Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home • Hacker News Board

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#51

Post by linkregister » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:07 PM UTC

ensiferum wrote: post #31

wyldfire wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

shrug the natural instinct seems to be to skewer WalMart for oppressing their employees but this seems like a good idea to me. > Workers can opt in to earn extra money by making deliveries using their own cars. They’re assigned packages based on where they live so the route aligns with their commute home, the company said Thursday in a blog post. Wal-Mart didn’t specify how the employees will be compensated. It's not…

"Wal-Mart didn’t specify how the employees will be compensated." They can be compensated by a coffee voucher. Or compensated by the joy and feelings of accomplishment they'll derive from their new work tasks. Just saying. Seriously tho, if they get into an accident delivering the packages is that something that'll get covered by Walmart? How about the wear and tear on the vehicle? It really seems like it's a better d…

It's a violation of federal labor law to pay less than minimum wage for work.

Wal-Mart stores have been found many times to have coerced employees to work unpaid hours, but this wasn't successfully shown to be corporate policy.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#52

Post by gregw134 » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:07 PM UTC

leggomylibro wrote: post #21

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #5

> Workers can opt in to earn extra money by making deliveries using their own cars. They’re assigned packages based on where they live so the route aligns with their commute home The headline makes it sound coercive but that actually sounds like an efficient use of time and energy (less big trucks on the road, less miles driven, more money for people who want it). I wouldn't mind dropping a few things off on my way h…

Ugh. I think that this sort of attitude (which was my initial reaction too) is a big part of what's wrong with our current economy. If you take the concept at face value, this is Walmart offering to let their employees make some extra money in exchange for a bit of extra work, once they've clocked out. What a nice company. But realistically, this is Walmart shunting the costs of delivery onto their employees. Instead…

Walmart has less than 3% profit margin. It'd go bankrupt if it paid its employees $15/hour.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#53

Post by danvoell » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:07 PM UTC

leggomylibro wrote: post #21

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #5

> Workers can opt in to earn extra money by making deliveries using their own cars. They’re assigned packages based on where they live so the route aligns with their commute home The headline makes it sound coercive but that actually sounds like an efficient use of time and energy (less big trucks on the road, less miles driven, more money for people who want it). I wouldn't mind dropping a few things off on my way h…

Ugh. I think that this sort of attitude (which was my initial reaction too) is a big part of what's wrong with our current economy. If you take the concept at face value, this is Walmart offering to let their employees make some extra money in exchange for a bit of extra work, once they've clocked out. What a nice company. But realistically, this is Walmart shunting the costs of delivery onto their employees. Instead…

Also, the fact that it is tied to employment could also be a pitfall. It's optional, until such point as it isn't. At least with other types of sharing economy type jobs it is optional. What happens when you feel obligated to make deliveries so as to not lose your day job.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#54

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:07 PM UTC

wehadfun wrote: post #30

Nelkins wrote: post #26

Fun fact: the mobile app for associate delivery was written in F# using Xamarin. Source: I work at Jet, but not on this team.

Why F#?

[deleted]

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#55

Post by Avshalom » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:07 PM UTC

kstrauser wrote: post #3

Sure, I don't mind running errands during my commute so long as that time's on the clock.

Can pretty well guarantee the fine print includes that they are acting as private contractors while delivering. Walmart isn't going to risk employees becoming full-time because of bad traffic.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#56

Post by xienze » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:07 PM UTC

ianai wrote: post #45

leggomylibro wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I think that this sort of attitude (which was my initial reaction too) is a big part of what's wrong with our current economy. If you take the concept at face value, this is Walmart offering to let their employees make some extra money in exchange for a bit of extra work, once they've clocked out. What a nice company. But realistically, this is Walmart shunting the costs of delivery onto their employees. Instead…

Yes, exactly. I could imagine an after-shift delivery taking up to an hour to complete. (I'm factoring-in "find the place" time and retracing their steps after delivery) They will probably only be paid a per Diem for the delivery - and it won't be near their hourly wage nor gas/wear & tear costs. It's a nice thought on the outside...but ultimately, deliveries are best done by actually specialized outfits. I can also…

> and it won't be near their hourly wage nor gas/wear & tear costs.

Well then, I suppose the people involved will just have to do the math and see if it makes sense to them. The horror.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#57

Post by TeMPOraL » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:08 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #22

pyre wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, where the rubber meets the road here is in whether or not there is an unspoken expectation that you need to do this, compensation or not. "Official" policy doesn't always reflect what gets implemented, and is sometimes just used as a way to legally CYA so that you can have your cake and eat it too.

That's true for literally every aspect of every job, though, so it seems like a pointless thing to say unless there's some indication they're actually abusing this.

Not sure if it's pointless to point this out. The mechanism is pretty obvious, so the right question is: what (if any) measures will WallMart undertake so that this doesn't happen?

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#58

Post by rectang » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:08 PM UTC

david927 wrote: post #40

What are the liability concerns for this? If they get in a car crash on their way home, does Wal-Mart pay? And if not, why not? To me, personally, this smacks of late-stage capitalism. How long until "voluntary and paid" becomes "coerced and paid little"?

It's all about corporate entities with massive analysis resources using information asymmetry to offload risk onto individuals who are not in a position to understand what they are agreeing to.

ETA: Yep, insurance costs are on the workers. From https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/01/walmart-begins-testing-usi... :

    Workers also have to submit to additional background
    checks, motor vehicle record inspections and provide
    proof of insurance.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#59

Post by lightbyte » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:08 PM UTC

Maybe this is just me, but I wouldn't want some random person that lives near me to know what I'm ordering from Walmart and have them hand deliver it to me.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#60

Post by SilasX » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:08 PM UTC

leggomylibro wrote: post #21

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #5

> Workers can opt in to earn extra money by making deliveries using their own cars. They’re assigned packages based on where they live so the route aligns with their commute home The headline makes it sound coercive but that actually sounds like an efficient use of time and energy (less big trucks on the road, less miles driven, more money for people who want it). I wouldn't mind dropping a few things off on my way h…

Ugh. I think that this sort of attitude (which was my initial reaction too) is a big part of what's wrong with our current economy. If you take the concept at face value, this is Walmart offering to let their employees make some extra money in exchange for a bit of extra work, once they've clocked out. What a nice company. But realistically, this is Walmart shunting the costs of delivery onto their employees. Instead…

You don't think you're jumping the gun here, maybe? Do you even know what the compensation will be?

>Instead of paying their employees a living wage, or offering benefits befitting a delivery driver,

Obviously you can criticize Walmart's current practices. The issue is whether this policy is any worse than what they had before.

>they can offset all of the risk, deprecation costs, etc associated with delivering a package all for the low cost of what amounts to a tiny raise in their existing payroll.

Do you give the same objection to every other company that pays for mileage for work-related travel? Is that also "shunting off depreciation costs"?

Why are you assuming that they won't have an insurance policy for such deliveries or pay for mileage like every other company?

Edit: clarified which part was responding to what