Everything Amazon Flex Drivers Need to Know About Amazon Blocks
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Most Amazon Flex drivers know that it can be difficult or almost impossible to get Amazon Flex blocks or shifts for Amazon Flex. While this blog post don’t give you any sure-fire ways to get Amazon blocks, it’ll show you what it takes to pick up Amazon flex blocks. There really isn’t any magic to it, but it takes a lot of persistence. Once you know when Amazon Flex blocks are, it will give you a better idea of when to search for Amazon Flex blocks and what type of blocks to expect.
Understanding Amazon Flex Blocks
Amazon Flex schedule drivers to work through picking up “blocks.” These Amazon blocks are schedule shifts on Amazon. Any Amazon Flex driver can see blocks for any warehouse in the region. Here are the different types of warehouses:
- Amazon Prime Now (mainly deliveries within 2-hour) (Tips)
- Amazon Logistics (2-day delivery packages) (no Tips)
- Amazon Restaurants/Supermarkets/Drug Stores (2-hour deliveries from stores) (Tips)
- Amazon Fresh (grocery deliveries) (Tips)
Once Amazon Flex driver understand when the Amazon Flex blocks are, you’ll be more tuned to when to pick it up. My warehouse is Amazon Prime so we typically have 2 hour blocks. Amazon Restaurants and Fresh typically have 2 hour blocks as well. Amazon Logistics (packages) typically have 3 hour blocks. Once you’re on shift, ask other Amazon flex driver to see what type of Amazon flex blocks are at your facility.
Below, I will highlight what we have in Seattle, which has just about every type of Amazon blocks (shifts) you could think of.
Timing of Amazon Flex Blocks
Here in Seattle, we typically have 2 hour blocks, so 10am-12pm, 12pm-2pm, etc. The Amazon flex blocks run from 8am to 12am (sometimes until 1am on longer 3 hour Amazon flex blocks). Typically, Amazon flex blocks start becoming available just after the one before started. So you could theoretically pick up Amazon flex blocks between 8am-10am for the 10am block. Note that drivers have up to 45 minutes to forfeit their block without incident so there could be blocks available at say 9:15am for 10am.
I have talked to a lot of Amazon flex drivers in my market. The “intel” is that there isn’t a specific time that Amazon blocks appear. It can be almost at anytime between 8am and 10am. I’ve picked up Amazon blocks 90 minutes before and also 2 minutes before the start of the shift. I’ve seen another Amazon flex driver pick up a 10pm block right at 9:52pm at the warehouse. There is no rhyme or reason to it.
For Amazon Flex Prime Now Deliveries, there are sometimes 4 hour blocks available for pickup but you have to be pretty lucky to get these. I once picked up a 6pm-10pm block after my 10-6pm shift. I picked it up around 5pm or so, not that it really matters since it can appear at almost anytime. The only reason why I got it was because many Amazon flex driver already had a 6-8pm block already and they weren’t eligible for the 6pm-10pm block. Some Amazon Flex driver would drop their 6-8 in the hopes of getting 6-10, which I thought was pretty insane.
Is there One Set Schedule for Amazon Blocks?
There is no set schedule for Amazon Blocks. Amazon overlays other Amazon flex blocks on top of these 2 hour blocks. The first one I saw was a 3:30-6:30 block. I only wanted to work 3 hours anyways so I took that Amazon flex blocks but other Amazon flex driver wouldn’t take it. Other Amazon flex driver wouldn’t be able to pick up the 4-6 and 6-8 block if they accepted the 3:30-6:30pm block so a lot of Amazon flex driver would avoid this type of Amazon block. I have also seen a 6:30 to 9:30pm block. I personally wouldn’t mind Amazon flex blocks like this because if you were on 4-6pm, you can get a 30 minute break before starting the next shift. You would also be eligible for the 10pm-12am block if you feel lucky about picking that up.
Duration of Amazon Flex Blocks
The duration of Amazon Flex Blocks could be 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, or 3 hour blocks that start on the 30 minute, or 2 or 4 hour blocks that start on the 2 hour intervals. It have also seen some 3 hour blocks that start on odd hours as well (like 1-4pm). Once you review the different blocks on Amazon Flex, you can get a sense of what is available and what their duration is. There are various duration as seen above, so you can make these blocks work for your schedule.
