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Amazon Flex: I ran the numbers on two blocks and heres what I did to include real cost.

I'm new to Amazon Flex and recently completed two 2-hour blocks from the Bethpage Fresh (UNY4) station on Long Island, NY. I wanted to calculate what I actually earned after accounting for commute time, gas, vehicle wear and tear, and taxes.

One other thing I’m trying to figure out is whether I’m simply too far from the station for Flex to make sense. I’m commuting from Valley Stream to UNY4 in Bethpage (18-22miles), and this is pretty much the only station where I’m consistently seeing offers in the app.

I thought the numbers might be useful for other drivers, especially anyone deciding whether these blocks are worth taking.

My two completed blocks

Run 1

• Advertised block: 2 hours
• Base pay: $62
• Tips: $10
• Total earnings: $72
• Total home-to-home driving: 72 miles (25-35 mi en route)
• Actual time from leaving home to returning: 3 hours 18 minutes

Run 2

• Advertised block: 2 hours
• Base pay: $61
• Tips: $0
• Total earnings: $61
• Total home-to-home driving: 60 miles (25-35 mi en route)
• Actual time from leaving home to returning: 3 hours 29 minutes

Combined results:

• Gross earnings: $133
• Total driving: 132 miles
• Total time: 6 hours 47 minutes
• Gross hourly earnings using actual time: $19.61/hour
• Gross hourly earnings using block time: $33.25/hour
• Gross earnings per mile: $1.01 (actual) / $4 (block)

On paper, $61–$72 for a 2-hour block looks pretty good. But the block duration doesn't account for the commute to the station, the delivery route, and the drive home. Furthermore, these base rates are already higher than most blocks to begin with.

Actual vehicle costs

For this estimate, I'm using:

• 30 MPG fuel economy
• $4.40/gallon gasoline
• $0.25/mile reserved for maintenance, tires, repairs, and depreciation, separate from gas

The $0.25/mile reserve is my working estimate, not a measured cost for my specific car. I'm interested in what other drivers use for their own maintenance and depreciation calculations.

What about taxes?

This is where things get confusing. I'm treating my eligible delivery-route mileage separately from the commute to stay by rigorous IRS rulings. This is not tax advice.

For this analysis, I'm assuming 25 eligible business miles per block and using the 2026 IRS standard mileage rate of $0.76/mile for July–December.

That gives me:

• Eligible business mileage: 50 miles
• Estimated mileage deduction: $38
• Simplified taxable business profit: $133 − $38 = $95

The mileage deduction is not a reimbursement. It reduces taxable business income, and the actual tax savings depend on my overall tax situation. The IRS standard mileage method also generally prevents separately deducting gas and maintenance for those same business miles.

For a rough planning estimate, I'm reserving 25%–35% of that $95 taxable profit for combined taxes. That's not a personalized tax calculation, but it gives me a range.

These are estimates, not a tax-return calculation. My actual liability could be different depending on my other income, filing status, deductions, and eligible mileage.

Feasibility: What happens at the advertised $18–$25/hour?

Amazon Flex is commonly advertised as offering $18–$25 per hour. However, that rate is based on the scheduled block duration, not necessarily the entire time spent working.

If I accepted a 2-hour block paying $36–$50 and it required similar driving and time, the economics would look very different.

Assuming two such blocks with the same combined 132 miles and 6 hours 47 minutes of actual time:

The range is wide because both the payout and actual tax liability matter. These are hypothetical scenarios, not claims about the average earnings of all Flex drivers.

What would make these blocks worthwhile?

Using my current assumptions, I would need approximately $95 in guaranteed gross pay for a block requiring around 3¼–3½ hours and 60–72 miles to earn roughly $20/hour after estimated vehicle costs but before taxes.

If I ignore the commute time and only calculate the earnings on the block time (2 hr) but keep the car cost fixed for the entire route I would need approximately $66 for $15/hr and $76 for $20/hr.

Tips would be a bonus rather than something I rely on to meet that target because tips do not seem to be widely given.

I'm not saying Amazon Flex is never worthwhile. Shorter routes, better mileage, surge pricing, and finishing early can change the calculation significantly. But I think drivers should evaluate the entire trip rather than just divide the payout by the advertised block duration.

Questions for experienced Flex drivers

1. For those of you doing Flex on Long Island, how far are you typically driving to get to your pickup station?
2. How do you calculate your true hourly earnings? Do you count the drive to the station and back home?
3. What do you use as a realistic cost per mile for maintenance, tires, repairs, and depreciation?
4. For Long Island drivers, is UNY4/Bethpage Fresh consistently sending drivers far enough away that the commute becomes a major part of the job?
5. What minimum payout per block or per mile do you use before accepting an offer?

