Amazon Flex is an excellent way to earn additional cash as a side hustle. In addition to a standard base pay of $18-$20 / hour, Amazon allows drivers to keep 100% of the tips paid by customers for Prime Now and restaurant deliveries.
The total amount of tips you earn during a delivery block is dependent, of course, on how much each customer tips, and the number of deliveries made. There can be situations where during an entire block, no deliveries are assigned to you and you will therefore earn no tips. On the other hand, there may be cases where you are assigned many delivery stops, in which case the total amount of tips for the delivery block will be much higher.
Unfortunately, there is no way to view which customers tipped how much. Generally, though, it seems that the majority of customers do tip, and you can expect to earn $3-$5 per hour on tips alone. For what it’s worth, Amazon believes that you can expect to be tipped anywhere between $0 to $7 per hour, and you will see this as the expected pay range for each delivery block you accept. For example, a 2-hour delivery block may offer “$40 – $54” which means that they expect during the two hours anywhere between $0 to $14 in tips on top of the $40 base.
The default tip amount in Amazon Prime Now
In the Amazon Prime Now app, the customer can choose a tip amount, but Amazon provides a default amount of $5 or 10% of the order total, whichever is greater, with the text “recommended” placed next to the amount, in parenthesis.
If the customer prefers to change the tip amount, they must manually click into the tip screen and change the amount. There is an additional explanation of the tipping policy.
The final tipping behavior of customers will always depend on a myriad of factors and is difficult to predict. That being said, several factors will likely increase the likelihood of receiving tips and a higher amount of tips:
- Restaurant food deliveries
- Orders with heavy or large quantity of items
- Delivery locations that are out of the way
- Completing your delivery early
- Completing deliveries during poor weather
As with any service job, however, the biggest determinant for the overall tips you collect will depend on the number of customers you serve, as well as the level of your service, and a bit of luck!
When are the tips issued?
According to the Amazon Flex app, tips can “take up to 48 hours to process.” This is likely to provide customers with a 24 hour window to modify their tip amount, plus another 24 hours for Amazon to process. In reality, the tips are typically posted between 24 and 36 hours after the end of the delivery block, and are shown in a separate line item the day they are posted, rather than earned. Restaurant deliveries typically show up much quicker – usually several hours after the deliveries are complete.
