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

bloomberg.com

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

#131

Post by petra »

losteverything wrote: post #79

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: unma…

Interesting view.

You mention many problems.

Most of them can be solved with data gathering - what's this unmarked address, which is the relevant unit, what the right access path, which workers do and don't give a shit, etc.

and with the right app, and so many employees, you can gather all that data relatively fast, assuming some repeat orders.

Heck, maybe do that with augmented reality via phone, to make it dead simple.

Also, if the employee still can find where to go, some sort of remote help from another employee can be had.

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

#132

Post by rectang »

Glyptodon wrote: post #101
jonlucc wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Per the TechCrunch article, workers need to submit proof-of-insurance to participate.

The wear-and-tear is going on employee vehicles rather than company vehicles, the additional distance they travel will increase their personal insurance rates, and as with rideshare they will need to pay additional riders on their policies. (If they don't have the riders their policies will be canceled as soon as they make a claim!)

These additional costs make the deal worse for employees and better for Walmart in ways which are hard for the workers to understand. But I guarantee you that Walmart has studied it to death and knows exactly what advantage it brings them!

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

#133

Post by mtberatwork »

Houshalter wrote: post #97
penpapersw wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Walmart has acquiesced to increases in minimum wages only under protest from their workers and even then, the increases were pitiful. [1]

[1] http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/03/walmart-can-afford-15-minimum...

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

#134

Post by strictnein »

losteverything wrote: post #79

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: unma…

Plenty of people like your employer, just very few of the ones that frequent sites like HN.

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

#135

Post by petra »

TACIXAT wrote: post #66

I think my biggest complaint is that someone making minimum wager or near minimum wage will value money above their time, so many will take this opportunity. Most will take up any reasonable opportunity to earn a few extra dollars. However, this takes away from time that could be spent with family or used to better their skills. The working poor are in a tough position and this program takes advantage of that.

They are presenting it as a very time efficient thing for the employees. We'll see.

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

#136

Post by twoquestions »

vkou wrote: post #111
yourapostasy wrote: post #78

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?…

Now, if only there was some sort of way to force Wal-mart to answer these kinds of questions. Maybe... A union of employees, who want to understand their relationship with their employer better, and to push back on unfair parts of said relationship.

> Maybe... A union of employees

Wow that's a laugh! Last time I checked, even speaking the word 'union' is enough to be fired for cause at Wal-Mart.

Also, most of the people who work there have few or no other options, the only thing keeping them out of company towns is what little worker protection legislation that's left.

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

#137

Post by williamle8300 »

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…

It says they can "opt in"... why are you criticizing this?

And yes, they can also "opt in" whether to find a new job, and quit Walmart.

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

#138

Post by Chaebixi »

Alupis wrote: post #72
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…

> 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 se…

> 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.

Dude, you're engaging in fantasy. Walmart is going to want to use this for more people than just those who live on busy commuter roads that happen to be used by a Walmart employee. "On the employee's route home" is probably going to mean a detour below some limit that Walmart decides. Also, it only takes 30 seconds to deliver a package if it's small and you know exactly what house it's meant for, both of which are unlikely to be true in the real world. It regularly takes more than 30 seconds just to hunt for an unfamiliar house number.

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

#139

Post by rbanffy »

choward wrote: post #126
zorked wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Before graduating college, the most money I made was working for Walmart at a distribution center. I made $19.20 an hour which was pretty good considering minimum wage was just over $5.

Can anyone actually live on $40 a day?
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