Amazon Flex drivers strike to demand higher pay as oil prices soar

According to CNBC, on the morning of March 16, 2022, about 50 delivery and rideshare drivers gathered outside an Amazon warehouse near Los Angeles to protest , demanding that the company increase delivery wages.

Not long ago, Uber , Lyft , DoorDash and Walmart all increased fuel surcharges or increased driver income to varying degrees to offset the impact of rising gasoline prices. So Flex drivers hope that Amazon can follow these companies in order to reduce the pressure of cost expenditures such as fuel costs.

Amazon has been silent on the topic since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine drove gas prices to record levels in the U.S. The national average price for regular gasoline was as high as $4.33 a gallon during the spike and is now $4.29, up 78 cents from a month ago, according to AAA .

Flex was launched in 2015. Drivers use their own vehicles to deliver packages in more than 50 cities . They also have to pay for their own gas, tolls, car repairs and maintenance , etc. Their hourly income is between $18 and $25 ( not deducting costs ) .

The basic wage for Flex is about $18 per hour. However, during peak delivery periods, in order to attract more drivers to take orders, Amazon will adjust the delivery hourly wage, which may be as high as $35 per hour.

According to protesters, it used to cost only $25 to fill up the vehicle tank , but now it is close to $40 . As a side job to ease income pressure, such cost pressure has forced Flex drivers to ask Amazon to pay attention to their demands.

Amazon said that the company is closely monitoring the situation and has taken note of the drivers’ demands. It has already made salary adjustments in some severely affected areas and will continue to help these partners to the best of its ability .

At the same time, some Flex drivers have also begun to turn their attention to companies such as Uber, DoorDash or Instacart , because their delivery routes may be shorter and costs such as fuel will be relatively lower . And just last week, in order to ease the pressure on drivers to cope with soaring fuel costs , Uber added a surcharge of up to 55 cents per delivery service to drivers , as well as a 45 -cent Uber Eats delivery surcharge. Lyft later made a similar announcement.

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