Walmart will begin paying independent delivery drivers new undisclosed financial incentives to pick up online orders at its U.S. stores and deliver them to customers during the holiday season, as part of the company's plan to boost sales to upper-income households and compete with Amazon.
Walmart relies on a loosely organized network of thousands of freelance drivers who download its Spark Drive app and make between $11-$13 per trip, which equates to around $21-$23 per working hour. The actual pay varies according to order size and distance. For example, according to Walmart, if an online shopper requests delivery to an apartment, or of heavy items such as furniture, drivers earn more (if they can fit a nightstand in their Toyota Corolla).
Spark Drivers sign up through the app, undergo a background check, and, upon approval, can accept delivery assignments directly from Walmart and other businesses. This approach contrasts with Amazon's model, which utilizes third-party delivery service partners to manage drivers.
By engaging drivers directly through the Spark Driver app, Walmart streamlines the delivery process and maintains closer oversight of the delivery experience. It also helps Walmart avoid the scrutiny that Amazon has encountered with its Delivery Service Partners arrangement, which many feel was designed to bypass responsibility for providing safe and prosperous working conditions for its drivers.
Meanwhile in the world of delivery… Amazon is developing smart glasses for its drivers to help guide them to, around, and within buildings, in an attempt to smooth the final stretch of an order's journey to a customer's home. The glasses would provide drivers with turn-by-turn navigation on a small embedded screen along their routes and at each stop, which could shave seconds off each delivery by providing left or right directions off elevators and around gates.
Reuters sources said that the glasses are still in development and may take years to perfect. However, no better way to perfect the system than to have drivers wearing them! Similar to how Tesla's autopilot system learns and adapts from human drivers, Amazon's smart glasses system could gather data and create routes for future drivers based on today's deliveries.
In fact, gathering data doesn't even require smart glasses or a device with a screen. Cop cameras can record footage for up to 8-14 hours on a single charge. Amazon could adapt that existing technology to gather data on delivery routes, while delivering commands via voice. “Turn left after exiting the elevator. Apartment 201 is two doors away on your right.”