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

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

#91

Post by ThrustVectoring »

mikeash wrote: post #9
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…

Yeah, huge difference between "deliver this on your way home or your fired" and "if you want some extra money, deliver this on your way home." Not much difference between this and, say, LaserShip, aside from it being a small part of the overall job.

There's also the middle ground, where folks who happen to deliver things on their way home get more shifts (because otherwise, there aren't enough people to make the needed deliveries). They might be shorter shifts or split shifts, and wind up being an increase in underpaid hours.

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

#92

Post by hdhdjjdjd7773 »

SilasX wrote: post #60
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…

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 pack…

Build your life around Walmart, friends!

It's more do it for the team, keeping people that already struggle from having time for other pursuits.

It's manipulative of their desire to be a little better off, when they could be already if Waltons took some of daddies money and paid them better in the first place.

Time is the most valuable asset a human has. And Walmart can manipulate the lesser haves to support their interests

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

#93

Post by 1_2__3 »

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.

It's sad reading people cheering their own exploitation. But I'd expect nothing less from HN.

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

#94

Post by colechristensen »

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 trying to compete with Amazon at the logistics business, not give them more.

Wal-Mart's business isn't just stores, it's their whole system of product acquisition, inventory, distribution, etc. The store is just the frontend. They don't want to retreat into just being distributors, they want to expand into front-door delivery.

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

#95

Post by ransom1538 »

gregw134 wrote: post #52
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…

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

If walmart can't support a decent wage - then they should go bankrupt and let middle class persons own and run small businesses: hardware stores, grocery stores, clothing stores, ice cream stores, etc. Owning a business near a walmart means competing with floods of cheap off loaded goods from china -- operated by persons using government subsidies.

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

#96

Post by colechristensen »

antihero wrote: post #28

Who assumes liability? If they fall foul of some regulation (using their cars as commercial vehicles), will Wallmart have their backs?

In any lawsuit against the driver, Wal-Mart would also be named as a defendant. It might be that enough of these types of things will have to happen before local laws regulate this sort of non-traditional thing.

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

#97

Post by Houshalter »

penpapersw wrote: post #68
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…

Most of our local friends work at Walmart, because there's honestly not much other choice for them. Our economy is so broken that the only people who win are people who know how to abuse the system, and who have designed the system to be easier to abuse and harder to survive by honest hard work. I read once that Walmart uses their resources to take advantage of current (broken) laws to allow them to keep paying penni…

That's surprising. In the past walmart has supported increases in the minimum wage because they know it hurts their competitors more than it hurts them. They shove the cost of higher wages off to higher prices for consumers and keep the same profit.

In any case within a few years these jobs will likely be automated, and walmart will stop hurting all those poor employees.

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

#98

Post by x0x0 »

zorked wrote: post #81
SilasX wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pack…

> You don't think you're jumping the gun here, maybe? Do you even know what the compensation will be? Walmart is known for high wages.

If only we had some patterns of previous behavior towards employees at Walmart from which we could make inferences about whether the deal offered (well, eventually, this will be "offered" to employees, ie totally optional, unless you want to keep your job) will be a fair deal or exploitative.

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

#99

Post by stevenwoo »

lightbyte wrote: post #59

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.

Just because they have the uniform and the truck of a brand you might trust, doesn't mean that person is a decent person. This happened recently in Silicon Valley of all places. http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/23/hayward-man-charged-wi...

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

#100

Post by rsync »

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…

"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 ..."

I thought just the opposite, in terms of efficiency and miles driven, etc.

My understanding is that Fedex and especially UPS trucks are very highly optimized for their work and for fuel efficiency and that their routes are also extremely optimized (for example, UPS truck routes almost never include a left turn).

Meanwhile, J6P at walmart is driving an F350 diesel truck designed to tow 10k pounds of horse trailer[1][2] and is doing a stop and go mail route through his town that cannot possibly be as optimized as a UPS route.

[1] Remember, you can never have too much truck.

[2] The payments for which are almost the sole driver of the job in the first place, but I digress...

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