Amazon Testing Bike Deliveries in Manhattan

Because of the obstacles in front of its drone-powered fast delivery service – Prime Air is apparently in need of an approval from the FAA to do what hobbyists do every day, fly a drone outside – Amazon is seemingly pursuing another direction: the use of bike couriers. According to reports, the company owned by Jeff Bezos was holding time trials for bicycle messengers in New York, with the goal of delivering certain orders to Manhattan based customers within a few hours. Apparently there are three bike courier services Amazon will choose from – the fastest and the safest, of course – for its Amazon Prime Now fast delivery service.

Is it worth it to bike through New York’s crazy traffic, you might ask? Well, apparently it is, although the wage earned by a bike courier is far from ideal. Amazon reportedly plans to pay its bike delivery boys (and girls, probably) $15 an hour, and plans for a five-day workweek with eight hour daily shifts. This totals $600 a week, or $2,400 a month. During the trials the bike messengers are given an address that they must reach within a specific time frame, take a photo of their destination, and make it back to Amazon’s HQ as fast and safe and possible. Amazon was thoughtful about its messengers’ well-being between their deliveries – the “base”, as it is referred to, has entertainment facilities like foosball and pool tables, arcade games and other amenities for them.

Once launched, the Amazon Prime Now service will reportedly assure the one-hour delivery of smaller items – don’t expect a courier to bike through Manhattan with a large screen HDTV on his back. This is almost as good as the Amazon Prime Air, the much debated drone delivery system, which promises to be even faster and deliver the package ordered through Amazon.com in just 30 minutes. The service will apparently launch as soon the FAA gives its approval.