What are the Amazon Relay requirements, and how do I apply?

Chapter 01

What does Amazon Relay ask of my company?

Amazon’s list has six main requirements. It asks for authority of the right kind and age, and the right entity type. It requires an acceptable safety rating. Your safety scores and two violation rates must stay under its limits. And you need five kinds of insurance. A separate answer lists the trucks and trailers Amazon works with. All of it comes from Amazon’s Relay FAQ as it read on September 22, 2026. None of it is federal law. It is one customer’s rule book, and Amazon can change it at any time.

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you run two box trucks, each 26 feet long, with liftgates. Your company is a small LLC, and you own all of it. You drive one truck. A driver you pay on a W-2 drives the other. Your operating authority, your MC number, became active on Monday, March 16, 2026. On Tuesday, September 22, you sit down with Amazon’s list and go through it line by line.

The first line asks for “a DOT number, with interstate authority and that has been active for minimum of 180 days, and a valid MC number”. Count the days from the date your authority became active, not the date you got your DOT number. Amazon words this rule three ways on its own pages. The FAQ speaks of authority active for 180 days. Another answer in the same FAQ wants your DOT number “to be at least 180 days old”. Its insurance guide says “your MC must be active for at least 180 days”. Your authority can only become active after you have a DOT number. So counting from the authority date is the safe reading. Your day 180 was Saturday, September 12. You pass.

So does Amazon Relay accept new authority? It takes your application, but not your trucks. The FAQ says to “Apply even if your DOT authority hasn’t been active for 180 days”. Amazon will “keep you updated on key program news while you wait to join our network”. The FAQ adds that Relay “typically requires your DOT number to be at least 180 days old to complete onboarding” (Amazon’s FAQ). In plain words, Amazon can look at your papers early, but you haul nothing for it before day 180.

The second line asks for a “‘Carrier’ entity type that is Authorized for Property and for Hire”. That means your FMCSA registration says you are a motor carrier, and your authority lets you haul other people’s goods for pay. A company registered only as a broker does not fit. Nor does a company that hauls only its own goods, which the rules call a private motor carrier (the federal definitions). Your LLC hauls freight for pay under its own authority. You pass.

The third line asks for an FMCSA safety rating of “Satisfactory,” “None,” or “Not Rated”. A new company usually has no rating at all. Your new entrant safety audit, the first check FMCSA runs on a new carrier, will not give you one when it comes. The rules say plainly that “Safety audits do not result in safety ratings” (the rule on audits and ratings). Ratings come from a longer investigation called a compliance review. The two bad ratings are Conditional and Unsatisfactory, and either one keeps you out of Relay. You have never had a compliance review, so you have no rating. You pass. Just keep in mind that a failed audit that is not fixed in time can cost you your registration, and Relay with it. Our guide to the new entrant safety audit explains that process.

The fourth line is about your safety scores. FMCSA sorts your safety data, most of it from roadside inspections, into seven groups. It calls them BASICs, and two of them are Unsafe Driving and Vehicle Maintenance. In each group it ranks you against carriers with a similar amount of inspection data. That rank is a percentile, from 0 to 100, and 100 is the worst (FMCSA’s scoring manual, version 3.21, June 2026). Amazon wants five of your percentiles below these limits.

• Unsafe Driving below 60%.
• HOS Compliance (hours of service) below 60%.
• Vehicle Maintenance below 75%.
• Controlled Substances and Alcohol below 75%.
• Driver Fitness below 75%.

Amazon says its lines are “5% lower than federal thresholds, which means our demands for safety are stricter” (Amazon’s application page). Here is what that means. FMCSA itself flags most carriers for a closer look at 65% in the first two groups. In the other three, its line is 80% (FMCSA’s scoring manual). Amazon draws each line five points lower.

The fifth line is newer. Since October 31, 2025, Amazon also screens new carriers on two violation rates (Amazon’s post on violation rates). It keeps one rate for problems found with your drivers and one for problems found with your trucks. Each rate counts the violations found at your roadside inspections over the past 12 months, and divides them by the number of inspections. A violation that put the driver or the truck out of service counts twice. Your driver violation rate must be “at or below 35%”. Your vehicle violation rate must be “at or below 50%”.