I'd appreciate feedback, especially from drivers who have tracked their actual expenses over dozens or hundreds of blocks. I'm trying to determine whether Flex is financially worthwhile after all costs, rather than just looking at the advertised hourly rate.

EDIT 1: I added just the block time hourly rate but with the actual estimated cost of maintenance per mile and gas before and after taxes for my two real trips and the fake example.

Disclaimer: The cost for me was higher because of the commute and the example at typical earnings takes into account the high milage cost. If your commute is shorter than adjust the numbers and let us know what you would actually earn after cost.

Currently doing my normal block of 3.5 hours from 6:30 am to 10am…. They literally give me 51 stops with 59 packages… and they going to pay me $80.50 should I contact support about it because I find this to low pay for the amount of packages and stop they give me this it’s literally a 4.5 route

I recently got through the onboarding for flex after like almost a year and just waiting for my background check to clear
I’m currently a stay at home mom to a 4 almost 5 year old. I’ve been constantly applying to stay at home jobs but I’m just not getting any luck. So when I finally got pushed through for flex, I was really excited

From my understanding- passengers can come with me. I would HAVE to bring my daughter with me except the days her father would be off from the hospital.

I’ve seemed some mixed answers about her having to get out of the car.
What do I do about her if I need to get out and go into one of the Amazon facilities? Can she come with me?
How long are you usually in the facility for picking up the packages?
I’m worried about leaving her in the car for a long period especially if I can’t see the car. I’d rather her just get out with me.

For houses- I know as long as I don’t have to walk far, I can leave her in the car because I’ve done this with door dashing with her, only going right up to the front door, taking a photo and getting right back in.
Any time I’ve delivered to an apartment complex, I always make her get out with me and she just walks and waits for me to take the photo. - with flex, I’ll try to make sure maybe she’s just out of the way of any ring doorbells so they don’t report me?

I’ve looked in this sub so much and can only find YEARS old answers - can somebody discuss this with me in todays world?

I just started flex yesterday and this will be my second delivery. I am new to this and still learning. Is this worth it for $45? I live in a lcol area if that matters and it’s been kinda slow the past week.

Is my first week delivering with flex, I just want any tips for my first time doing it. I’ve seen some people on here say that they sign up for three hours slot and then ends up being five. Any tips or anything I should know to maximize getting the most out of this app would be great.

Amazon Flex: “We don’t have a mileage limit. We only care about the route itself.”
So technically, if I pick up a 4-hour block in Pittsburgh, Amazon could send me to Washington, DC, which is about 4 hours away, to deliver ONE package. 😂
But I guess they don’t do that because… reasons?
Imagine driving 4 hours to deliver one package, then another 4 hours back home, using your own gas, putting miles on your own car, and getting paid for a 4-hour block. 💀
Amazon: “Your block is only 4 hours, so everything is fine.”
Meanwhile, my car is applying for unemployment, my gas tank is filing for bankruptcy, and I’m technically working an 8-hour shift for 4-hour pay. 😂
If there’s no mileage limit, what’s stopping Amazon from sending Pittsburgh drivers to DC for one package? Asking for a friend. 🤣

Has anyone gone through this process?

Alright so I don’t have a job I lowkey just use my car fulltime to make money right now, I have been doing this for like 3 months since i quit my previous job I just doordash and do amazon flex. Flex has been a mixed experience I realized amazon really don’t gaf about where they sending you they jus gonna send you wherever like places where you don’t get no signal and can’t take a picture, so whenever that happens to me I don’t even deliver the package if I lose signal I just go back to the warehouse later because it literally wastes almost an hour of my time trying to call support telling them I dropped the package off and couldn’t take a picture, so I guess if you are going from doordash or uber eats to amazon flex i would say don’t force yourself to deliver every package because sometimes its actually impossible to locate the house. And thats mostly because they send you to like unfamiliar back roads areas 1 hour away from your house sometimes.

Missed the full subsidy by 1 hr 45 min 💀 I have vivid memory of a couple Saturday’s that I canceled my blocks because I felt tired 🤦🏻‍♂️

Any issue with blocks delayed payment today ?

I got this email literally a minute after being accepted, there is no other emails at all that I have signed up on I’ve checked everything, even my normal Amazon account has the same email, when I called them they said to email them explaining what happened and it should reactivate me , but every-time I get this email back (second picture saying decision hasn’t changed)

If anyone has had this issue or know any reason why they think I have made a duplicate account or how to fix this please let me know, I also spent money on the hire reward insurance a day before too I’m just wasting moneyyyyy , any help much appreciated thanks

Wanted to share my experience in case it helps other Flex drivers dealing with something similar.

On October 11, I was delivering during a storm when I ended up on an extremely muddy road. My car got stuck for about 15 minutes, and after finally getting out, it started making a strange noise. I didn’t feel safe continuing the route.

