Amazon lets customers show holiday appreciation to drivers
Amazon shoppers have a way to demonstrate their gratitude to the drivers delivering their holiday purchases.
For the third year in a row, the e-commerce giant is offering the “Thank My Driver” feature through the rest of the 2024 holiday season. When a customer says, “Alexa, thank my driver,” from an Alexa-enabled voice device or searches “thank my driver” on the Amazon mobile app or e-commerce site, the driver who completed their most recent delivery will be notified of the customer’s appreciation.
In addition, for each of the first 2 million thank-yous, drivers will also receive $5 at no cost to the customer.
This feature is available to U.S. customers with an Alexa-enabled device (Echo, Echo Show), the Alexa app or an Amazon online or mobile account. “Thank My Driver” was first introduced during the holidays in 2022, and since then, Amazon says its customers have thanked their delivery drivers more than 40 million times.
A delivery driver can be thanked once per delivery. U.S. delivery drivers delivering Amazon packages (including Delivery Service Partner (DSP) delivery associates (DAs), Amazon Flex delivery partners, and Amazon Hub Delivery associates) are eligible for a thank-you through this program.
"We are incredibly appreciative of the drivers who deliver for our customers every day," Beryl Tomay, VP, transportation at Amazon, said in a corporate blog post. "So, don’t forget to say, ‘Alexa, thank my driver’ and show your appreciation for all the hard work that goes into delivering your packages."
Amazon also recently began offering funding for a variety of incentives, services and perks for members of the DSP program. Drivers who work with Amazon’s DSPs will earn an average of nearly $22 per hour, a 7% increase from the previous average of $20.50.
Launched in 2018, the DSP program provides support to Amazon employees who leave their jobs to build their own contract delivery businesses. Now, Amazon is making an incremental investment of more than $2.1 billion in the DSP program going toward safety programs, rate cards, training, services and incentives.
[READ MORE: Amazon to invest $2.1 billion in contract driver program]
In what it says is an effort to help DSPs provide greater wages and benefits to drivers, Amazon will invest an additional $660 million over the next year in rate card increases and bonuses.
