Amazon Paying Startup Costs, More to Sway Employees to Start Delivery Businesses

Amazon is enticing employees to participate in its Delivery Service Partner program by offering to pay them up to $10,000 each in startup costs, said tech giant Monday. Amazon hopes to enable “employees-turned-business-owners” to more easily “get their package delivery companies off the ground,” it said. In addition to the startup costs, it’s also offering up to three months of the former employee’s last gross salary. Dave Clark, senior vice president-worldwide operations, said the company heard from “tens of thousands” of people who applied to be part of the program, “including many employees,” but many struggled with the transition. “Now we have a path for those associates with an appetite for opportunities to own their own businesses,” he said. The Delivery Service Partner, launched in June, helped create more than 200 small businesses that have hired thousands of local drivers to deliver packages to Amazon customers, it said. It plans to add “hundreds more” new businesses this year, beginning with former employees. The offer has extended to Amazon employees in the U.K. and Spain.