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I'm not sure the OP was being patronizing. One alternative to this program would be to buy each store a Fedex style van (or a few) and have a few dedicated dri

I'm not sure the OP was being patronizing. One alternative to this program would be to buy each store a Fedex style van (or a few) and have a few dedicated drivers make deliveries all day. Once you think about that for a few minutes, you start to see all of the costs that they're offloading to employees. Not just insurance, but also vehicle maintenance, gas, etc. I'm sure Walmart has done a ton of cost/benefit analysis and churned through a lot of data before deciding to offer a program like this, and the employees will almost certainly not get all the details.

sokoloff 9y ago
If the delivery is on the employee's typical route home, this could be a win for both the employee and for Walmart (and a minuscule reduction in overall traffic and miles driven). That's not at all the case of Walmart buying a Sprinter van and driving it around all day on routes that weren't naturally being covered.
- jlarocco 9y ago
  You've completely missed my point. No doubt it's favorable to Walmart - they've had a team of people running the numbers and they get to set the rules. The question is whether or not it's actually favorable to employees and whether or not Walmart will inform them of the costs they'll be responsible for. "Here's $10 to deliver this" sounds great until you realize it's $5 in gas, your insurance is going up $50 a month, and your car will wear out a year faster.
  - sokoloff 9y ago
    The same question exists for Uber/Lyft drivers. I talk to them nearly every time I ride and for the most part, the drivers understand their costs in a rough sense. (I don't buy the "people are blind idiots" narrative that suggests that a commercial entity has all the power and we must protect people from corporations at every turn.) Only one driver (out of 40+ such conversations) struck me as the type who believed that his Uber earnings were straight profit into his pocket. "Hey, there's $10 in it for you if you drop off a package on your way home." Let the employee decide if it's worth it or not. So long as there is no coercion, I don't need Walmart to educate the employees on maintenance, the cost of gas, etc. I do think it's fair and reasonable to disclose/inform/explain the insurance situation.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - rectang 9y ago
      > I don't buy the "people are blind idiots" narrative That's like saying criminal defendants shouldn't have lawyers because they aren't "idiots". The problem is that the negotiation between the corporation and the worker is skewed by information asymmetry. Furthermore, the cost of changing jobs is high, and the same negotiation disparities exist elsewhere. Collective bargaining would address those concerns, as it allows workers to amortize the cost of analysis across all their transactions. But labor unions are a heavyweight solution. It would be nice to see other suggestions from people who don't wave off concerns over information asymmetry as paternalism.
  - gozur88 9y ago
    The math on this really depends on the assumptions you make. $5 in gas would carry my car an extra 40 miles, which isn't really my idea of dropping something off on the way home. As far as insurance goes, it would be easy for Walmart to get a group policy that covers you until you drop off the package, the same way they would for the delivery van. People who make ten bucks an hour are really sensitive to these kinds of costs. If Walmart institutes a program that isn't worth it for employees everybody's going to know within a week.

sokoloff 9y ago

If the delivery is on the employee's typical route home, this could be a win for both the employee and for Walmart (and a minuscule reduction in overall traffic and miles driven). That's not at all the case of Walmart buying a Sprinter van and driving it around all day on routes that weren't naturally being covered.

jlarocco 9y ago
You've completely missed my point. No doubt it's favorable to Walmart - they've had a team of people running the numbers and they get to set the rules. The question is whether or not it's actually favorable to employees and whether or not Walmart will inform them of the costs they'll be responsible for. "Here's $10 to deliver this" sounds great until you realize it's $5 in gas, your insurance is going up $50 a month, and your car will wear out a year faster.
- sokoloff 9y ago
  The same question exists for Uber/Lyft drivers. I talk to them nearly every time I ride and for the most part, the drivers understand their costs in a rough sense. (I don't buy the "people are blind idiots" narrative that suggests that a commercial entity has all the power and we must protect people from corporations at every turn.) Only one driver (out of 40+ such conversations) struck me as the type who believed that his Uber earnings were straight profit into his pocket. "Hey, there's $10 in it for you if you drop off a package on your way home." Let the employee decide if it's worth it or not. So long as there is no coercion, I don't need Walmart to educate the employees on maintenance, the cost of gas, etc. I do think it's fair and reasonable to disclose/inform/explain the insurance situation.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - rectang 9y ago
    > I don't buy the "people are blind idiots" narrative That's like saying criminal defendants shouldn't have lawyers because they aren't "idiots". The problem is that the negotiation between the corporation and the worker is skewed by information asymmetry. Furthermore, the cost of changing jobs is high, and the same negotiation disparities exist elsewhere. Collective bargaining would address those concerns, as it allows workers to amortize the cost of analysis across all their transactions. But labor unions are a heavyweight solution. It would be nice to see other suggestions from people who don't wave off concerns over information asymmetry as paternalism.
- gozur88 9y ago
  The math on this really depends on the assumptions you make. $5 in gas would carry my car an extra 40 miles, which isn't really my idea of dropping something off on the way home. As far as insurance goes, it would be easy for Walmart to get a group policy that covers you until you drop off the package, the same way they would for the delivery van. People who make ten bucks an hour are really sensitive to these kinds of costs. If Walmart institutes a program that isn't worth it for employees everybody's going to know within a week.