The sixth line is insurance. These are the Amazon Relay insurance requirements, word for word from Amazon’s FAQ.

• “Commercial General Liability not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 in the aggregate”.
• “Auto Liability not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence, including a trailer replacement coverage of $50,000”.
• “Cargo coverage of at least $100,000”.
• “Workers’ compensation insurance in all jurisdictions where your company operates”.
• “Employer liability not less than $100,000 per occurrence”.

Compare that with the law. For ordinary freight in a truck with a gross weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more, the federal minimum for liability is $750,000 (the federal insurance rule). Amazon wants $1,000,000, plus four more kinds of cover.

Last comes the equipment. Amazon works with day cab and sleeper cab tractors, 48 foot trailers, 53 foot dry vans and reefers, and certain containers. For box trucks, the FAQ lists a “26’ box truck with a functional tuck-under lift-gate”, and the same in 16 feet (Amazon’s FAQ). Amazon’s truck guide adds that its freight calls for dock height box trucks. It also says: “Cargo vans cannot be used for loads on Amazon Relay” (Amazon’s truck requirements). There is no fleet size minimum, so one truck can apply. We found no rule on the age of the truck on any of Amazon’s pages. For the truck itself, those are the Amazon Relay box truck requirements. Your two trucks have working liftgates that fold under the body. You pass.

So far, so good. But passing on paper is not the same as passing Amazon’s check. The next step is to look at your company the way Amazon will see it.

Chapter 02

How do I check whether my company qualifies?

Check four things yourself before you apply: your public FMCSA record, your own safety scores, your two violation rates and your insurance. Amazon compares your application with FMCSA’s records, and it uses the contact details on file with FMCSA to reach you. It also watches carriers through its own compliance teams and “a third-party compliance monitoring service” (Amazon’s FAQ). So fix anything wrong on your FMCSA record first.

Start with your company’s public record. FMCSA’s SAFER Company Snapshot shows it, and it updates daily (FMCSA’s DataQs help pages). Look at the name, address and phone number FMCSA holds for you. Check that your authority shows as active and that you have no bad rating. Your address and phone number come from a form called the MCS-150. It holds your company’s details for your DOT number (the rule on the MCS-150).

In your case, the snapshot still shows the old yard. You moved in June and never updated the MCS-150. That matters more than it seems. Amazon tells applicants to match their details to the FMCSA database “down to the dash or comma” (Amazon’s guide to becoming a carrier). Its onboarding team uses the information on file with FMCSA to reach you (Amazon’s FAQ). With an old phone number on file, Amazon’s calls may never reach you. So on September 22, you update the MCS-150 first. Then you wait until the new address shows on the snapshot before you apply.

Next come your safety scores, and here is a trap. Anyone can look up your inspections on FMCSA’s public site. But since the FAST Act of 2015, FMCSA no longer shows the public the full safety results of a company that hauls freight. The scoring manual says property carriers “must log in to view their complete SMS results” (FMCSA’s scoring manual). So you log in as the company to see your own percentiles. FMCSA’s help pages point carriers to the FMCSA Portal, which is updated nightly with your inspection history (FMCSA’s DataQs help pages).

When you log in, you may find no percentile at all. FMCSA does not rank a carrier until it has enough data. For example, there is no Vehicle Maintenance percentile until you have at least five vehicle inspections, with a violation on at least one. Hours of service needs at least three driver inspections, with a violation on at least one (FMCSA’s scoring manual). Your two trucks have had only a handful of inspections, so most of your groups show no percentile. Amazon does not say how it treats a carrier with no percentile. Nor does it say how it reads percentiles that FMCSA keeps from the public. We could not check either point.

Then work out your violation rates yourself. Amazon uses “FMCSA inspection data over the past 12 months”. It adds the violations that put nobody out of service to the ones that did, which count double. Then it divides by the number of inspections (Amazon’s post on violation rates). So count every inspection, including the clean ones. FMCSA’s SMS site shows only inspections with violations unless you choose “Relevant Inspections” at the top of the list (FMCSA’s DataQs help pages). You can also count from the inspection reports your drivers brought back.

