“Can Amazon embed just enough financial services (insurance, retirement, payouts) into its gig-driver platform to reduce attrition and regulatory risk while keeping drivers classified as independent contractors?”
Amazon Flex is Amazon's gig-economy delivery arm, launched in 2015 to build a contractor-based last-mile delivery network. Drivers are classified as independent contractors, earning per delivery block with no employer-side payroll tax obligations. The UK programme (flex.amazon.co.uk) mirrors the US model. The embedded finance story centres on insurance (Zego provides pay-as-you-go commercial auto cover for active delivery blocks in the UK), retirement access for DSP-affiliated drivers via Vestwell, and Amazon's self-operated payments infrastructure for disbursing driver earnings.