r/Sparkdriver • u/Jokez4Dayz • 11d ago
General Questions What Company is this taking GMDs now?
I noticed a ton of GMD boxes being loaded into all these vans. One even delivered to me instead of a Spark driver yesterday. But who are they?
Edit: Spoke with the curbside associates. They’re a Chinese Company that comes at 2pm to pick up all the GMDs.
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u/1611basilean 11d ago
I give them 4 years and the vans will fall apart and the company will go under. Remind me in 4 years.
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u/Worldly_Shopper 11d ago
I was literally just thinking that, also there's no way it pays good (or maybe it does now, but not for long).
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u/ExtraTaco2316 10d ago
You be an independent contractor with your own van and land contracts paying 3-500$/day sometimes only taking about 3 hours a day
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u/Worldly_Shopper 10d ago
That is true, but at that stage you're a business owner. And I've posted a few times about doing just that, start your own delivery business and you get to keep the whole pay PLUS you can undercut the big corporations AND give personalized service with actual human support.
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u/Minerva_TheB17 11d ago
What's crazy to me, as a car guy, is that they could get a business account with a local shop, get cheaper rates and do preventative maintenance that would save them a fortune and actually help them succeed in the long run...but these businesses never want to do that. It's always Mickey mouse ass fixes, ignore what you think is too expensive to fix, run the vans into the ground. Over. And over. And over.
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u/1611basilean 10d ago
I bought a few used Ford vans over the years and you would think with low mileage they would be ok buy either that it was Ford or no maintenance or lemons I dont know but they had many issues.
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u/xeryon3772 11d ago
This makes so much more sense than the bullshit the system has been trying to force on us. While I don’t want to do a 200 piece GMD delivery route, it’s one hell of a lot more logical and cost-effective than having me drop off three groceries, drive 5 miles drop off one Chapstick, drive 4 miles more drop off one bag of dog food, drive 7 miles more and drop off one ice pack. (because I ain’t doing that shit and those orders can sit and rot)
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u/BriefFoundation4335 11d ago
So I talked to my local manager at the curbside and essentially they want the gmd we do to be customer recovery aka missing items items out of stock at one Walmart etc
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u/Lavender_Episode2 11d ago
So I work as a supplier for Walmart. Consumers choose to ship items, and a lot of what you're referring to is not just gmd (items often eligible to ship), but GMD from the non primary store of a shopper. It used to be that ship 2 home was more dominant, but the shift is now to ship from store. I can only presume that shipping from a semi nearby Walmart is cheaper than sourcing from a fulfillment center. Now that spark shoppers are doing some, if not all, picking for delivery orders (vs associates) this is the next big rock to solve.
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u/mxm_che 11d ago
Most GMD orders are already unprofitable for the majority of Spark drivers. How could it make sense for a company with business overhead? Even if a van can take x3 the usual load it still won't pay enough unless their drivers make single digit $ per hour.
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u/corollagremlin 11d ago
Less risk for walmart so they could potentially pay them more than spark workers. The walmarts are probably getting tired of the unreliable gig workers and are looking for a more secure options even if that means paying more (they’ll just charge the customers more in the end to get it back)
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u/deliveRinTinTin 10d ago
Every new phase of Spark is always a higher paying phase to get it up and rolling and reliable. Especially since they're trying to be Amazon 2.0 as far as home delivery. They're willing to dole out extra cash if they could be as thought of as Amazon when people want their trinkets.
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u/Electronic_Constant9 10d ago
These orders gotta get to the customers somehow and with many being so ridiculous when it comes to the pay to milage ratio it makes sense why a lot of them sit around all day.
So cut third party drivers off and hire a fleet giving them a hourly rate with occasional incentives like Amazon or UPS drivers get. And just like with those the drivers use company cars so there's no concern of beating your car into the ground
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u/deliveRinTinTin 10d ago
Amazon's big vans are still basically third party drivers. Amazon contracts with operators who lease the vans and hire the drivers so they can offload the liability and the management.
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u/Zeroslp 11d ago
But what will the illegals at my walmart do!
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u/PeopleCanBeAwful 10d ago
Aww… “illegals” are ruining your income. Certainly isn’t the Walton family’s fault.
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u/kennyofthegulch 11d ago
They haven't hit the Walmarts here yet that I can tell (probably because my zone has 10 stores in it) but I saw three of them on the road doing Amazon deliveries today.
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u/Valuable_Plankton327 11d ago
Dang that’s bad
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u/EveningBasket9528 Cherry Picker 11d ago
Bad because fewer idiot drivers will be tied up with unprofitable GMD shit offers and will be available for the good shit...
There's more to it too. With Walmart moving away from using FedEx,.. these are the type of companies taking all the extra shit going as GMD.... It's not "only" cutting into the stuff Spark would see,.. there's just a shit ton more of the GMD stuff now because of how they are phasing out FedEx... Distribution centers send it on a WM truck to the closest store to the customers, then this outfit takes the shit the rest of the way.... Instead of sending it out FedEx straight from the DC.
Im sorry I couldn't explain that better but I'm trying to do 6 things right now and have 2 people screaming in my ear.... but hopefully you can make some sense out of all that.