Your drivers had 5 inspections in the past 12 months. One found a mistake in a log, and nobody was put out of service. So your driver rate is 1 divided by 5, which is 20%. Your trucks had 4 inspections that checked the truck itself. One found a light out, again not out of service. Your vehicle rate is 1 divided by 4, which is 25%. Both are below Amazon’s limits. This is our reading of Amazon’s published formula. Amazon shows approved carriers their own rates on a Safety Scorecard in their account (Amazon’s post on violation rates).

Last, your insurance. Sit down with your agent and put Amazon’s list next to your policies. The Amazon Relay insurance requirements are the line to read most carefully. Your auto liability is already $1,000,000, because brokers asked for it. Your cargo cover is $100,000. But you have no commercial general liability at all. And you have no workers’ compensation, though your second driver is a W-2 employee.

Here Amazon’s own pages disagree. The FAQ puts $50,000 of trailer replacement coverage inside the auto liability for everyone. It asks for workers’ compensation wherever you operate. Amazon’s insurance guide from February 2026 says the $50,000 trailer coverage is for semis. It says workers’ compensation is for “Companies with W-2 employees”. Box trucks pull no trailer. So ask your agent what the trailer coverage would cost. Then ask Relay support which version applies to a box truck before you pay for it. Your W-2 driver settles the other question. Under either version, you need workers’ compensation, with employer’s liability of at least $100,000.

Your agent adds general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 in total, plus workers’ compensation with employer’s liability. The new papers arrive on Tuesday, September 29. Tell your agent to expect a request from Amazon’s side. Amazon’s insurance guide says an outside vendor gets your certificate of insurance straight from your agent or insurer. It also names RMIS, a service that keeps those records (Amazon’s insurance guide).

Chapter 03

How do I fill out the Relay application?

You fill out your Amazon Relay application online, at relay.amazon.com or in the Relay app. Amazon says it takes as little as 20 minutes. You sign in with an Amazon account. Then you give your DOT number, your company details, a code sent to you, your equipment and your payment details. Your details must match FMCSA’s records exactly. Amazon also checks the identity of your company and of anyone who owns more than a quarter of it.

Here is the order Amazon gives in its guide to becoming a carrier.

1. DOT number.
2. Company details.
3. “One-time password verification”.
4. Equipment inventory.
5. Payment information.

Start with the account. Amazon lets you use your existing Amazon shopping account, or create a new one with a different email address (Amazon’s application page). Use an email address the company will keep. If you ever have trouble signing in, Amazon’s first advice is to use the same email you registered with (Amazon’s FAQ).

The DOT number comes first because Amazon pulls your details from FMCSA. It says it will “confirm your information instantly” (Amazon’s guide to becoming a carrier). That is why you fixed the MCS-150 last week. Type your company name, address and phone number exactly as FMCSA shows them. If FMCSA writes “Street” and you type “St.”, that is the kind of mismatch Amazon warns about.

Amazon also runs what it calls carrier identity verification. It confirms “your business entity and the identity of all beneficial owners (anyone with more than 25% ownership)” (Amazon’s FAQ). Amazon also makes a scan of each owner’s face from photos and a driver’s license, and it says it asks for consent first. Its application page points to an outside company, Persona, for part of this (Amazon’s application page). You own the LLC alone, so only you verify. A company with a partner who owns more than 25% needs that partner too.

Equipment inventory means your trucks. You add both box trucks. You can update the list after approval (Amazon’s guide to becoming a carrier). Payment information means the bank account Amazon pays into. Amazon pays weekly. Loads completed before 23:59 on Saturday are paid on Friday of the following week (Amazon’s FAQ).

You also give your insurance details. Amazon’s insurance guide says you “submit your current insurance details when you apply”, and then its vendor collects the certificate from your agent. Most delays happen here. Amazon’s FAQ says delays “will be due to validation of insurance information”. It asks you to have all data ready before applying, and to call your insurance provider if things stall (Amazon’s FAQ).

Owners often ask what else to prepare. We looked for a SCAC carrier code, a W-9 tax form, a tax ID check, an ELD brand or a telematics link on Amazon’s public pages. None of them is on the application list. The screens behind the sign-in may still ask for more. We could not see them, because they open only for applicants. So have your EIN and your agent’s contact details at hand anyway.