Specific Attributes of Amazon Flex Blocks
In our area, the 6-8pm block is the easiest Amazon block to get since this is the main time Amazon flex deliveries are made. It is most likely because many Amazon flex customers order items at work and go home to get the Amazon flex delivery. I haven’t picked up the 6-8pm block but picked up a 6-10pm before so I don’t have a lot of personal experience picking up that Amazon flex block, but there is a general consensus that it is an easy Amazon flex block to pick up.
In our area, the 10pm-12am block (the last block) tends to run very lean, so there are often only a few blocks available and they are very hard to get. They typically won’t open up many slots for the Amazon flex blocks between 8-10pm, and if they do, there would only be one or two Amazon blocks. The warehouse manager said that they tend to under-staff that block and Amazon flex driver often have very long routes, sometimes as many as 10 deliveries on a 2 hour block. Amazon sometimes get burned for short-staffing because they sometimes end up with undelivered orders.
The above is just a general idea of what Amazon flex blocks are available. Once you pick up a few blocks and talk to another Amazon Flex drivers, you can find out more about different blocks. Experience with Amazon Flex blocks will greatly help your chances of picking up more Amazon Flex blocks.
Amazon Flex Restaurant Delivery Blocks
Amazon Flex Restaurant Delivery blocks are blocks where you are stationed in a given location and delivery food from restaurants in that area. Restaurant orders may come from restaurants within the 2 mile radius but delivery could be up to 10 miles. Here is what it looks like:
The pay rates are the same but you do Hot Wheels (Restaurant only) Amazon blocks. Some people prefer doing Prime Now deliveries because they make more deliveries with it, which leads to more tips. However, Prime Now Amazon Flex blocks so hard to get so some Amazon flex driver will accept restaurant only amazon flex blocks to make money with it.
Both types of Amazon blocks (Prime Now and Restaurant Only) base pay is the same, but there is more of a chance that you get a bigger tip on Prime Now due to the number of deliveries. I usually make a few more deliveries on Prime Now in a two hour stretch than I do with Hot wheels (Restaurant Only) blocks.
Below is a post that covers delivery from a Restaurant Block:
How to Delivery Amazon Flex Restaurant Block
Amazon Flex Store Delivery Blocks
There are some Amazon Flex blocks that require drivers to be stationed at a specific store. The Amazon block will display the store name and area location. Amazon Flex drivers will deliver orders from that store. The most common store is now Whole Foods but it can be other supermarkets, pharmacies or Petco. There are in-store-shoppers at Whole Foods and other stores who pick and bag specific orders and Amazon Flex drivers delivers these orders. Once you deliver these items, you will get an indication to return to your original store.
An Amazon Flex Store Block is very similar to a Restaurant Block so many of the same operating procedures applies to Amazon Flex blocks at stores.
Amazon Flex Logistics Blocks
Amazon Flex Logistics Blocks are scheduled shifts to delivery Amazon Prime packages. Similar to an Amazon Flex Prime Now Block, your schedule shift starts at an Amazon warehouse. The number of packages can vary greatly depending on the length of your block. Many Amazon blocks are 3 hours long and it is typical to get 40-80 packages on any given block. Some route are better than others. Some routes are through city centers that require fewer miles but much harder to find a parking space. Other routes requires a lot of miles, but parking is much easier since they are in quiet residential neighborhoods.
How to Get Blocks for Amazon Flex Driver
There isn’t any magic or cheating that happens when you get blocks. It just takes a lot of persistence.
On the home screen, click on the “Check for Open Blocks” to access the “Offers” Page. You can also get to this new page by going to the top left menu and clicking on Offers. If there are available blocks, it would show up on the “Offers” page. If nothing appears on this screen, you have to keep refreshing and hopefully you get a notification of an open block. Amazon Flex driver spend literally all day refreshing, finding and getting Amazon Flex blocks. There are no tricks to it. Amazon Flex driver just keep refreshing all day.
Here are some specific tips for iPhone and Android Amazon Flex on how to get blocks on Amazon Flex:
iPhone
- The offers can be for blocks today or tomorrow. See this post for more details on the change.
- On the Amazon Flex iPhone app, there is a refresh button on the top right corner of the screen on the offers screen.
- Even though the refresh is much easier, it takes longer to pick up blocks once you see the button. This results in more risk of not getting the Amazon block. Almost all Amazon Flex driver I see use Android since its faster once you get the option to pick up blocks.
- Amazon Flex iPhone app for iOS only works at some facilities so many amazon flex driver may not be able to use it.