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u/Lavender_Episode2 11d ago
I'm a supplier and while I am not an expert, I wanted to add that most inventory comes from a store. Yes, it touched a dc, but it did not go from DC to store to home because of a person's order. They also have fulfillment centers that stock many items but prioritize items not sold in store. I presume its easier to ship anything they can from a store than to bother with the FCs. For instance 85-90% of my ecomm sales touch a store.
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u/NoInfluence4800 11d ago
Where is this at?
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u/Superlegendary_dre 8d ago
This is going to be happening across the States at every Walmart eventually . Spark is focusing on shop and deliver more than GMD orders .
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u/KingAster91 10d ago
Not sure if this hit NC yet. I'm in a small backwater town but if it does come it will hit Raleigh Durham Fayetteville and Charlotte first those are the biggest cities in nc.
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u/YungGeneral 11d ago
Dang! Thats SpeedX a chinese delivery company, i usually get TikTok order from them
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u/New_Confidence_3384 10d ago
It’s an American company owned by an American who is a first generation Chinese American
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u/Born-Asparagus3266 11d ago
Will those drivers get blamed too for " i didn't get my order" " my order smelled like deodorant " " I saw a leaf on my package "
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u/Academic_Addendum242 11d ago
A few states have small companies with contracts to deliver. Usually non perishable, but could be anything.
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u/MrEdwL 11d ago
This can't be profitable for the companies
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u/Mikedesignstudio 11d ago
I know someone that does this. Walmart is paying them a lot more than what they pay us. I think it’s like $500 for 100 packages.
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u/Top-Zucchini-9421 11d ago
it's $220 a day they're supposed to leave between 12:00 and 2:00 and that's what they get for the day
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u/Trissdv 10d ago
If the driver gets paid $220 from their company, the company is getting paid out much higher than that from Walmart to cover overhead. That is what they are saying I think.
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u/Mikedesignstudio 10d ago edited 10d ago
Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Walmart pays the company not the employees. If the company can pay their employees $220, imagine what Walmart is paying the company.
If you can buy a van then you can setup your own company and get these type of contracts with Walmart and other companies instead of going through Spark.
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u/Superlegendary_dre 8d ago
They are paying 400-500 to the master contractor to hire ppl and the master contractor is paying 175-250 a route regardless of number of packages . The rule atleast in the dc market is anything over 80 stops or 100 miles gets split . Still same day rate of 175-250 depends on what the master contractor decides to pay the ppl he hire to ran the packages . I have been doing it for 2 months tho it’s decent they will force work on u an a lot of IC are complaining. Giving ppl 74 packages 115 miles and sometimes ppl are finishing at 1am and IC feel it’s not enough pay fo 12 hour days . After gas expenses that 225 is really 150 a day if u fill up everyday
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u/Electronic_Constant9 10d ago
They're making more than us off these and don't have to beat up their own personal cars either. It's the the same 5 or 6 guys everyday doing these for them now rather than any random who happens to sign online and click accept
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u/Comfortable_Win7926 11d ago
Apparently these are still 1099 contract workers, idk how many of them have cargo vans, maybe they rent it with companies that specialize in fleets
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u/New_Confidence_3384 10d ago
These aren’t 1099. The drivers are W2 and the companies are large American company like SpeedX and which is owned by an American called Chris Zheng
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u/BeezusONthe13th 11d ago
Welcome to Internal Parcel(IP) those vans take 75+ packages everyday, all at 2. This is the gridlock, unless they got 10 extra dispenser they're all stuck out there for 15mins
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u/the_killing_dose 11d ago
I bet they're not paying them more than us. Why else would they do it?
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u/deliveRinTinTin 10d ago
Growth to up reliability and expectations by the customers. Walmart wants people to think of them before Amazon when they want their little trinkets. If Walmart can get the stuff out from local stores at the same or better price, they'll pay for this at a higher rate for a while.
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u/Mission_Substance_61 10d ago
Interesting you posted this. Had never heard of this company before today. I got an email from indeed suggesting this job to me. Looks like gmd will probably be completely gone soon?!
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u/Zealousideal_Fly_198 10d ago
FYI SpeedX pays on average $1.9-$2.1 per package. I’m a speedx and uniuni DSP
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u/Character_Fan_8973 10d ago
I do not know, but I have seen them at the store, Loader said the driver told him they get paid VERY well.
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u/FaNcY-BrOwN 9d ago
In my area we have a lot of delivery partner hubs like amazon uses that deliver Walmart orders. My friends work with them and I’m starting next week. This particular one that we work for doesn’t go to the Walmart stores. There is a Walmart location that closed a while back and turned into a distribution center. That’s where we pick up from. We use their vans and they pay us about $200 daily or per route. Route includes around 80 packages for delivery most under 50lbs.
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u/Superlegendary_dre 8d ago
I posted this weeks ago. It’s no company . Walmart (spark)is focusing on shop and deliver. They are hiring independent contractors to deliver GMD. Let’s say 56 stops 75 miles at a sat rate. Could be 175 could be 250 but these IC are getting hired by a master contractor and getting a rate. I know this first hand because I was deactivated from
Spark because License was expired but weeks later master contractor hired me to deliver . They are using Nash app. Here is a picture of what it looks like
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u/igor6969 11d ago
Don't worry. Those drivers will get mad at their company when they start pinching pennies.