You apply on Wednesday, September 30. It takes you about half an hour, because you stop twice to check a line against the snapshot.

Chapter 04

What happens after I apply, and how long does it take?

Amazon says a completed application “will typically be approved or rejected within 1-3 weeks” (Amazon’s FAQ). If you hear nothing in 2 weeks, check that your FMCSA contact details match your application. Then write to Relay support through Contact Us on your application page, because Amazon has no official Relay phone number. After approval, you take a short course and add your drivers and trucks. Each driver then passes an identity check and a background check before hauling.

Two weeks is the point to act. Amazon’s FAQ gives a clear rule for silence. After 2 weeks with no word, “check that your FMCSA contact information matches your Relay application details, down to the dash or comma”. If everything matches, use Contact Us at the top right of your application page (Amazon’s FAQ).

Be careful with calls about your application. Amazon says “Amazon Relay doesn’t have an official contact phone number.” It also says it does not request “passwords, OTPs, and credit card numbers over phone or e-mail” (Amazon’s FAQ). So a caller who says they are from Relay onboarding and asks for the code on your phone is not Amazon. Hang up, and sign in to Relay yourself.

In your case, the email comes on Wednesday, October 14, two weeks after you applied. You are approved. The email tells you how to reach your Relay account. Amazon’s FAQ lists three steps from there. You complete the Relay 101 course in the Learning Center, which takes about 10 minutes. You add your drivers and equipment to your profile. Then you book loads on the Relay load board (Amazon’s FAQ).

Your drivers must complete their own onboarding. A driver can make a Relay profile only through an invite from an approved carrier (Amazon’s driver requirements). So you invite your W-2 driver, and yourself as a driver, from your account. In the Relay app, each driver sends a selfie and photos of the front and back of the license. Amazon says it typically reviews them within 48 hours. Each driver also goes through a background check for criminal and motor vehicle records. It must be run by Amazon’s approved provider. Amazon says: “We won’t approve checks supplied by other providers.”

Drug tests, medical cards and hours of service stay your job. Amazon’s page says carriers manage their own drivers, including drug and alcohol screening and ongoing driver qualification (Amazon’s driver requirements). Relay adds its checks on top of the federal ones. It does not replace them.

One question we could not settle is the license. Amazon’s driver page says onboarding asks for inputs “such as commercial driver’s license”. Its FAQ speaks only of “a photo of their driver’s license”. If your drivers have no CDL, because your trucks do not need one, ask Relay support before you count on them.

Say both drivers pass their checks by Monday, October 19, and your first load goes out that week. From here, a different set of rules starts. Every new carrier starts with basic load board access. Amazon gives you a performance grade after ten or more loads in six active weeks. Better grades open more loads (Amazon’s post on performance grades). How that grade works, and how to keep your account in good standing, is its own subject: how to keep your Amazon Relay account and performance score.

One more warning. You may be offered “Amazon loads” on a load board or by a broker. Amazon says it “does not tender loads through any third-party load boards”, and it gives its loads only to approved carriers, through Relay (Amazon’s FAQ). Only “a select few companies” have Amazon’s written permission to broker its loads (Amazon’s double brokering policy).

Chapter 05

What if Amazon rejects my application?

Read the reason first. Then fix what can be fixed and apply again. Amazon says that “in many cases” a rejected company may reapply. If the problem is “insurance coverage, authority status, or missing documentation”, you can reapply once it has been fixed. But some reasons, “such as serious compliance issues”, may keep you from applying again (Amazon’s FAQ). Amazon does not say which issues those are.

Now go back to September 22, and say the numbers had come out differently. Say your drivers had 6 inspections since April, not 5. Two found small problems with logs, and nobody was put out of service. The third, on Tuesday, May 12, ended with your driver put out of service. Amazon counts that one twice. So it counts 2 for the small ones and 2 for the out of service one. That makes 4, divided by 6 inspections, which is about 67%. Amazon’s line is 35%. You apply anyway, and on October 14 the answer is no.

