Explore the Benefits of Becoming an Amazon Truck Driver

The Benefits of Being an Amazon Truck driver

If you are curious of what it is like to be a CDL-A driver running Amazon freight you are going to love this article. I hauled freight for Amazon for over 2 years and drove over 200,000 miles for them. By the time I finished there I knew their entire network of fulfillment centers located in the Southeast like the back of my hand. I’m going to tell you straight up front the advantages of driving for this mega corporation that is rapidly disrupting retail as we know it.

The Amazon Relay App

If you have been a truck driver for any length of time the most noticeable change you will find when you start doing Amazon loads is the use of their Amazon Relay App. The days where a dispatcher calls or texts you your next load are long over. Amazon will give you your loads through the app. So, you will always know where you are going and what time you are supposed to be there by. Your schedule is given out 1 week in advance with your starting days and times for each shift. Within 12 hours of your shift the details of each stop will show up on the relay app so you can plan accordingly.

Fast Check in and Check Out Times

When you run Amazon freight a lot of times you will be in and out of their facilities quickly. Their check in procedure is automated by cameras and artificial intelligence. So, when you pull your truck forward to the guard shack you are automatically checked in. Pretty neat right? At this point a guard will usually walk out to your truck and tell you where to dock your current trailer and where to pick up your outgoing trailer if there is one. The process could not be simpler really. This is one of the reasons I loved running for Amazon. They check trucks in and out of their fulfillment centers really fast. This means more time spent on the road and less time sitting around waiting for your load. There is one exception to this, however. In peak times during the holidays, it is common to have to spend up to an hour just to make it up to the guard shack due to a long back log of trucks waiting in line.

Professional Employees

Amazon has professional personal running their warehouses. So very rarely will you ever come across anyone with an attitude or talking trash to you unlike some other companies’ distribution centers. I have seen it all and the rudeness displayed to truckers at some companies I have been to is unreal. When you haul freight for Amazon you can always expect to be treated decently. They will not be your best friend or make much small talk, but they also will not be demeaning either to a truck driver.

Near Perfect Trailers

Another benefit of hauling Amazon freight is you will be using their trailers and they keep them in tip top shape. This is not to say you will not find anything wrong with them from time to time, but this is rare. I can count on one hand how many problems I have had with their trailers while I trucked for them. And if there is an issue for instance during your pre-trip when you are picking up a load, they will usually fix the problem right on the spot by calling in a road technician. Some of the other trucking companies I have run for had really bad trailers that always had issues. When you truck for Amazon, this is one less problem you will have to worry about. Your trailer will always be safe and legal to drive. It is still always a good idea to pre-trip your trailer of course because you never know but in general you will be good to go pulling an Amazon trailer.

Lots of Night Driving

If you hate traffic, you might like trucking for Amazon. Expect to run quite often late at night and in the early parts of the morning up until sunrise. I know I did. The advantage to running like this is you get to drive when the traffic is at the lowest point of the night. Just about everywhere these days has a lot of traffic congestion unless you are trucking in some parts of the country out west. So being able to cover several hundred miles in the wee hours of the morning is always a good thing if you are being paid by the mile and it is a lot less stressful.

Dedicated Support Line

Amazon has a dedicated support help line for their truck drivers. Whenever something is not going as planned with the Amazon load you will not call your company, but you will notify Amazon in their relay app the issue you are experiencing. No matter what time of day it is someone will usually call you back and offer a quick solution for your current problem. The issues usually resolve around delays or changes with their freight scheduling at the last minute. If you are stuck at one of their warehouses you simply escalate the problem, and they will do their best to get you moving again. Talk about a good deal for a truck driver. Try this at any other major distribution center and they may just look at you like you are crazy.

Taking Your 10-Hour Break Without a Trailer

Rarely will you ever have an Amazon trailer attached to your truck after a shift is over. I have had it happen only a few times when I ran for them. So, whenever you are dropping off your last load or an empty trailer for the day you just bob tail out and go home or to a local truck stop to park until your next shift starts. It is usually a lot easier to find parking for a bobtail versus a tractor with a trailer.

Paid for Every Mile

One wonderful thing Amazon does is pay their trucking companies every mile traveled even when they cancel a load at the last minute. Sometimes you may be on their yard out of town, and they no longer have a load for you. If this happens you will be instructed to bobtail to your next stop. These miles will be paid. So, there are no deadhead miles as long as you received approval from the Amazon support desk prior to departure. Your company will get paid for the bobtail and so will you.

Home Every Other Night

If you like home time you are going to love hauling freight for Amazon. My trips had me home every other night. Granted I was only home for 12 hours on average, but it was still nice to get to visit home, hit a quick reset button and have enough time to take care of a thing or two at the house before heading off for my next day and a half shift. On top of this it was common to have a slow week once in a while where only two trips were planned which meant even more home time. Like 3 or 4 days. The paychecks were smaller during those weeks, but it was always nice to have an occasional 3-day work week. Just do not expect to get this amount of time off all of the time as they seemed to randomly come and go depending on how busy Amazon freight was running at the time.

Route Consistency

If you are a regional driver for Amazon expect to get to know your routes really well over time. This means less worrying about where you are headed and how you will get there. This is always a welcome thing in trucking. Navigating to random destinations as an over the road trucker for instance can present a whole new set of challenges. Amazons’ warehouses do not move around much so once you visit them you will know how to get back there with ease.

No Touch Freight

The only physical activity you are going to do outside of the truck hauling freight for Amazon is opening and closing the trailer doors. There is no climbing into the trailer to secure freight or even sweep it out. One thing I hated about running for other carriers was how often I had to climb into a trailer to sweep it out or secure the load with straps. There is none of that nonsense with Amazon. You will be cranking a lot of landing gear up and down though with all of the drop and hooks so be prepared for that.

Good Compensation

I made good money driving for Amazon. Not great but the checks came in every week, and I usually netted over $1000. You will work hard for it though. As in 6 days a week. Each trip consisted of two separate 12-hour shifts. They sometimes ran up to 14 hours and as low as 10 hours. I grossed on average around $400 – $500 for each 36-hour period I was away from home before I saw my house again almost 2 days later. The amount varied depending on the number of miles involved. Generally speaking, the more stops meant more work and less miles and the less stops you had involved longer trips which paid better on average.

You Will Feel Like an Amazon Employee

Even though Amazon subcontracts the vast majority of their trucking fleet out you will only deal with Amazon employees every day. Because of this you will start to feel like one yourself without the paid time off and benefits of course. When I trucked for Amazon, I received no benefits or PTO. I constantly worked holidays without any extra pay. This was the largest downside for being a truck driver for a company that hauls Amazon freight. As hard as we work and the fact, we put our lives and wellbeing on the line with the long hours involved you would think a company the size of Amazon would pay their trucking fleets enough to offer their drivers benefits such as health insurance, PTO, and retirement plans.

There is Some Pride in Hauling an Amazon Trailer

I cannot speak for everyone but when I was towing their trailers behind my truck, I felt some pride working for this company. The public and other truckers would see the bright blue trailer and immediately know what my mission was versus just hauling some random white dry van trailer. And if you happened to be in a rush for whatever reason everyone understood why because you were in the process of trying to get their Amazon package to them on time.