Amazon CamperForce Was Popular. Why Was It Discontinued?
The Amazon CamperForce seasonal employee recruitment program attracted RVers in droves to work at dozens of fulfillment centers across the US. Amazon offered its seasonal CamperForce workers up to $18.00/hour and a stipend to cover campsite costs. Not only that, but Amazon offers its employees the flexibility to pick their own hours and choose their own payday. No wonder CamperForce was so popular.
The CamperForce program was created to help boost Amazon’s fulfillment center workforce during the busy holiday season. The flexibility of hours, pay, and the stipend to cover campsite fees made it really popular with nomadic workers.
However, the program really exploded in popularity after CamperForce came into the spotlight in the Golden Globe-nominated movie, Nomadland. In the movie, Frances McDormand plays a nomadic woman named Fern. Fern is a senior Vanlifer who travels from job to job. Eventually, her journey finds her working as an Amazon CamperForce employee in Nevada.
As a typical Amazon CamperForce employee, Fern picks, packs, sorts, and stows hundreds of items going to destinations all over the world. The movie gives a pretty realistic representation of the working life of a CamperForce employee. Moreover, Nomadland makes it clear that this work is not easy. However, the publicity generated by the movie helped to launch CamperForce’s popularity to new heights. The program became more popular than ever.
As successful as it was, Amazon announced it was ending CamperForce to group leaders in mid-December 2022. The news came as a surprise to many and left many wondering why Amazon would discontinue such a successful program. I reached out to Amazon to find out why it ended the program.
What led to the end of CamperForce?
Why did Amazon cancel CamperForce? According to Steve Kelly, Amazon’s Public Relations Manager, the answer was simple. Amazon needed to streamline its hiring process for both its team and for the seasonal employees Amazon attracts every year.
“We’re always looking for ways to try and streamline the hiring process for our team and for people looking for jobs. As part of these efforts, we’ve decided to fold CamperForce hiring into our regular seasonal hiring process.”
–Steve Kelly, Public Relations Manager, Amazon
Amazon continues to depend on its seasonal workforce to help meet the greatly increased number of deliveries in the months preceding and just after the holiday season. Not only that, but adding holiday season workers gives Amazon’s regular full-time workers the flexibility in their schedules to book time off to spend more time with their families over the holiday season.
Seasonal Amazon workers
Amazon pays its holiday season employees a good wage and lets them choose hours that fit into whatever else is going on in their lives. These two factors are enough to attract a significant number of holiday season employees back to Amazon’s fulfillment centers every year.
Can RVers still get seasonal jobs at Amazon?
Those who are disappointed with CamperForce’s demise will be happy to know that Amazon still welcomes RVers into its seasonal workforce for the busy season. Amazon simply rolled the CamperForce program into their regular seasonal hiring program. And working for Amazon remains as popular as ever for seasonal workers.
There are some attractive benefits to seasonal employment at an Amazon fulfillment center. To start with, you can choose the time of day and the hours you work.
And then there are the wages. Hourly pay is between $16 and $18.50 per hour. While no one is going to get rich with these wages, it’s not terrible and can be a nice addition to regular retirement income. Plus, they’ll give you a $2 per hour bonus if you choose evening or night shifts. But that’s not all: Amazon’s anytime payday feature lets you choose when you’ll get paid too.
You’ll find a wealth of information about seasonal Amazon fulfillment center jobs on the Amazon Jobs website. Click here to find out more.
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It was a great program. It’s very disappointing that they discontinued it. It gave me an opportunity to travel and make money.
So will Amazon allow seasonal workers who are RVers to park overnight in their parking lots?
Everyone from my center hasn’t received their end of season bonuses. And of course the email provided to us never responds.
But no more stipend to cover campsite costs? Feels like you left something out.
Very disappointed, no notice of any kind, would not communicate and not answering questions when asked, simply rude, they really do not care for employees
CamperForce jobs were only available at specific fulfillment centers. Does this now open up all centers to work campers, that have seasonal workers? Based on this article, it seems the expenses paid for a work camper’s site near a center has been removed from compensation. A cost cutting measure!