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Walmart Is Turning Its Employees Into Delivery Drivers To Compete With Amazon (qz.com)
Walmart, which is aggressively investing in e-commerce to better compete with Amazon, is unveiling a new strategy: turning its army of 1.5 million US employees into delivery drivers. From a report: The tactic is being tested at three stores in New Jersey and Arkansas, and designed to shave costs out of the "last mile" of distribution, the most expensive part of getting goods to customers. Under the initiative, store employees will be given the option to deliver packages on their way home after work, in exchange for extra pay. They'll be given an app that allows them to input their routes, and an algorithm will plot the most efficient path. To take part, the employees will have to pass a background and vehicle check.
Even though it didn't come out quite the way the book had it, at long last we will have - the deliverator .
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Maybe things are different in the rest of the country but.... a background and vehicle check? Most of the employees at Walmart I've met couldn't pass a sanity check...
Who's on the hook when they have an accident?
Wal-Mart could just hire a miniumum-wage delivery driver for each store and have deliveries all day long. If every pizza and Chinese restaurant can do it, so can Wal-Mart.
Curious if the employee has the flexibility to sign up for (or to reject) deliveries after each shift, and how much flexibility they have in time and direction.
When I am not going home after the shift, I shouldn't have to go out of my to deliver a package to my neighbor.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
I think this is a win for Walmart.
I ordered six small boxes of granola bars from Walmart a few months ago. Since it got shipped by FedEx, I had the box diverted to a FedEx Store. The store clerk brought out a 24" x 24" x 6" box. Packing paper took up most of the space inside. All six boxes fit inside my backpack. I told the store clerk to recycle the box and packing paper for another customer.
other than their route home, what else will that app monitor about the employee. "Mr Smith we notice that you did not leave the bar until 23.30 last night ... please report to room 101 for an alcohol test"
Just ask Dominoes - you can put a company uniform on any 17 year old kid and have them deliver from store to home in "30 minutes or less," all profit, no headaches.
I wonder how the companies providing vehicle insurance view this development? A chance to bump up premiums at the very least.
And a chance for the employees to deduct some part of their vehicle-related costs on their tax report?
#DeleteFacebook
I guess you've not ordered from Amazon very much, because they have the exact same issue - small items in absurdly large boxes.
In fact, YOU at least got padding as I've also had items loose in a large box that arrived kind of messed up.
The last straw for me was a one-day order I placed for something I needed for a trip. It arrived two days late, long after I had gone... I am pretty much done ordering from Amazon and going to order directly now from most vendors like NewEgg or BHPhoto. At least they take urgent shipping requests seriously.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
is this an April Fools Joke? There's so much wrong with this I don't know where to begin? What about insurance? What if they hit somebody? What about mileage? There's no way Walmart will pay enough to account for that.
And what happens if they don't get enough "volunteers"? After all, the Walmart employees with Cars are the better off ones. I'm guessing pressure, hours cut, etc, etc.
Dear lord the working class is pooched. I mean, if it's come to this what next? I don't even have the words... We're no longer racing to the bottom, we've drilled through, struck oil and it's leaking into our ground water.
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There are some WalMarts in larger cities where the majority of employees go to work by mass transit. Do they really expect to get them to carry customers' packages home on the bus or train? And when you're commuting by mass transit, another additional mile or so in each direction can quickly make your commute a lot longer in time.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
So wait, does this mean they don't have to pass a background check to work at the store in the first place? And what constitutes "passing?"
This is a *cough-Voluntary-cough* "service" that grants NO REIMBURSEMENT to the Walmart employee of any kind either hourly or mileage, yet makes them legally responsible for any theft or damage to product.
At the same time it specifically states that any traffic accidents or INJURIES in the course of said "delivery" are the employee's responsibility and Walmart assumes NO LIABILITY (or disability compensation liability) for said "deliveries".
This is SO ripe for abuse by highly pressured low-mid-level Walmart management it ain't even funny.
What happens if the employee REFUSES to be their unpaid pack-mule?
What happens when the first on it killed making a delivery?
As Marvin the Robot said: "This will all end in tears..........."
Let me guess to make sure they do not also earn any overtime, Walmart will make sure to schedule each employee at least 2 hours less each shift.
Given Walmart's legendary addiction to corporate welfare, you can bet this program won't be genuinely voluntary for long. Ways will be found to "encourage" employees to participate that have nothing to do with the few bucks they'll throw at them for using their personal vehicle for commercial purposes.
And given what I've seen of Walmart employees who are virtually out on their feet by the end of a shift, it would probably be safer to hold a "Drunk Drivers 6000" through residential neighbourhoods than to have them looking for some random house after working a 12-hour split shift broken up over 18 hours.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Now they can all burn up their cars while making 9-11/hr
uncanny captcha: rewards
I think the part that would concern me most would be Walmart employees coming to where I live -- where I lived in my twenties, I'd fear for their safety. Now, I'd expect them to be scoping out my place for reverse shopping trip
it's just that if you turn it down you'll find your hours cut to 10 a month.
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Is this before or after it punishes them for taking sick days (just 2 articles above on /.). It must be beat up wally world day.
at least that's what the article says. If Walmart wanted delivery drivers they've got 'em already. They're planning on doing an Uber style gig economy thing where you punch out at Walmart and then you're no longer a Walmart employee, you're an independent contractor. That's the only way this kind of thing can work and be any different than hiring a run of the mill delivery driver. And that way all of the risk gets pushed onto the employee, who's probably desperate enough to take that risk...
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I'm glad for you if you have the luxury of choosing a more lucrative career, but for many people Walmart is the only option. That doesn't mean they are imbeciles.
And while the pay is low (which is part of the business model), there are things at Walmart that are better than other employers at a same pay scale. For instance, Walmart employees are less exposed to violent crime than employees of fast food chains or gas stations, and for anyone with real ambition and skills there's an actual path to better positions unlike exciting careers in sanitation or convenience store customer service. A vast majority of Walmart middle management comes from the ranks.
lucm, indeed.
so there's fewer injuries, which is where most of the cost is. After that then if all else fails the poor sod spends the rest of their life paying $100+/mo to the law firm that sues them on behalf of the guy they hit. Sucks for everyone involved except maybe the Lawyer (and Walmart of course).
Still it's a time bomb waiting to go off. There's limits to those car's safety and sooner or later somebody is gonna get really hurt.
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Well, no Uber driver, who require no pro license, and no special cars and no screening whatsoever has ever had complaints of ANY type of misconduct EVER... Just like this. It's just some tired, stressed dudes playing with the last ounce of patience available.
What could possibly go wrong?