Amazon Flex: Delivery service to be discontinued

Amazon’s in-house delivery service called “Flex” has been discontinued. The online shipping giant made the announcement on Tuesday, 07.06.22.

A clear failure

With “Flex”, the US tech company wanted to make itself independent of other shipping companies such as DHL, DPD or Hermes. Dispatched were thereby the products, which Amazon sold not over third enterprises, but from own warehouses. Finding drivers for “Flex” should not have been difficult for the online shipping giant. In particular, the company advertised an hourly wage of 25 euros to attract new drivers. These are earnings that other delivery services can’t wave. But the whole thing also had its downside. After all, Amazon “Flex” did not rely on permanent positions. Instead, employees worked as solo self-employed for the shipping company. So it was only a matter of time before criticism grew louder, especially from the unions.

Accusation of bogus self-employment

Verdi in particular always accused Amazon’s “Flex” concept of a form of bogus self-employment. Demands for permanent employment of the drivers became louder. But Amazon apparently did not want to know anything about it. Instead of taking on its drivers in jobs that are subject to social security contributions, the project has now been summarily declared a failure. In a public announcement, it could be read that it was a difficult but correct decision to hire Amazon “Flex”. Customers, meanwhile, need have no fears about upcoming deliveries. Since the special delivery service was rare in nature anyway, Amazon customers should not feel the discontinuation.

An insufficient demand

Experts are pretty sure that it wasn’t critics from the union ranks that doomed Amazon “Flex.” Instead, the service was simply underused. So it was apparently the only sensible reaction for Amazon. The situation is apparently different in the USA. At least “Flex” will continue to be offered there. For the drivers, yesterday must have been anything but pleasant. In view of noticeable declines in orders, however, many probably already expected that “Flex” would soon disappear from the German Amazon range. The online shipping giant still wants to make a support payment to the drivers of the service. Since the amount is probably based on the average earnings of the last month, it is likely to be anything but high.