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

#71

Post by makmanalp » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:12 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…

Which also doesn't help if it ends up being coercive like "well this is optional, but we'll prefer people who do it" effectively meaning people who don't do it will just get passed over for promotions / raises etc.

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

#72

Post by Alupis » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:13 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…

> I could imagine an after-shift delivery taking up to an hour to complete.

The article says the app finds possible deliveries that are on the employee's route home, so no extra out of the way driving is to be done... only a 30 second stop to get out and carry the package up to the front door. Seems very efficient to me.

> I can also imagine a manager changing everyones' schedules around the deliveries. That could seriously impact people.

Again, from the article, the program is 100% volunteer.

> but ultimately, deliveries are best done by actually specialized outfits

Which are incapable of same day deliveries usually (there's a few exceptions, but they usually cost a figurative arm and leg). Typically local courier services are used (such as with Amazon's same day deliveries, but note that Amazon subsidizes that service and the customer doesn't pay the actual cost typically), but they are making a special trip to pickup the package and a special trip to deliver the package, which means it costs more to WalMart, which means WalMart passes that cost onto the customer.

Seems like this program can be a big win-win for everyone involved. We'll have to wait and see how the trial run goes.

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

#73

Post by jcastro » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:13 PM UTC

tuna-piano wrote: post #39

Amazon has a program, "Fulfillment By Amazon", where you can pay Amazon $2.50-$4.00 to pick, pack and ship an item for you[1]. Would Wal-Mart be better off just paying Amazon than paying all the people involved in its process? I'd imagine Wal-Mart is paying its people at least $3 per delivery, in addition to paying the people in its stores to pick/pack the item... Does turning Wal-Mart stores into distribution center…

> Would Wal-Mart be better off just paying Amazon

That sounds like McDonald's paying Burger King to sell Big Macs.

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

#74

Post by mickrussom » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:14 PM UTC

We live in sad times when you cheer for Walmart for trying to take down the evil empire of Scamazon Amazon. AMZN - Second rate, B stock and non-genuine products. Brutal treatment of vendors. Amazon AWS watches all major users of their infrastructure then COMPETES with them once their model is validated. Amazon also competes with a race to the bottom pricing which is a typical monopolist tactic of loss leadership to break competition then become the price setter. I wish Walmart luck. Also, Walmart is paying PEOPLE, Scamazon wants to replace people with drones.

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

#75

Post by jonlucc » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:14 PM UTC

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…

I think there's another problem with this. I recently was rear-ended while I was stopped at an intersection, and the second question my insurance company asked me is if the car was being used for commercial (ride-sharing) services then or at any time. I wasn't, but I assume this kind of delivery would be commercial use, and the cost to add this to your insurance would be way too expensive to make it worth it for the employees.

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

#76

Post by subway » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:14 PM UTC

xienze wrote: post #56

ianai wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sadly for a lot of people, the short term win of being able to use the extra couple dollars to feed the family causes them to act 'irrationally' and ignore the longer term consequences.

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

#77

Post by NoCoastCoder » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:14 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…

Then they're free to not do it. How is this an issue?

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

#78

Post by yourapostasy » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:14 PM UTC

Questions I haven't seen answered yet:

* Employee gets a destination with no parking available, who gets dinged for non-delivery?

* Employee gets a destination with no parking available, but is told to double-park by local manager. Gets ticketed. Who gets dinged?

* Does this constitute a non-CDL delivery service, or courier service? Will Wal-Mart handle licensing and insurance coverage of personal employee vehicles?

* What exactly constitutes "on their way"? A block out of their way? Several kilometers out of their way?

* What guarantees are in place that the definition of "on their way" isn't expanded without due consideration in the future?

* Is the compensation piece work, or based upon time? If piece work as implied by the 10-package maximum, and an unforeseen traffic stoppage takes up employee's time, does employee have flexibility to bail on delivery and do some shopping while waiting for stoppage to clear? If there is no such flexibility, I can practically count upon the absence of "surge compensation".

* Do recipients have the option to view a picture of employee and vehicle, with map showing location as delivery draws near, ensuring security and privacy?

* Employee slips on stairs while walking down them after completing last delivery on way to their car, breaks a leg. Is this covered by worker's compensation, or is employee on their own?

* Employee is assaulted by dog/perp while making delivery. Who pays?

This is a laudable effort, I like the general idea, but this is all but guaranteed open to worker abuses in the future as management "optimizes" it, in a "pray I don't alter it further"-fashioned deal. I don't expect Wal-Mart stocker staff for example, to think of these and many other contingencies when signing up, for which they will almost certainly be hung out to dry if their number comes up.

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

#79

Post by losteverything » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:14 PM UTC

As a professional delivery worker and an employee of the everyone-hates retailer i have this view:

This is an experiment. Only. Lore has said that 75% of delivery cost is labor related.

Wal-Mart is insane about not working off the clock. They won't force associates to do this.

From the delivery aspect:

When we get a new delivery person they suck for months. There are so many variables that make failure probable: unmarked addresses; multiple units; obstacles (including dogs); access; daylight; wrong address labels; "who gives a sh#t" attitude ("i just cant return with my delivery"); scanning failures

Plus. Ups fedex and usps are trusted with access-walking on peoples properties without question.

Imo lore is good at pushing things and this test will be called off.

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

#80

Post by petra » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:14 PM UTC

tuna-piano wrote: post #39

Amazon has a program, "Fulfillment By Amazon", where you can pay Amazon $2.50-$4.00 to pick, pack and ship an item for you[1]. Would Wal-Mart be better off just paying Amazon than paying all the people involved in its process? I'd imagine Wal-Mart is paying its people at least $3 per delivery, in addition to paying the people in its stores to pick/pack the item... Does turning Wal-Mart stores into distribution center…

Walmart is paying it's people their hourly wages(let's say $14/hr in Texas), and lets them deliver up to 10 packages. With the right route. If 10 packages take an hour, it's $1.4 per package. It may take less.

It leaves $1.6 for handling, and shipping to store(large trucks, very cheap). Seems possible.

BTW: Are there any distance limits for the Amazon offer?