from Hacker News

Walmart threatens to cut ties with truckers that also haul for Amazon

by sunsu on 7/1/17, 2:18 PM with 89 comments

  • by __d__ on 7/1/17, 3:17 PM

    I've posted before about Walmart and I'll post here again. They routinely would pay us late and underpay invoices on delivered products. Sometimes racking up to $50-$100,000. The worst part for us is it would be an average of one year before they would pay it in full. You'd have to submit a claim and fill out endless paperwork to get paid. It was so hard on us as a company. You also had to pay them a per package fee that added up to a lot per year. No other company was doing this.

    With Walmart trucking things were worse. If we delivered a product and it arrived not well, you had limited options on checking the reasons why. Several times we wanted to pull the temp recorder and just by doing that Walmart charged us around $1000 if we lost. On several occasions our own temp recorders were taken off of our product and were lost when we challenged their rejection of product, and in this case we lost. Even though the product shipped pristine. When our temp recorders were found on the product it showed that it did not ship under the terms of the agreement. In this case we won.

    Again, to challenge this with Walmart I had to call or email more times then I could count. I always felt they purposely made it difficult.

  • by tyingq on 7/1/17, 2:43 PM

    This is a bit different than their similar threat to suppliers that use AWS. The venn diagram of truckers that carry for each is likely just one circle. This would create a weird industry split since Amazon and Walmart are so dominant in volume of shipments.

    I wonder if this might be illegal even if it's not antitrust worthy.

  • by losteverything on 7/1/17, 4:10 PM

    I guess the cold war started.

    I hope it isn't true. Amazon is not walmarts enemy: they should focus on low prices and growth using new technology. Their ceo said they reached employment peak [1]

    Truckers and delivery people dont hate each other or have any competitive spirit among each other. Pay me to make a delivery. End of story.

    The ups and FedEx guy(s) and i all bitch about the same thing: why cant these healthy lazy people go to the store. Day after day the same people get packages. What do they do all day, shop$!! Its so funny it could make a screenplay.

    Truckers dont care either.

    [1] http://abcnews.go.com/amp/Business/wireStory/walmart-traditi...

  • by Hemospectrum on 7/1/17, 2:50 PM

    First AWS, now this.

    At what point does the DOJ step in? Isn't this anticompetitive behavior? I've heard that Reagan-era deregulation changed a lot of the relevant law, but I'm not clear on how. Is Walmart doing this with the expectation of impunity because there's no longer a crime to charge them with, or because they see themselves as immune to prosecution?

  • by GCA10 on 7/1/17, 2:59 PM

    The comments on the original story are fascinating. Hundreds of truckers sharing personal stories. Their spelling is dodgy but many bring detailed personal data. From my read, it sounds as if Amazon has two business issues to fix (staggered scheduling and last-minute cancellations). Walmart seems to have infuriated truckers for more reasons than I can count. Not sure Walmart is going to like the outcome of this war.

  • by libeclipse on 7/1/17, 2:39 PM

    Jeez.

    Walmart seem really damned insecure about themselves. This isn't the first petty BS they've come out with regarding Amazon.

  • by CalChris on 7/1/17, 3:32 PM

    How is this not restraint of trade?

    > Restraint of trade means any activity which tends to limit trade, sales and transportation in interstate commerce or has a substantial impact on interstate commerce.

    https://definitions.uslegal.com/r/restraint-of-trade/

  • by madamelic on 7/1/17, 2:52 PM

    "Amazon offers $0.10 more per mile, leaving Walmart with no truckers"

    But really, Wal-mart needs to get over themselves and do what they need to do to adapt, rather than being the bully they've always been.

    It isn't like they refuse technology, they have a pretty decent technology team as far as I can tell.

  • by austenallred on 7/1/17, 2:46 PM

    Walmart is lashing out like it already knows Amazon is going to win. The only play it has left is to bully partners.

  • by fanpuns on 7/1/17, 2:58 PM

    If this is true (keeping in mind the source is an analyst who is relating conversation between other parties for which they were not involved), it might not necessarily be a negative for the freight market. If the contractors become territorial about which freight companies they will hire it will effectively reduce the supply available for both (once a freight company commits to one or the other) meaning Walmart/Amazon will each have to pay more essentially for "exclusivity".

  • by ceejayoz on 7/1/17, 2:51 PM

    Will they include USPS, UPS, and FedEx in this?

  • by markpapadakis on 7/1/17, 3:59 PM

    When you are desperate, you are acting irrationally and, definitely, absolutely, not thinking long-term, but counting on potential short-gains to survive, and looks like that's Whalmart is doing.

    They are doomed, of course, just a matter of how long it will take until they become irrelevant. And it's not like they couldn't study history or didn't have time or money to invest in whatever would have been required to mount a better defence, but in the end, hubris and misplaced confidence is going to claim another foolish company.

  • by dredmorbius on 7/1/17, 5:21 PM

    This is sttarting to read as a Thucydides Trap. Established power threatened by an upstart rival.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/09/un...

  • by solotronics on 7/1/17, 3:03 PM

    fuck Walmart. You don't hear anything about Amazon workers being on public assistance because they are payed enough and get enough hours to survive on their own. Around the holidays Walmart takes food and toy donations for their workers inside their break rooms. It's a bad company and I hope it gets killed off.

  • by ctdonath on 7/1/17, 3:15 PM

    Both may be reaching scales which strain the limits of the shipping industry. To retain needed capacity, each has to elbow the other out of the way, while they ramp up alternatives.

  • by Mediterraneo10 on 7/1/17, 3:41 PM

    How is this not tortious interference? Walmart seems to be making this threat in order to undermine the contract between these truckers and Amazon.

  • by bedhead on 7/1/17, 3:02 PM

    This is a misguided, myopic decision done out of sheer desperation. It's a symptom, not the disease.

  • by oliv__ on 7/1/17, 2:45 PM

    I feel like truckers should tell Walmart to shove it. This is getting abusive

  • by m-p-3 on 7/1/17, 4:05 PM

    Hopefully this will backfire on Wal-mart.

  • by pasbesoin on 7/1/17, 9:26 PM

    Seems the FTC should step in here.

    Oh, wait. We have a "pro business" Administration and Congress.

    So, the big boys get to throw their weight around.

    bah

    P.S. These "big boys" should have to compete for truckers' services. Just like everyone else. On an ongoing bases... not some one-time commitment extorted solely to their advantage.