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

#101

Post by Glyptodon » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:26 PM UTC

jonlucc wrote: post #75

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…

I assume Walmart's going to have to carry car insurance for deliveries. It doesn't seem like there's any reasonable way they'd be able to "contractor loophole" it.

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

#102

Post by x0x0 » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:27 PM UTC

rgbrenner wrote: post #84

xienze wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Im in the 'wait and see' camp.. but you can say a program is voluntary, while in truth it's required to keep your job. Just label all the people who refuse as not being team players. Dock them on their performance reviews for it. "Johnny over there wouldn't take a short detour on his way home, so we had to send someone out to deliver a package. If he's not willing to help out, maybe he should go work some place else.…

Many of the workers involved have hours that change on the whim of their supervisors. Employees who aren't team players don't get hours.

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

#103

Post by Fraterkes » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:27 PM UTC

Houshalter wrote: post #83

justforFranz wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It blows my mind how libertarian/naive techy types are. But I also suspect there's some right-wing nutjob organization spamming hacker news comments with pro-business community idiocy.

I feel exactly the opposite. It feels like HN is very liberal. I'd bet money it's much more than the general population.

Its not like everyone is perfectly left or right. Hn is probably pretty socially liberal and kinda economically liberal on some points, but its also a big fan of companies and has a lot more people with libertarian ideas than the general population.

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

#104

Post by eiji » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:27 PM UTC

a) How many employee commute routes will map to affluent delivery buyers? b) More none-descriptive cars and persons in residential neighborhoods knocking on doors, waiting to be shot through the closed door. (I'm not even kidding.)

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

#105

Post by potatoyogurt » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:27 PM UTC

ghostly_s wrote: post #89

v45h wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it only shady because you believe Walmart employees are not paid enough as is? Doctors can choose to moonlight and get paid extra, and I don't think anyone is complaining about that. And overtime is certainly a thing. Coming from Walmart's perspective, I'm assuming it just seemed like a smart business decision rather than something maliciously intended. Like hey look, we can make our customers and employees happie…

> Doctors can choose to moonlight and get paid extra, and I don't think anyone is complaining about that. Doctors have that choice, and yet they don't do that. I wonder why?

>In Medical Economics’ 2013 annual survey, 36% of family medicine/general practitioners and 35% of internists reported earning income from sources other than their primary practice/employer in 2012. That number was about the same for cardiologists (38%), but was higher for hospitalists (40%). Pediatricians and gastroenterologists were lower, at 25% and 27%, respectively.

http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics...

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

#106

Post by rsync » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:28 PM UTC

petra wrote: post #85

ianai wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So not only do I work for you, but you want me to install your custom app on my personal device, too? I can't imagine there are any privacy backdoors here at all. Definitely not when I'm required to give it location permissions for it to function. /s

I see you don't work at Walmart. People there have more burning matters, like how to put food on the table. And you can block location requests(and the like) for the app, after work, Either with Android 6-7 or Lineage's privacy guard.

"And you can block location requests(and the like) for the app, after work, Either with Android 6-7 or Lineage's privacy guard."

I see that you also do not work at walmart.

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

#107

Post by atom-morgan » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:28 PM UTC

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.

I made a few dollars above minimum wage when I was 18 before I started college. Not much on my resume other than similar jobs expected of someone in highschool. I was very happy with my job there.

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

#108

Post by stevenwoo » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:29 PM UTC

bsiemon wrote: post #34

UPS/FedEx drivers make decent salaries. I wonder how much base pay impacts desire to steal obviously valuable packages. For a Walmart employee the pay is much lower but they will end up with the same knowledge of where/when packages arrive.

If someone wants to steal something, they aren't going to steal what they just delivered (mostly they are not that stupid) - people already do that just cruising neighborhoods that they do not live in - it's enough of a problem that vids pop up every month on reddit. Real thieves would be casing houses and figuring out which one would be worth burglarizing.

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

#109

Post by Fraterkes » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:29 PM UTC

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.

Needing money is its own kind of coercion, especially when being a walmart employee doesnt pay much.

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

#110

Post by dominotw » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 5:30 PM UTC

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…

>forcing the government to pay the rest of a living wage.

What difference does it make where the money is coming from?

If we force Walmart to pay more, low-income ppl who shop will have to pay higher prices as opposed to now where all the taxpayers are footing the bill.