This is a condensed transcription of a live interview.
Amazon Relay joined Malcolm Harris, host of the Freightwaves podcast “What the Truck?!”, to discuss the hauling and earning opportunities available through Relay’s safety rewards program and Prime Day volume increase. Read the transcription below or watch the live interview here, starting at the 7:15 mark.
For those that don’t know, talk to us a little bit about Amazon Relay.
Amazon: Amazon Relay is a free web portal and mobile app for trucking companies. There are no fleet size minimums. Large or small fleets can use Relay to haul Amazon freight over the road. We’ve got truckload moves between Amazon facilities or verified third-party sites across the country through our load board, contracts, and auctions.
We’ve got opportunities for power-only hauling using Amazon’s trailers and containers—the ones you might have seen on the road with the big Prime Smile. You can also use your own dry van or reefers, and we have box truck opportunities as well. For hustling and shuttling within Amazon yards, you would just bring a day cab and shuttle to a site.
What makes us a little bit different from a traditional load board is that every load listed on Relay is from Amazon or a verified third-party shipper. So, we’re really hoping to protect carriers and drivers, making sure that every load they get from us is verified, directly from us, and legitimate.
Freight fraud is increasing. What’s Amazon Relay doing to help protect carriers and create a more secure transportation network?
Amazon: Something that we take incredibly seriously. Freight fraud doesn’t just hurt shippers, it can hurt honest carriers who can get caught in the middle. We’ve built multiple layers of protection all the way from a carrier’s application to haul with Relay through to load hauling.
“We have a direct relationship policy. This means once you’ve onboarded to Relay, you’re within the verified group of carriers that can haul Amazon loads. We don’t allow subcontracting or middlemen to put your reputation at risk.”
During trips, we also verify drivers and track shipments. Driver identities are checked using real-time photo checks and license validation, just to ensure that the driver who’s hauling the load is the one who is approved to do so for Relay. We also track loads in real time using our trailer telematics. We have telematic signals, advanced trailer cameras, and tamper detections so we can spot problems as soon as they happen and not after the fact.
We’re always launching new programs and staying up to date [on fraud trends] to make sure that our carriers feel protected.
When a carrier books a load, what kind of opportunities are available that might be specific for Amazon Relay?
Amazon: Again, something to note is that no one other than Amazon is putting loads on our board. what carriers actually see when they log into Relay is loads that are directly posted by Amazon. Everything booked through us is tendered to carriers directly from Amazon Relay. In fact, we don’t recommend booking loads that appear to be from Amazon from anywhere other than Relay.
“Relay is our central source for all loads that we need hauled across our network—which again is just to help keep peace of mind for carriers that everything coming from Relay is legitimate and verified.”
Let’s shift to safety. What is Relay doing to help make roads safer and support carriers?
Amazon: Safety is the top priority. In addition to carrier and driver background checks, and real-time photo and license validation, we’ve launched safety technology for on-road support. Last year in 2025, all of the new Amazon trailer purchases have rollup doors instead of swing doors just to make docking and undocking a little easier and safer for carriers. The new trailers have also installed rollover prevention. There are rollover-preventing brakes which use sensors and control logic to detect the conditions that a trailer is in to prevent a rollover. The brake logic also automatically initiates to slow the vehicle to help the tractor and trailer maintain stability in some of those situations.
Towards the end of last year, more than 65,000 of our branded trailers were equipped with flashing auxiliary lamps and reflective tape, which helped our communities reduce rear-end collisions.
Talk to us about Relay’s safety rewards program.
Amazon: Not only are we trying to keep the road safe, but we’re also trying to reward the carriers that are hauling safely.
Carriers who drive collision-free with an eligible dash cam and in-cab alerts activated have a chance to earn per-mile bonuses with Amazon Relay. One of the requirements is having a dash cam. If your company already has a dash cam from one of our eligible providers—right now that’s Motive, Netradyne, and Verizon Connect—you can enroll from your Relay account to earn between 1 and 4 cents extra per collision-free mile that you drive. So, on top of the weekly earnings that you’re making with Relay, you’d get an additional safety reward of 1 to 4 cents depending on the mileage range that you’re in.
“The safety rewards program is Amazon Relay’s way of supporting carriers who want to invest in safety technology and get rewarded for safe hauling.”
We know that not every carrier on the road has a dash cam yet. So, if you don’t have an eligible dash cam, we really wanted to support carriers receiving the hardware. As a part of the safety rewards program, carriers can get Motive or Netradyne hardware as well as installation and a year of subscription all supported by Amazon when you enroll in the safety rewards program.
Amazon receives a limited amount of information from the carrier’s dash cam—like the number of devices used, if you had any collision alerts, and what the severity level was. But we get this info directly from dash cam providers. Carriers don’t need to provide anything. The data is used to calculate the eligible mileage that you’ll be paid the rewards out on.
And you’re eligible to earn on up to 400,000 miles. So, it’s an extra added reward for carriers that are already doing the right thing and hauling safely.
“Relay loads are tied directly to Amazon shopping volume. So, as people shop more, which we know they do on Prime Day, we’ll be hauling more over the road in this time frame.”
Prime Day is happening in June this year. What kind of opportunity is this going to create?
Amazon: Prime Day is coming June 23-26, 2026. This means that our usual sort of summer peak volume as we call it is hitting earlier than carriers might expect. For carriers, this means the window to get positioned to take advantage of that volume is honestly right now.
For carriers who are already active on Relay—thank you so much for all that you’re doing to help keep our network running. Prime Day contracts are already available on the Contracts page of your Relay account. You can search for your desired location in the lanes that you’re interested in and get ahead of any of the volume that’s going to come this coming month.
If you’re not yet hauling with Relay, to access all the opportunities we spoke about earlier and take advantage of our safety rewards program, you can get started at relay.amazon.com. There are no membership fees for Relay. Apply for free on the website or app (iOS or Android).
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.
