It is about time for the Amazon Camperforce program to open for applications. Since I recently completed an assignment for them over the holidays I thought I could share some insight on how my experience was working for the retail giant.
Let me just say, that this isn’t our typical gig. We aren’t work campers, meaning we don’t travel from job to job. We work online and became a full time RV family mainly to travel. This was our first experience just parking somewhere to work. To those that complete seasonal jobs like this, some of this article may be obvious, but for me all of my Amazon experience was new for our family.
I’ll try to detail out what it was like to get hired, what the work was like, and what you can expect through your Camperforce assignment.
What is Amazon Camperforce?
In short, it is a program started by Amazon to fill seasonal positions with an RV workforce. Here is a short video explaining their program.
What are the Benefits of Camperforce?
According to Amazon’s website, the following are benefits of working seasonally for Camperforce.
Up to $550 a month per campsite
Depending on your location and the campground you get into this may cover the entire cost of the campground. Many of my fellow Camperforce workers had their site completely covered. Because I was in a different location, I had to pay an additional $120/month for my complete hookup site. Still not bad for a monthly rate.
There are a few catches to the campground situation. First, you have to stay at one of their approved campgrounds. No boondocking or picking your own campground. Second, if your campground monthly rate is cheaper than the $550 you will not get credited the difference. Third, if you have two people in the same camp site working at Amazon, like many spouses, they will still only cover the $550.
Assignment Completion Bonus
$.50 for each regular hour worked and $1.00 for each overtime hour worked after assignment ends
This was a very nice addition to my last paycheck. Doing the math it doesn’t add up to a whole lot, but it was about $200 extra for me. I’ll take it!
Medical and Prescription coverage available after 90 days
Although this is listed as a benefit, most Camperforce positions aren’t even 90 days long, so it is likely that you won’t get medical coverage.
Overtime pay
Anything over 40 hours and you’re making time and a half.
Weekly pay schedule
Unlike many jobs, Camperforce pays weekly.
401(k)
This is listed as a benefit, but I never found a way to access it. I’m sure had I spoken with someone about it I could have figured it out. For such a short duration, I didn’t feel it was worth setting this up.
What is the Camperforce application process and interview like?
Application
You will have to fill out an online application with Amazon and there is an additional questionnaire, called a virtual job tryout. This tryout has a handful of questions that are multiple-choice, mostly about work history. The toughest part of the tryout was a sorting activity, which after reading the instructions isn’t very hard. If you’re smart enough to search for this post and read through it, you should pass.
Interview
Good news, there isn’t really an interview as long as you pass the application and virtual job tryout, the background check, and the drug test you should have a job.
Virtual New Hire Event
Once you’re accepted to the program, you’ll have to attend a virtual new hire session. They’re very strict about attending these, the emails they sent said that if you miss them, your name is withdrawn from the program.
The new hire session is basically a prerecorded video orientation that goes through your typical human resources information along with some company and safety information.
Drug Test
The drug test is a little tricky especially if you’re a traveling RVer. They’ll send you a list of testing locations to visit to complete your drug test. They contract with different providers, so depending on where you currently are, it may take some planning. Many of the others that were hired with me experience issues and I did too. RVer’s tend to be a lot of different places and drug testing locations aren’t located everywhere. I happened to be in Northern Minnesota on an assignment during my application process and I had to drive over two hours to my closest testing location. This wasn’t very convenient for me. The drug test also came with a time limit of just a few days to get it done, so I had to quickly change plans and make a drive to get it done.
Where are the Camperforce locations?
I worked just outside of Nashville at the BNA 3 Fulfilment Center. Amazon has many warehouses and fulfillment centers throughout the nation. They’re usually named after the airport code of the nearest large airport. Although they have a number of warehouses nationwide, there are not many that participate in Camperforce. Currently, for the 2020 Camperforce season, they have opportunities in Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Kentucky, Tennessee, New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
What shifts are available?
You will be hired as a full time employee and expected to work 40 hrs a week. After Thanksgiving, we were required to work 50 hours even though other warehouse workers were required to work 60.