Android
- The offers can be for blocks today or tomorrow. See this post for more details on the change.
- In order to refresh, all you need to do is press on the offers page. If your phone is slow enough, you can see the little refresh icon pop up when you press anywhere on the offers screen.
- I have a lot of apps on my phone. Some people have a separate phone with only the Amazon Flex app so that it refreshes faster. It is about twice as fast as mines in refreshing. Something to keep in mind if you really want to pick up more hours
What do the Full Time “Flexers” do?
Most “full time” Amazon Flex driver aim for the 2 hour blocks (10-12, 12-2, etc). In the normal course of checking for Amazon flex blocks, they encounter all sorts of other Amazon flex blocks. If you keep checking for open blocks, you’ll get a sense for when blocks appear and what type of blocks are available. The “full time” Amazon Flex driver check the app thousands of times a day so they have a pretty good grasp of what blocks are available. However, everyone I spoke to say that Amazon flex blocks can appear at anytime throughout the day. I heard reports of Amazon flex drivers picking up blocks at midnight and 4am so Amazon flex blocks can drop at anytime.
Multiple Warehouses for Amazon Flex Blocks
Amazon allows you to see Amazon blocks from other warehouses and regions. This is beneficial for some drivers since it offers them more options for work, especially when they live on the border of two different zones. However, this is not great for many people who live squarely in one zone and don’t want to travel that far for another zone.
When you are picking up Amazon blocks, you need to be careful not to pick these blocks up. However, if you already on a shift or picking up blocks for tomorrow, you have time to check where the block is and drop it if you need to. This is the only way to deal with swiping too fast and picking up a block in the wrong area.
Picking Up Amazon Flex Blocks for Tomorrow
f you checked your offer page at 10am today, you can get a 10-12pm block for tomorrow. I often use this trick to get blocks for the next day. However, it has been getting harder and harder to do that since more people are using this tactic to pick up tomorrows blocks.
By picking up blocks for tomorrow, you still have plenty of time to check where the block is. This is the best strategy for rapidly picking up blocks without knowing where it is. You will have plenty of time to drop it and try to find another block for that time. You will literally have all day to do that.
When to check for Amazon Blocks
As you see above, Amazon blocks can almost be at any time. Typically, you can pick up Amazon blocks up to 2 hours ahead of time. Say you want to pick up the 2-4pm block. You would want to check starting at 12pm. If you want the 4-6pm block, you will want to check starting at 2pm. Note that if your location only have 4 hour blocks, then consider checking within 4 hours of the next block. This hasn’t been the case here in Seattle (in terms of both having only 4 hour blocks and to pick up blocks 4 hours ahead of time) but it may apply to your market. Again, once you actually get a block, go to the warehouse and ask around what type of Amazon blocks are available. This will give you a sense of when to check the application.
There are times when Amazon Flex driver will see Amazon flex blocks way ahead of time. I have seen the 8:30-11:30pm block on Halloween as early as 2pm. Amazon Flex usually do this when they have more orders later in the day and they want to open up more Amazon blocks for Amazon flex driver. I am not sure why Amazon Flex don’t want to open up more 8-10pm and 10-12am blocks. Amazon seems to only open a 3 hour block instead of a 4 hour block.
Will I Get Notifications From Amazon Flex?
On some days, there are notifications that blocks are available. Once you sign in and check, you won’t see any blocks, even if you respond to it immediately. The key in this case is to keep refreshing for the next 3-5 minutes. You’ll most likely see the option to pick it up. When they make those announcements, its when they need more drivers. In my local warehouse, people pick up blocks within seconds.
If they are sending out notifications, there is a good chance you can pick up a Amazon block a minute or two after the notification. Some rare times, Amazon blocks stay available up to the start of the block. This is often an odd hour block, like 5:30-8:30. It ruins 3 blocks, from 4-6, 6-8, and 8-10. Many drivers already have one of those blocks and the rest don’t want that block since it blocks them from picking up any of those three blocks and they can’t work again until 10pm.
Swapping Amazon Flex Blocks
When another Amazon Flex driver usually drop a block, it is available for pickup. There are times when an Amazon Flex driver forfeits their Amazon flex blocks but it is not available for pickup by someone else. There are some drivers who trade Amazon flex blocks and have done a swap successfully in the past. However, there are times when Amazon Flex will take those Amazon Flex blocks back to adjust for demand in the Amazon Prime warehouse or Amazon Logistics Warehouse.
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