I immediately contacted Driver Support, explained everything, and they marked all my remaining packages undeliverable due to bad weather. I also called On-Road Support, and they opened a dispute right away. I returned all the packages to the station.

The next day, I took my car to the dealership. They confirmed the unusual noise and gave me service paperwork documenting it.

Knowing that standing updates usually take around 3 days, I proactively emailed Amazon with the dealership paperwork, asking them not to penalize me. They responded with a generic email saying my standing was Fantastic and they couldn’t change their decision.

Sure enough, exactly 3 days after the incident, my standing dropped from Fantastic straight to At Risk because of 26 incomplete deliveries!

I immediately appealed again, explaining that Support had marked all packages undeliverable due to weather, that a dispute was already opened during the incident, and that I had dealership documentation proving the vehicle issue.

Good news: Amazon accepted my appeal and restored my Fantastic standing!

My advice: If you ever have to stop delivering because of dangerous weather or a legitimate vehicle safety issue, contact Support immediately, document everything, and keep any evidence you can get. Even if Support marks the packages undeliverable, you might still get penalized automatically.

Don’t assume the first generic response is the final decision. If your standing drops, appeal with all your evidence.

Just wanted to share a positive outcome since we usually hear about the unsuccessful appeals here.

Why are their so many orders now to pick from? Did they finally get rid of bots? In NJ there are so many opportunities now. I’m guessing the gas prices.

To whoever ordered 10 packages of canned goods, water bottles and what I assume was can soda while you live in an apartment on the third floor. I just want you to know I hate your guts.

Amazon, I hate you too for always giving me apartments that are never on the first floor...

But hey I worked my muscles today soooooo

This is my first year driving for Amazon Flex. I've only been doing it for about two months. In previous weeks it was easy to schedule blocks ahead of time, and grabbing surge blocks wasn't easy, but it was possible. Now it's mission impossible to get any kind of block, except the $16 ones out of Seattle and Bellevue.

My primary stations are the SSD in Federal Way and the .com station in Lakewood, but it's insanely hard to get anything from either of them. This week I only have three blocks scheduled. The parking lot that used to be full every hour of the day now barely has any cars in it.

Does anyone know what's going on, or what to expect next? I'd appreciate any information.

I reported a package missing and the agent asked me if I'd looked for it in my car.

I know some people will leave this at the community gate and call it a day. But I’m too new (300 deliveries) and I’m scared to get a ding. I had two deliveries for this gated community and it was 10/30 on the route. One house didn’t provide a code and the other house did. I tried the codes there were like 5 of them in the notes. None of them worked. I then proceeded to wait 10 minutes trying and looking up common gate codes. And nothing worked. After 15 minutes I decided to leave these deliveries for last. Got done with my block 30 minutes early then went back to the gated community. Saw a person outside and tried to talk to him for a gate code but he didn’t live there or have a gate code. I then tried the gate codes the app gave me and no luck. I then proceeded to try my luck of entering random gate codes and I GOT IT ON THE 4TH TRY. a minute of entering random codes. That was a big relief. Delivered and finished my block 20 minutes early. The code I got in with was #1278

This was a good way to start my morning. I have one more block tonight. Hoping for the same results 🤞

Any suggestions or help for a new driver or anyone here in this zone? Thank you much appreciated

When I’m not working I see all blocks going up but when I’m on, is all base pay lol….
Nobody took them BTW, they went over the time

I haven’t been able to find work since Monday and i got sent home so to no routes being available in the warehouse. Nothing has popped up for the mornings since then. Routes pop up in the afternoons but they are taken with the quickness and their base pay of course. Is this week just a slow week? Or are bots worst than ever now?

So I took a decent pay 2hr fresh block. It’s an hour away because of course it is but who isn’t used to that already. What appears on it magically after about 5 minutes is picking up a package at another warehouse (Amazon.com) not even a fresh warehouse to deliver it. Mind you the other warehouse is more than an hour the opposite direction. I contemplated marking every package as missing and just leaving but I’m going to at least deliver the ones I have for my original block.
What I am not going to do is another delivery Amazon thinks they can pull out my ass. Matter of fact Jeff let’s split up so we can deliver the packages faster. I’ll go home and you go fuck yourself

Anyone ever dealt with something like this before?
Or at least know if I’ll get in trouble for ignoring this.
Thanks.

Last two nights I had a 3:30am 2.5 hour blocks for $76.50. Two days in a row paid with no route

Last night I did a two hour block 9pm -11pm. Got to my cart. Two packages. Total drive 11 miles. $54

Last night made 130.50 to deliver 2 packages. So when things get tough I think about times like this. If you count yesterday too that’s $207 to deliver 2 packages and about 1.5 hours wait time

Remember life’s a rollercoaster it’s 10% of what happens and 90% of how you react.