Amazon Relay Reviews: Load Board Rates, Your USDOT

Amazon Relay is not a company-driver job. You do not punch in under Amazon HR, you do not run a Tyson plant-to-plant sleeper, and you do not merchandize Pepsi bays. relay.amazon.com sells a load board and contracts for motor carriers that already have their own authority: spot loads, power-only, box truck, dry van. The rate on the card is the rate. The USDOT on the door is yours.

Pay, dwell, and access move by lane and by your carrier score. Verify current figures in the Relay app, on your insurance desk, and on the FMCSA SAFER Company Snapshot for your number — not a lookalike named “Amazon Relay.” Rules change. Verify current requirements at fmcsa.dot.gov before you act on anything in this guide.

Amazon Relay safety record: what FMCSA data shows

Start with the federal file — and do not confuse three different Amazon names. People searching “Amazon Relay SAFER” or “Amazon DOT number” often land on a contractor who DBA’d the product name. On the name search pulled for this article, Amazon Relay, USDOT 4123583, 47 Laurel Hill Dr, Westtown, NY 10998, is a carrier, USDOT ACTIVE, operating authority NOT AUTHORIZED, 1 power unit, 2 drivers, MCS-150 dated 08/28/2023, mileage 0. U.S. inspections in the 24 months before 09/10/2026: 0. Safety rating: None. That is not the marketplace.

A second “Amazon Relay” hit (Carrollton, TX, USDOT 4370395) is the same kind of lookalike. Searching the word “Amazon” returns landscapers, dumpsters, and tree services. Open SAFER by number, not by brand.

Amazon Logistics Inc, USDOT 2881058, DBA Prime, 207 Boren Ave, Seattle, WA 98109, phone (206) 529-5817, is the large Seattle operating card. Entity type on that snapshot: carrier / shipper / freight forwarder / broker. USDOT status: ACTIVE. Out-of-service date: none. Authority: motor carrier of property (except household goods), freight forwarder of property, and broker of property under MC-826094 and FF-16223. Operation classification: authorized for-hire, interstate. MCS-150 dated 02/27/2026, mileage 346,075,963 for 2025. Power units: 15,259. Drivers: 42,486. Cargo checkboxes: general freight and Amazon packages.

U.S. roadside inspections for 2881058, 24 months before 09/10/2026: 4,070 total. Vehicle 2,870 inspections, 129 out of service (4.5%). Driver 4,067 inspections, 34 out of service (0.8%). Hazmat 7 inspections, 0 out of service (0%). National averages printed on that snapshot (table dated 08/28/2026) are 22.26% vehicle, 6.67% driver, 4.44% hazmat. Vehicle and driver OOS both sit under those printed averages. Hazmat is a tiny sample.

U.S. crashes, same window: 6 fatal, 117 injury, 224 tow, 347 total. FMCSA counts involvement in reportable crashes without a determination of responsibility. Canada on that card: 0 inspections and 0 crashes.

Safety rating on 2881058: None. Rating date: None. Review date 08/26/2025, typed Non-Ratable. That is not a Satisfactory stamp and not a weekly grade. Walk the fields with our SAFER score company lookup.

Two more Seattle files sit next to it. Amazon.com Services LLC, USDOT 3371498, 410 Terry Ave N, is typed freight forwarder / broker / IEP, 0 power units, MCS-150 mileage 0, MC-1080954 / FF-36211. Two U.S. inspections in 24 months, 2 driver OOS on 2 driver inspections (100% on a two-stop sample — do not treat that as a fleet grade). Rating: None. Amazon Logistics LLC, USDOT 1781487, DBA AML, 5214 1st Ave S: 2 power units, 2 drivers, authority NOT AUTHORIZED, MCS-150 dated 07/12/2024 with a “registration outdated” flag, Satisfactory rating dated 01/14/2021. That is not the Relay app.

The load you book on Relay still runs under the carrier that booked it. Amazon’s published carrier page required a DOT number with interstate authority active for a minimum of 180 days, a valid MC, entity type carrier authorized for property and for-hire, and an FMCSA safety rating of Satisfactory, None, or Not Rated. Those are Amazon’s gates, not a substitute for reading your snapshot. If a dispatcher tells you “you’re on Amazon’s DOT,” stop.

Who actually hauls Amazon Relay

Relay carriers are trucking businesses Amazon has approved to book Amazon-generated freight (How to become a carrier for Amazon Relay, dated April 19, 2024). The work is facility-to-facility: fulfillment, sort, delivery stations. Equipment on that page: day cabs and sleepers for power-only, 53-foot dry van, 53-foot reefer, 26-foot or 16-foot box trucks, 28-foot trailers. Trailer-provided and trailer-required both exist. There is no fleet-size minimum on that page.

