Relay’s safety rewards program lets carriers earn up to 4 cents per mile for accident-free driving when using an approved dash cam. Bonuses are paid monthly based on collision-free mileage.
Running a 10-15 truck operation with his wife and son, Rusty Stewart has built an Indiana-based business around steady, reliable routes rather than chasing maximum miles. Within a few months of joining the safety rewards program, his company earned $23,000 in bonuses. Here’s how Rusty uses safety incentives, Motive’s in-cab dash cams, and a coach’s mindset to keep his trucks earning and his team motivated.
How is Relay’s safety rewards program working for your company?
Until now, we’ve paid our company’s drivers a salary each week, so they get a flat fee whether the truck’s moving or not. But now when a driver says, “How do I make more money?”, I tell them their driving record can help because we’re using Relay’s rewards program.
Whatever we get from Relay’s safe mileage bonuses, we agreed to split half evenly among the drivers as a bonus. The rest of the bonus goes toward maintenance. Everyone’s hyped up on it. When roadside inspections are good, we pay the drivers $100 right away.
“Within a few months, we earned $23k from Relay’s safety bonus.”
How do you build a safety culture with your team?
We’ve always had a strong safety culture – we have an open checkbook on maintenance for trucks. Anything they need, they get right away. But Relay’s mileage bonuses help reinforce the safety culture we have in place.
The guys are pumped to be safe because of the potential to earn more for the company. It’s a whole team effort. I’m a sports coach, so that’s how I drive them to do a better job with safety. I get on the phone and say, “These trip disruptions are hurting the company’s Relay performance score, which affects what we can book. We rely on the ability to book Relay’s contracts for steady payment, so it’s important to keep our score up. You’re doing an awesome job, but please help us out. Other teammates are succeeding in this area and you’re pulling them down.” This allows me to encourage better, safer drivers.
I’ll also tell drivers to watch a certain video in Relay’s Learning Center, a free resource library, and respond to me in a text about what they watched and what they learned. The biggest videos I assign are on the maintenance side.
How does your dash cam service support your company’s safety goals?
We dial in on all the safety tech Motive gives us. My wife looks through their reports weekly to find which drivers have coaching opportunities, whether that’s speeding or hard braking. Nobody’s allowed to be the lowest performer two weeks in a row.
Any time a driver texts or calls, I can go into the Motive dashboard to see exactly what the truck’s problem is, and I instantly know what advice to give them. The drivers also love the tech because they don’t want to be on the side of the road. By staying on top of maintenance, we’re not often stranded.
Relay carriers can get free hardware with an annual Motive contract, including an ELD and AI Dashcam.
What else should carriers know about Amazon Relay?
The mileage bonus is just one example of Relay’s flexible earning opportunities.
Payment is all automated, so it’s direct deposit and no paperwork, making payment faster and less hassle than other load boards. Booking and trip management is all self-service – I like that whole philosophy of me, my son, and my wife running a 10-15 truck team with no other office employees. We set our schedule. And because of that flexibility, I’m able to work from anywhere, even if that’s fishing from my boat in Florida.
Want in on cash bonuses?
Relay’s safety rewards program allows carriers to earn quarterly bonuses that support their business goals—whether that’s driver recognition, equipment maintenance, or operational improvements. You can use the calculator below to estimate your company’s potential collision-free mileage reward.
See if you meet Relay’s other carrier requirements to join Amazon’s freight network. Then start your Relay application on your desktop or in our app on iOS or Android.
Amazon Relay beta safety rewards calculator
Calculate your company's potential collision-free mileage reward.
0 - 50,000 miles
50,001 - 80,000 miles
80,001+ miles
Disclaimer: Amazon does not tender loads through any third-party load boards. Any Amazon loads posted on third-party load boards will only be tendered directly to approved and onboarded carriers via the Relay web portal or Relay mobile app. If you are interested in hauling loads for Amazon, sign up and book directly on relay.amazon.com. For more about our efforts against fraud and cargo theft, see our trustworthy transportation page.
