Amazon is putting $450 million towards a new education programme, employer-sponsored pensions, and pay rate increases for its drivers over the next 12-months.

The e-commerce giant said that the new academic scheme would give drivers employed by participating delivery service partners (DSP) up to $5,250 yearly to access over 1,700 education programmes.

Amazon will introduce a 401 (k) pension plan, giving delivery partners around $60 million in the first year to help them match employee contributions.

"Through the DSP program, small businesses around the world have generated over $26 billion in revenue for their companies since launching four years ago," said Parisa Sadrzadeh, vice president of Amazon's Worldwide Delivery Service Partner Programme. "We couldn’t have done that without DSPs and their incredible teams.

“We will continue to innovate with them and use our economies of scale and resources to help them provide best-in-class offerings to their employees.Investing in our DSPs means that we are continuing to invest in communities nationwide. I can't wait to see the future success stories of what these drivers achieve."

Share Story: