Amazon claims that a low investment of $10k can generate 4.5 million a year with their DSP (Delivery Service Partner) program. Is it true? We follow up after three years to see what has been learned about their Driver/Partner Opportunity.

Three years ago when the Amazon DSP program was relatively new we did a video warning about some of the potential issues that could face owners of this business. How accurate were we with our concerns, and have people been earning the millions of dollars suggested they could with the Amazon DSP opportunity?

If you follow the channel you know we do a lot of "reality check" videos on franchise and business opportunities outlining potential negatives. Inexperienced entrepreneurs often take offence suggesting we are being negative, which we are not, facts and statistics are neither negative nor positive. There are negatives and positives to every opportunity you need to be aware of both. Amazon covers the positives of their DSP or Delivery Partner Service Program on their website. Low investment at around $10k, with the potential for revenue over 4 million dollars a year, a profit potential up to $300k and you don't even need experience.

So it sounds great, $10k down 4.5 million a year. But as we scroll down the page we see that you wont be sunning on the beach or in your yacht as you are directly responsible for "recruitment, hiring and coaching a team of 40-100 high-performing, hourly employees and managing a fleet of 20-40 vans on average" and you will be open 361 days a year. Have you ever been in charge of hiring and managing people? Especially in a high stress environment like this that will always have very high turnover. Now think about managing 100 employees and 50 trucks. Especially trucks that apparently still often smell like Urine.

To be clear, some owners are happy with their business. They enjoy the fast paced environment and they appreciate the opportunity Amazon gave them. They are making money. But for many owners they are facing exactly the problems we pointed out in 2019. One of the biggest issues is that having Amazon as your sole contract puts you at enormous risk. Amazon can, and has just taken routes away from multiple owners leaving them with massive debts. A recent Vice piece interviewed several DSP owners one who was given two weeks notice despite having delivered 3 million packages the year before and having a clean service record. Vice goes on the say: "Jim is now facing bankruptcy, a destroyed credit score because he can’t make payments, and losing his house.

Three other owners in multiple states claim "Amazon’s delivery service partner program had depleted their life savings during the pandemic, and thrown them into tens, or in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt.
There is a 15 million dollar lawsuit pending that claims Portland owners “were losing money and employees trying to satisfy Amazon and their constant changes.” The lawsuit alleged that Amazon "controlled nearly every aspect" of two Portland delivery companies' businesses.

A 62 year old African American veteran who was forced to exit the DSP program in 2021 after only a year in business stated it was virtually impossible to make money. The process bleeds you dry. After losing money in the business Angela discovered she still owed $64,465 in damages on 20 of the company trucks. Would you be comfortable entrusting complete strangers to drive trucks you are responsible for? That was another issue we covered on the original video, how long until a driver hurts a pedestrian and it didn't take long for that to happen.

But why don't we hear about this story on front page news? Well, mostly because Amazon is very thorough in making sure all owners leaving the DSP program signs an NDA, a non-disclosure Agreement. Meaning you cant say anything bad about your business or talk about it in any way no matter how bad your experience was or Amazon will sue you for damages. And you don't want to get sued by Amazon.

So is the Amazon DSP a "good" opportunity? It can be and there are happy owners who made it work. But also many owners, and we will probably never know how many because they all signed a gag order, have faced financial disaster taking on all the risks for Amazon.

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https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxdbn...
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