Your workday is a 10 hr shift, and both day and night shifts are available. In 2019 we weren’t allowed to choose our shifts, we were just assigned one upon completing the application process. They also have different shift days for the warehouse, but to my knowledge, Camperforce workers were only assigned to the Front Half (Sun-Wed) and Back Half (Wed-Sat) shifts.
Depending on the location and the amount of orders projected there is often overtime work available. You can easily pick up hours, especially after Thanksgiving, but no one is allowed to work more than 60 hours in a week.
Occasionally there would be a day here and there when voluntary time off was offered before or partway through a shift. This happens when orders are projected to be smaller and they allow people to skip a shift or leave early with approval.
When is Amazon Camperforce?
I had a start date the first week of November and ended work a few days before Christmas. The assignment dates for Camperforce depend on your location. Some people start earlier in the fall and end well before Christmas, some positions are just the month and a half leading up to Christmas, and a few actually start after the holidays. You can find more information on the assignment dates on the Camperforce website.
Right now their site says that :
Assignments start the week of 9/20/20 or 10/18/20 and will end by 12/23/20.
CVG2 assignment dates are the week of 12/27/20 through the week of 2/21/21.
Exact start and end date will be determined by shift. Final shift and exact start date will be provided 2-3 weeks before the scheduled start week.
What is the work like at Amazon?
To start there are four main positions at Amazon warehouses picking, packing, stowing, and receiving.
Picker – Picks items off of shelves, puts them in bins to be shipped off later.
Packer – Packs all of the items that have been picked for shipment.
Stower – Puts new inventory into the warehouse to be picked.
Receiving – Unloading and receiving the goods into the warehouse.
In our warehouse, they assigned all of the Amazon Camperforce workers to be pickers. In previous years, they were often assigned different jobs and some were even given their choice of department to work in.
Every day after warm-ups, as a picker you’ll go to your assigned area, grab a pick cart with totes, and venture aisle after aisle after whatever goods your scanner tells you to pick up. You’ll be walking all day. ALL DAY. If you’re signing up for Camperforce, I recommend start walking a lot a few weeks before to start ramping up for the amount of walking you’ll be doing. Make sure to have comfortable, broken-in shoes ready to go.
Our warehouse was mostly full of soft goods. I picked a bunch of shirts, robes, jeans, winter hats, and other goods. Maybe some of them ended up under your Christmas tree. There wasn’t much more to the work, just a lot of walking and opening up draws and bins to find products.
There is a quota that you need to hit to meet your expected production every day. Your numbers are tracked with the scanner that you use. A nice thing about working Camperforce is that your production only needs to be at 85% of what the regular workers are expected to be at. They’ll still talk to you if your numbers are low, but for the most part everyone was able to easily hit their numbers.
This was a very easy job to get the hang of and only occasionally did I run into something that I wasn’t sure how to handle. Luckily, it was pretty easy to get help from other workers passing by or from management when I had questions.
Pros and Cons of Working for Amazon Camperforce
Pros
- There is a lot of walking if you want to be physical, you’ll put on some miles. I heard many different figures of the actual miles walked in a day, but my best guess is that even on slower days I would walk 5-8 miles. On busier days it was probably more like 20 miles.
- You’ll lose weight. Even if you’re already active, that amount of walking will help you shed a few pounds.
- Decent Pay. Amazon starts their workers at $15/hr which especially for work camping positions is pretty good pay. They also have overtime hours and a completion bonus.
- It isn’t a particularly hard job. After only a few hours of training you get the hang of what you’re doing.
- Campsite Stipend- Amazon will pay up to $550 for you campsite (at approved RV parks). This can make your site free or close to free.
Cons
- There is a lot of walking. The first few weeks, you’ll be sore and have blisters even if you think you’re in good shape.
- It is monotonous work. It gets boring after a while. You’re not allowed, at least in BNA 3, to wear headphones.
- You’re alone for almost all of the day. If you need social interaction to get you through this might not be the right job for you.
All in all working at Amazon was an experience that I had never had before. I’m not sure if I will be doing it again in 2020, but who knows I may see you at orientation! Applications open up soon at the Camperforce site!
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