Money on the road- Amazon

It seems there are a few here who aren’t independently wealthy, supported by parents, on disability, or able to get by on their hard earned SS retirement. So...

Here is one option to help finance your travels. Before you go further, there is a required background check (including drug screen) AND you must prove you have a high school diploma or equivalent.

Amazon hires hundreds of campers at few of its facilities each Christmas season. I’ll only be here in Campbellsville, KY for about 8 weeks and my gross should be well over $3200. That is at $10 an hour assuming minimal overtime- just enough to make up for the short days during the “work hardening” process. More overtime= more money. Historically there is a lot of overtime available and ten hours may be required each week. The normal work week is four ten hour days. Almost all here are married seniors so the work isn’t really too hard. There is a lot of walking. Unlike many work camping jobs, only one member of a couple needs to work to receive the “free” site. The only reason they even ask if you’re married is to try to get both partners on the same shift if you so desire.

They also welcome veterans and pay a $1 bonus for each hour worked if you stay until the end of the season.

Your campground space, including electricity, is paid for at any of several local campgrounds. I got lucky and got a space in Heartland. It’s the one across the street from Amazon and is about a five minute walk from the front door. Most campgrounds have wifi, showers and a coin operated laundry. Here the wifi is reasonable but I imagine it would only take a few bandwidth hogs downloading videos to ruin everybody’s service. They had some problems last year.

It’s probably too late for this year (no harm checking their website), but it might be something to keep in mind for next year. I was been told by another camper that Amazon usually brings in a large number of “locals” in December. So there may be some late openings.

As usual, there are very few singles in this campground- others may differ. There are three or four of us as far as I can tell out of over 100 spaces. And at 59, I’m one of the youngsters here. So this doesn’t seem to be a social/dating opportunity for young singles if that’s one of your primary interests. Most are here to make as much money as they can in a short period of time and hit the road.

fleamarketvendor

 

And no contact info?

 

I don't shop on line but even I have a link to Amazon!

I posted this more as a heads up for next year but they may still have positions. I don't like to post information beyond my experience so I waited until I had some idea of how this thing worked. If that means the openings are all filled; I apologize. I see so much third hand garbage passed off as personal experience, I don't want to add to it.

I'll update this at the end of the season for those who are considering it for next year.

Amazon does have a presence on at least a few "full timer" forums. One guy here at Campbellsville posted some inaccurate information about Amazon's "voluntary time off" policy. The supervisors here found him and... corrected his impressions. The inaccurate information still stands on at least one forum. But the incident was brought up at a new employee training session. I assume he's still working here but his real issue was unhappiness with his assigned department.

Amazon is numbers driven. That just means you have to work. Feedback is almost instantaneous- you know how you compare to coworkers during each shift.

And like everywhere else, there are a few backstabbers and those who will intentionally disadvantage coworkers to look good. But you'll meet fewer here because we all leave in couple of months.

This is the forum thread I first read of Amazon "Camper Force". There are some phone numbers and email addresses listed.

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f89/paid-work-paid-campsite-paid-bonuses-in-ky-164653.html

Here's a link to the workcamping forum on that board.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f89/

And another work camping forum.
http://forums.trailerlife.com/Index.cfm/fuseaction/listings/forum/62.cfm

If I hear all the positions are definitely filled for the year, I'll post that information.

fleamarketvendor

 

All the work camper positions for 2013 have been filled. The last group started on Monday. This group seems younger and I’m even seeing rugrats around. Three work campers did leave this week for whatever reason.

The current temporary positions are being filled by “Staff Management/ SMX”. Their web site is https://apply.smjobs.com/amazon/Jobs_withSMSMX.html They handle Amazon temp workers all over. Amazon seems to hire Christmas help at all of their facilities. A lady I spoke with was hired within a few days of applying. She's working a couple of 8 hour days per week. SMX did accommodate her fear of heights by placing her in the shipping area.

On the home front: the campground wifi has become pretty much useless during the day. It is fine at 4 AM though. I guess the major bandwidth hogs arrived with the last group. But the all important electrical hookups seem fine with no noticeable brown outs.

Amazon does pay on time and as promised. Communication however is not a strong point. Amazon is after all a huge corporation so obfuscation and manipulation are standard operating procedures.

My shift (all shifts I think) has mandatory overtime. That’s five 10 hour days per week. It is doable for anyone in reasonable physical condition. There’s a lot of talk about “mandatory” 60 hour weeks which would be five 12 hour days. Like I said, communication is not a strong point.

All in all... I’m still here and eating well.

 

MAJOR CORRECTION!!

I said amazon paid on time and as promised. I was wrong. They paid me on time and as promised.

I just found out this shift that at least 2 work campers have not been paid. It has been over a week since they should have been paid. HR (that's "human resources"- corporate speak for "personnel office") has not been helpful. I don't know how many more are having problems.

A big wide screen TV in the facility proclaims mandatory 12 hour shifts. A guy who was wrong the last time about overtime says it's not mandatory. Who or what to believe...

For those who want to be corporate executives, there are 2 things you do not do to employees-

1) Fail to make payroll
2) Give inaccurate / erroneous / conflicting instructions

So I don't know if I'll be around long. I'm not going to do 12 hour shifts. Some campers are and some aren't. Frankly, I'm not particularly comfortable being around forklift operators working those hours either. Apparently this has been talked about for a while before I heard of it. Maybe that's why the 3 campers pulled out this week.

What the hell, that's why there's wheels under my house!

It's about 0430 and I've been working all night. But I did want to correct my earlier post before going to sleep. Sorry about that.