You cannot argue your way past the number. When Amazon brought in these rates, it wrote: “Like BASICs violations, we won’t offer an appeal process” (Amazon’s post on violation rates). So look hard at each of the three violations. Is any of them wrong? A violation the officer should not have written, or one put on your record by mistake, can be challenged through FMCSA’s DataQs system. If the State agrees, the record changes, and so does the data Amazon reads. Most owners call this a DataQ challenge, and our guide to DataQ challenges shows how to file one.

If the violations are real, time and clean inspections bring the rate down. Amazon looks back 12 months only (Amazon’s post on violation rates). So the violation from May 12 stops counting around May 12, 2027. Every clean inspection also lowers the rate, because it adds to the number you divide by. With a weighted total of 4 violations, 11 inspections still give you 36%, over the line. At 12 inspections you are down to 33%. That means 6 more clean ones. Clean inspections come from trucks kept in good repair, logs that are right and papers that are current. When the rate is back under the line, apply again.

A safety score over Amazon’s line works the same way, only slower. FMCSA counts a violation three times in its first six months, twice from 6 to 12 months, and once from 12 to 24 months. After 24 months it no longer counts (FMCSA’s scoring manual). Wrong violations go to DataQs. Real ones fade with time and with clean inspections. The same record can make brokers say no, and why brokers reject a carrier’s safety record explains how to fix the causes.

The other reasons are faster to fix. If Amazon flagged your insurance, its FAQ says to work with your insurance provider until your coverage meets Amazon’s minimums. Then “ensure your provider submits the information directly to FMCSA” (Amazon’s FAQ). Your insurer’s liability filing must be on file with FMCSA by law (the federal filing rule). If your authority was too young, there is nothing to fix but the calendar. If your registration is wrong, for example broker only, you need carrier authority to haul property first. If you hold a Conditional or Unsatisfactory rating, fix the problems behind it. Then you can ask FMCSA in writing for a new rating at any time, with proof of what you changed (the rule on rating changes).

Do not start a new company to get around a bad record. Amazon says it checks each carrier’s “operating authority, ownership, affiliations” before letting it in, and keeps checking afterwards (Amazon’s page on secure freight). A new company would also start its own 180 days from zero.

Chapter 06

Is it worth applying, and what has changed?

For a carrier with the right trucks and a clean record, applying costs only time. Amazon says access is free, with “no subscription fees or costs to join” (Amazon’s insurance guide). The real costs are the extra insurance and the work of staying inside Amazon’s limits every month. The rules changed in the last year, so older guides are out of date.

Relay is one customer with its own rules. Amazon says you book its loads “all without a broker” (Amazon’s application page), and it pays weekly. But the loads you see depend on your grade, and Amazon can change its rules at any time. Keep other freight in your mix while you start. Our guide to finding loads compares load boards, brokers and shippers. We cannot tell you what Relay loads will pay you, and nobody can promise you approval.

Here is what has changed. Amazon started screening new carriers on the two violation rates on October 31, 2025, and existing carriers in February 2026 (Amazon’s post on violation rates). Guides written before then list only the five safety score lines. So if a guide tells you the safety scores are all that matter, it is out of date. Amazon’s FAQ also invites you to apply before day 180 rather than wait. Its February 2026 insurance guide words the trailer and workers’ compensation lines more narrowly than the FAQ. And in September 2026, Amazon said it had opened Relay’s network to shippers of all sizes. So the freight is no longer only Amazon packages (Amazon’s RelayCon 2026 recap).

There is also what we could not check. We could not see the application screens behind the sign-in, so we cannot say whether they ask for a SCAC, a W-9 or an ELD. Amazon does not say how it treats a carrier with no percentile, or which “serious compliance issues” block a new application. We could not confirm whether a driver without a CDL can onboard. We do not know which insurance wording Amazon applies to box trucks. We found no rule on truck age. Amazon changes its pages often, so read the FAQ again on the day you apply.

Back to your two trucks. You fixed your MCS-150, filled the insurance gaps, applied on September 30 and were approved two weeks later. The same record that got you in is the one that keeps you in, and it needs watching every month.

If you want help setting up your Relay account and keeping your records in order all year, here is what we offer.