That is the queue angle. This is the one retail-adjacent piece on this site that is closer to a small-fleet P&L than to a company-driver review. It is not Walmart truck driver reviews, not Tyson Foods truck driver reviews, not Pepsi truck driver reviews. Those are W-2 seats. Relay is you, your insurance, your CSA, and a posted rate.

Amazon’s same page listed insurance floors: workers’ compensation where you operate; cargo at least $100,000; employer liability not less than $100,000 per occurrence; auto liability not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence including trailer-replacement coverage of $50,000; commercial general liability not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate. BASIC gates on that page were tighter than “whatever FMCSA prints”: unsafe driving and HOS below 60%; vehicle maintenance, controlled substances/alcohol, and driver fitness below 75%; driver violation rate at or below 35%; vehicle violation rate at or below 50%. Amazon said it generally reviews a completed application in about three weeks. Requirements change. Verify current hiring and insurance bars on relay.amazon.com before you buy a policy for a product that may bounce you.

Do not mix Relay with Amazon DSP last-mile vans or with a contractor who only DBA’d “Amazon Relay.” If the W-2 or the lease-on packet puts you under someone else’s MC, you are not the Relay carrier — you are their driver.

Pay: posted trip rate and CPM, not a company weekly card

Relay shows an all-in number before you book. That is the product. Homepage copy on relay.amazon.com: instantly book upfront rates (base, fuel, tolls), get paid weekly, and stack $0.01–$0.04 extra per mile through safety rewards. The public board scrape for this article printed “Rates are recent averages. Live rates are provided at the time of booking.” Rates change by origin, miles, equipment, and season. Verify current pay for your role — meaning your truck, your trailer (or Amazon’s), and the actual card in the app — before you deadhead to the gate.

Examples from that public table (solo, mixed equipment):

• Abbeville, LA → Carencro, LA, 53-foot dry van, 30 miles, 14 loads/week displayed: trip $150–$250, $5.00–$8.33/mi. Short hops inflate CPM. They do not pay a 2,500-mile week.
• Abbeville, LA → San Antonio, TX, 410 miles: trip $800–$825, $1.95–$2.01/mi.
• Abbeville, LA → North Little Rock, AR, 385 miles: trip $1,000–$1,025, $2.60–$2.66/mi.
• Aberdeen, MD → Atlanta, GA, 735 miles: trip $1,275–$1,300, $1.73–$1.77/mi.
• Aberdeen, MD → Aurora, CO, 1,685 miles: trip $3,500–$3,525, $2.08–$2.09/mi.
• Aberdeen, MD → Avondale, PA, box truck, 30 miles: trip $250–$275, $8.33–$9.17/mi.

A third-party dispatch-sales page (truckdispatchexperts.com Amazon Relay Review 2026) put a typical dry-van band at $1.50–$2.50/mi and argued that sits below open-market DAT lanes. That is their sales math, not Amazon’s board. Use it as a second opinion, then open the app.

There is no public nationwide “Amazon company driver” CPM on Relay, because you are not Amazon’s company driver. Fuel, empty miles to the FC, dwell, a cancelled load, and a score hit that hides the next card are the real deducts. Ask for the live rate, detention language, and whether the trailer is Amazon’s before you treat a homepage average as a year.

What carriers actually say — including why people treat it as fill-in

Public forums are not a verdict, and Amazon does not publish a driver star rating for Relay. There is no Indeed “Truck Driver at Amazon Relay” filter that matches a W-2 fleet. What exists is owner-operator chatter plus vendor pages selling an alternative.

On TheTruckersReport thread “Amazon Relay. Thoughts?” (started April 17, 2025, Ask An Owner Operator), the pattern matches the queue note — economics for the truck owner, not a recruiter pitch:

• Cheap freight, cancellations, and “don’t depend on it” showed up first. One long-time member called Amazon famous for cheap loads and cancelling loads. Another said they would not depend on Amazon alone because rates had lowered as capacity rose, and treated Relay as a backhaul option. A third said it might be okay in a pinch, not as a base.
• Onboarding friction is part of the product. Forum notes repeated Amazon’s own 180-day authority bar (one post said six months before you can even apply) and extra trailer-interchange coverage that a personal auto-style policy may not hit. Amazon’s published page is the checklist; a forum memory of a dollar amount is not.
• Peak is when people say it pays. One reply said pay is decent during Amazon week and Christmas season, and not much else. That is one attributed comment, not a rate card.

