change the game. I only see young people as drivers so far, I think they just want to work, for pretty much anything. I'm young myself but I know what I need to make.

 

Why is it impossible for contractors to lease branded trucks? That’s exactly what they do with the delivery vans.

 

because operating a day cab tractor trailer is a lot more expensive then a van.

why would amazon pay someone else to do a 10 mile run for $250 times x 10 a day when they can have someone do it for $20 an hour for 20 times a day in an 8 hour period.

numbers don’t add up from a business prospective.