One of the most difficult parts of Amazon’s business model is the last mile of the delivery service. The company needs more delivery drivers, especially now that it is trying to bring its Prime shipping time down from two days to one. That’s why a portion of the hundreds of millions of dollars that it is investing in that initiative will be going toward encouraging its own employees to start their own delivery businesses.
The Amazon Delivery Service Partner program, launched in 2018, offers training, discounts and incentives to grow the businesses of independent contractors who want to ship Amazon packages. Now, current employees of the online retailer who want to participate will get $10,000 from the company to do so, which is usually enough to cover the costs of getting started. They will also receive a payout equal to three months of their current salary.