The dispatch-sales review listed the usual complaints: take-it-or-leave-it rates, tight appointment windows, FC wait time, and score-based deactivation. Treat that as vendor copy. Confirm dwell and detention on the load you would book.

Who a Relay account fits — and how to vet it

Relay tends to fit a carrier that already has authority, insurance that clears Amazon’s floors, and a plan to use the board as volume or a backhaul — not as the only customer. Power-only near a dense Amazon network is a different P&L from a 53-foot owner with a trailer note. A company driver shopping trucking company reviews wants a W-2; this page is not that seat.

Look elsewhere if you still need someone else’s MC, you cannot sit at a fulfillment center, you will not re-open your SAFER file, or you need negotiated DAT-style rates on every mile.

1. Confirm whose USDOT is on the truck. Yours. Not 4123583, not a Carrollton lookalike, not “we run Amazon’s number.”
2. Re-open SAFER the week you would start — yours and, if you care what Amazon itself shows, 2881058. Authority, vehicle OOS, driver OOS, crashes, rating date. Use the SAFER lookup walkthrough.
3. Get the economics in writing in the app. Live trip rate, CPM, fuel/tolls already in or not, detention, cancellation, trailer pool vs your trailer, weekly pay timing.
4. Name the work. Facility-to-facility Amazon freight with a score. Not Pepsi merchandising, not Tyson reefer OTR, not a mega-carrier 48-state board.
5. If you put drivers on the same MC, research people, not just the load. A carrier search on cdlscan is two-sided — carriers review drivers, and you can research the house. Search does not require buying a full report. It will not replace SAFER or the Relay contract.

If you have already run Relay under your own authority, add a review on cdlscan so the next owner-operator is not guessing from a homepage CPM. Search is free; a full report is paid. Neither one replaces looking up your USDOT.

Frequently asked questions

Is Amazon Relay a good company to drive for?

Relay is not a company-driver job. It is a load board for carriers with their own authority. Whether it is “good” depends on whether the posted rate, weekly pay, and FC dwell still leave you a margin after fuel and empty miles. Amazon Logistics Inc USDOT 2881058 is Amazon’s own operating file, not your truck. Verify current pay for your lane in the app.

What is Amazon Relay’s USDOT number?

The marketplace does not give you Amazon’s DOT. Lookalikes named Amazon Relay exist (Westtown 4123583 is one truck and not authorized). Amazon Logistics Inc in Seattle is USDOT 2881058, MC-826094. Your door should show your number.

How much does Amazon Relay pay?

The public board showed trip and CPM averages that swing with miles: about $1.73–$2.09/mi on longer dry-van examples in that scrape, and much higher CPM on 30-mile hops. Homepage: weekly pay and $0.01–$0.04/mi safety rewards. Live rates are at booking. Verify current pay for your equipment.

Do I need my own authority for Amazon Relay?

Amazon’s published carrier page required an active interstate DOT for a minimum of 180 days, a valid MC, and a carrier entity authorized for property and for-hire. A company driver on someone else’s MC is not the Relay carrier. Confirm current gates on relay.amazon.com.

Does Amazon Relay hire new CDL drivers?

Not as Amazon employees on this product. New CDL-A holders usually need a carrier to put them on an MC. Relay’s gate is the carrier’s age of authority and safety data, not a student-driver seat.

Why do owner-operators quit Relay or treat it as fill-in?

Public threads cluster on cheap freight, cancellations, lower rates as more trucks showed up, and insurance extras for trailer interchange. Some still use it as a backhaul. It is not a court finding.

Does Amazon drug test Relay carriers?

CDL interstate work is subject to DOT drug and alcohol testing on your program. Amazon’s carrier page emphasizes CSA/BASIC and insurance, not a published Relay-specific panel. Ask during onboarding. Do not invent a panel.

Is Amazon Relay a private fleet?

No. Careers-style Amazon driving jobs and DSP vans are different products. Relay is a marketplace. SAFER still shows large Amazon operating and broker files in Seattle. Read the card that matches the legal name on the load.

How do I look up Amazon on SAFER?

Do not search “Amazon” and pick the first hit. Open FMCSA’s Company Snapshot for 2881058 if you want Amazon Logistics Inc, and open your USDOT if you want the file that actually sits on the truck. Read authority, inspections, crashes, and the rating date.