# New to Flex (Newcastle, England)



## GaryG83 (Jan 26, 2017)

This is probably a long shot but are there any regular visitors to these forums who deliver for Amazon Flex in Newcastle, England? I've recently been accepted as a driver and I'm hoping someone is able to give me some advice.

I finished the training videos last Friday night and as yet I haven't been given one block. I received 3 - 5 notifications on my phone last Saturday and Sunday stating blocks were available, they went snatched up too quickly, or were times I couldn't make. That didn't bother me though, I thought perhaps I'd snatch up one, possibly two, during the week, however, Monday to Thursday I haven't received one notification stating that blocks are available. I'm guessing this is due to demand being higher at weekends, is this a pretty normal occurrence?

Do we receive an app notification whenever a block appears in "Offers", or do some of them appear without a notification? I was thinking perhaps when demand is higher than what Amazon has reserved they send out a notification, but when someone forfeits a block these appear in Offers without a notification, maybe? I'm just wondering if I'm wasting my time refreshing the app regularly, like around 1-2 hours before a block I would like to take. I've read previously that Amazon used to release blocks at 10pm the night before but no longer do this, but when I E-mailed Flex Support they told me to check the Offers tab at 10pm the night before when blocks are released. Are they given me out of date advice?

To anyone who does deliver in the Newcastle area, have you been managing to obtain many blocks per week? How do you usually get on with being given reserved blocks?

I guess being finalised Friday night couldn't have been worse timing, with reserved blocks being handed out Friday mid day. Here's hoping tomorrow I have more luck obtaining some blocks!

I work full time by the way, so I haven't signed up to Flex thinking I'm going to get a full time wage out of it, but a couple of blocks per week would be nice!

Any advice would be greatly appreciate.


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## Keyser Söze (Jun 25, 2015)

GaryG83 said:


> This is probably a long shot but are there any regular visitors to these forums who deliver for Amazon Flex in Newcastle, England? I've recently been accepted as a driver and I'm hoping someone is able to give me some advice.
> 
> I finished the training videos last Friday night and as yet I haven't been given one block. I received 3 - 5 notifications on my phone last Saturday and Sunday stating blocks were available, they went snatched up too quickly, or were times I couldn't make. That didn't bother me though, I thought perhaps I'd snatch up one, possibly two, during the week, however, Monday to Thursday I haven't received one notification stating that blocks are available. I'm guessing this is due to demand being higher at weekends, is this a pretty normal occurrence?
> 
> ...


If it's anything like here in the states, especially if your doing Prime Now, you can't use the app notifications as a means to grab blocks. When you see a notification, by the time you get into the app and look for the available block (s) they are most likely already gone. Aside from pre-scheduled blocks, to get blocks you have to keep the app open and constantly refresh the offers screen until you see something pop up. Then, you have to be quicker than everyone else in selecting/ accepting it. Sounds like you are already doing this, so my advise is keep trying.


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## GaryG83 (Jan 26, 2017)

Keyser Söze said:


> If it's anything like here in the states, especially if your doing Prime Now, you can't use the app notifications as a means to grab blocks. When you see a notification, by the time you get into the app and look for the available block (s) they are most likely already gone. Aside from pre-scheduled blocks, to get blocks you have to keep the app open and constantly refresh the offers screen until you see something pop up. Then, you have to be quicker than everyone else in selecting/ accepting it. Sounds like you are already doing this, so my advise is keep trying.


I read somewhere that the blocks will appear a few minutes after the notification, meaning you can wait until receiving one. I tested this out at the weekend, the only time I've received any notification, and that appeared to be the case. Each time I received a notification I kept refreshing the Offers screen, and each time within 3 - 5 minutes the block would appear. I'm not sure if that is always the case or not though, being new to all of this. I'm also not sure if notifications are received for all blocks that become available, or whether its just for times when Amazons reserve blocks don't end up covering demand.


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## Shangsta (Aug 15, 2016)

Notifications come from the warehouse. Some come when they first fill open blocks and others come when they have a hard time filling blocks. 

You will need to be good at grabbing blocks. You won't often get them assigned.


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