Amazon Flex is a great way to earn extra money on your own schedule, and choose to work when you like (assuming you can find availability). For most locations, you can choose any 2 hour block starting from 8 AM to midnight, and the pay rate is generally the same across all delivery blocks. But, the delivery block’s time of day has a very significant impact on your delivery experience. If you can avoid it, night time delivery blocks should never be chosen for the following reasons:
1) Finding your Amazon Flex delivery destination is much more challenging in the dark
Many residential areas are poorly lit at night, and house numbers are almost impossible to see in the dark. Once you manage to find the house, you will need to find a parking spot, also made more difficult at night when there are fewer spots (everyone is home) and in dark conditions (you might just miss that no parking sign hidden in the dark and return to your car to find a ticket). All of this while under the time pressure – certainly not worth the adding darkness to the mix when on time deliveries are already challenging enough.
2) The Amazon Flex app’s barcode scanner does not work well in the dark
The Amazon Flex app has a built-in feature that allows you to activate the photo light on the backside of your phone so that you can illuminate the barcode for scanning. In practice, this does not work very well, and you will likely need to use the interior lighting in your car. This adds another step to your procedure when arriving at your delivery destination, and is generally unpleasant to deal with.
3) Safety
Driving at night introduces several additional safety risks. In particular, reduced visibility, more cars on the road during rush hour, and increased possibility of drunk drivers on the road all contribute to heightened safety concerns. Amazon Flex will generally ask you to deliver to any destination a customer requests delivery to, and this can include unsafe neighborhoods and areas of high crime. Apart from driving safely, you must also be alert and be smart while you are out on foot delivering your packages from your car.
Bottom line
For these reasons outlined above, driving for Amazon Flex during nighttime hours is generally not recommended. Of course, you may have time commitments during the day that allow you to only be available during evening hours, and this is understandable, but be aware of the heightened risks and be safe. All the more reason we can’t wait until summer!
What are your thoughts on nighttime Amazon Flex delivery blocks? Let us know below in the comments!
