A buffer conveyor (12) for conveying conformable work products (66) includes a collapsible conveyor belt (13) having an infeed section (14), a collapsible intermediate section (16) and an outfeed section (18). The infeed section (14) may be driven at a non-continuous speed, and the outfeed section may also be driven at a uniform, or non-continuous, speed, but the average speed of both the infeed and outfeed sections is the same. The intermediate section of the conveyor is driven at a non-uniform speed that is slower than, but proportional to, the speed of the infeed section.