Despite being drop-kicked by recently publicity blunders, Evri, which formerly traded as Hermes, has bagged a significant delivery deal with Amazon.

The online retailing giant has made Evri an accredited Seller Fulfilled Prime carrier for its Prime service, the deal following an intense scrutiny process which found Evri met Amazon's expectations on quality of service and passed with flying colours.

Undertaking a six-week six-week trial, Amazon said Evri "consistently met or surpassed Amazon's requirement to successfully deliver parcels to stringent standards".

Key criteria included ticking the box for collecting parcels after 4.30pm from Monday to Friday and after 12.30pm on Saturdays from supply addresses in the UK, with subsequent delivery throughout the UK to recipients the next day.

David Saenz, ecommerce director, said: "This new collaboration with Amazon Prime is an important milestone for us. It demonstrates, once again, that we're a parcel industry disruptor that is helping to bring down the cost of delivery for consumers and businesses, and offering a fast, reliable, and cost-effective service to compete with the UK's traditional carriers."

The partnership comes despite Evri facing a customer backlash during the Christmas period when parcels were often severely delayed. The delivery giant apologised after customers failed to receive packages, in some instances by mid-January. Staff shortages, Royal Mail strikes and bad weather were blamed.

Evri says that because it already delivers to individual Amazon customers the deal announced today will mean around 85,000 small and medium-sized enterprises across the UK on the Amazon store will be able to use them as across both Prime and non-Prime orders.

Last year, Hermes, which shifted 400m parcels a year in the UK, renamed and rebranded  as Evri in the wake of widespread media coverage of reports that Hermes drivers had midhandled and frequently damaged customer deliveries.

The change included new signage livery and adveritising across all Hermes ParcelShops, delivery fleets and advertising – and was bundled with a £7m additional investment in employee pensions. Hermes' move was described by the GMB union said as a 'breakthrough' which gave couriers better retirement plans and the right to maternity and paternity leave.

The recruiter Indeed reports that the average Evri salary ranges from around £20,983 for work as a loader to £54,900 per year for a mobile developer.

Online testimony from self-employed drivers, however, suggests pay can be unpredictable according to delivery schedules, with £40 per hour being possible, but rates equating to as low as £7 per hour for difficult rounds.