Wal-Mart Asks Suppliers to Give Up Control of Their Deliveries

Mom and pop being unwilling to compete drove them out. We have a few Super WalMarts around Buffalo and the suburbs and the smaller businesses are still here. Maybe the owners are in a 4000 sq ft house anymore with an Escalade and Hummer in the garage but the businesses are still here 20 years after the first WalMart.

 

Wow! With all the negative comments about WalMart, I'm amazed that they manage to stay in business!

I happen to like WalMart - not only as a consumer, but as a driver as well.

Allow me to explain, first as a consumer, then as a driver --

There are a couple of prescriptions that I take on a recurring basis. I can get my script filled at my local WalMart, and when I run out I go to the nearest WalMart, and within 30 minutes they've called my home WalMart, had my Rx transferred to their store, and I've paid for it and am on my way. There is no other nationwide pharmacy that I know of that is guaranteed to be accessable with a tractor & 53' trailer.

I'm coming back east off the west coast, and I happen to roll into beautiful Jamestown, North Dakota at 1:30am Sunday morning. I need to do a little shopping, and there's only one store that'll be open. And guess what - the Fruit of the Loom underwear, Cheer laundry detergent, and DelMonte fruit ####tail I buy is exactly the same as I'd buy at the local merchant, if only they were open 24/7.

Don't get me wrong - some of the merchandise WalMart sells is pretty shoddy. But on other items, they can't be beat. I defy anyone to show me the difference between a 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola purchased at WalMart, and a 2-liter purchased at Kroger, or Meijer, or Albertson's, or Winn-Dixie, etc. You've earned your money, you spend it where your little heart desires. But if I can save money by buying Windex at WalMart instead of the local truckstop... guess where I'll buy glass cleaner?

As a driver -- WalMart is great!

I pickup a load of dog food from Montebello, CA going to the WalMart DC in Hermiston, OR. The load picks up Monday, and delivers anytime between 0001-2359 Wednesday. I've got a drop #, and WalMart will accept delivery as soon as I can get there. When I get there, they check me in, tell me where to drop the loaded trailer, and where the empty trailers are. I'm in and out of the DC in less than 30 minutes. No snotty receiving clerks, no checkers telling me how to stack, no lumpers wanting too much $$ for too little work, no waiting for my trailer to be emptied, no returned product to deal with - drop and hook, in and out, here and gone... life doesn't get much simpler!

And I do that at ALL WalMart DC's. I haven't had to live unload at WalMart in so long, I've forgotten what it's like! Plus, there's a WalMart DC in Brookhaven, MS and loads into there get me home for time off, or I can drop at the WalMart grocery DC in New Albany, MS, and go home from there.

I've also hauled product from a WalMart grocery DC (Sterling, Illinois) to WalMart and Sam's Club stores in and around the Chicago/Milwaukee area. I pull into the store, back up to the dock, and go inside. The receiver breaks the seal, and I remove my padlock. I'll turn off the reefer, and the receiver pulls 26 pallets of refrigerated product off the trailer - all I've got to do is pull a sticker off of each pallet and affix it to a pallet count sheet. Lock the trailer door and seal it when it's empty, sign a few sheets of paper, and I'm headed back to the DC in less than an hour - unless I've got to go somewhere and make a pickup, and those were usually drop/hook.

Plus, when I hit a WalMart store - I've got priority over everyone else! Doesn't matter who is waiting there, or how long they've been waiting for an open dock door. FedEx, Yellow, UPS, Roadway, Coke, Pepsi, whomever, union or non-union, company driver or owner/operator, it doesn't matter. When the WalMart trailer shows up, it goes in the first available door, period.

Some of you may hate going to WalMart, and I can understand your reasons why. But, to paraphrase Chico Escuela from the old Saturday Light Live show - "WalMart been bery, bery good to me!"

 

You missed the main point of this thread...Wally is looking to dump your Swift dedicated gig...have fun back with the "regular drivers" wasting time on live unloads and hopefully your DM can remember how to deal with freight that isn't Wallyworld!

 

When the WalMart trailer shows up, it goes in the first available door, period.



[/QUOTE]

yup!!!!! Notice mallwart trailer. "Nuff said.

 

Au contraire, mon ami! It seems 'tis you who missed the proverbial boat on this thread.

If you'd read the Bloomberg article the OP referenced, you've have noticed this paragraph --

It won't be me and my "Swift dedicated gig" who'll be "wasting time on live unloads" - it seems that WallyWorld will be doing more of their own backhauls (as I mentioned in my original post). Instead of having JoeBlow Trucking make a delivery appointment and go through the entire rigamarole delivery process, WalMart - and it's "contractors" - will pick up as much of the inbound freight as possible and use their own power units to bring it to the DC.

Since the company I work for is one of the aforementioned "contractors", we'll get more of the inbound WalMart freight, while the smaller companies and independents get aced out of the picture. My DM won't have to try to remember how to deal with freight that isn't WalMart - s/he'll have to figure out how to deal with more of it!

And while I'm pulling into the WalMart DC in Cheyenne, WY and doing yet another drop & hook, you'll be sitting at the Sapp Bros. truckstop, swilling coffee, grousing about how the big companies haul cheap freight, and contemplating your chances of exchanging bodily fluids and STD's with the 275+pound waitress!

Incidentally -- I don't work for the great white fleet out of Phoenix, I work for the big red fleet out of Lincoln, NE.

Au revior for now!

 

Wow a second language....impressed I am not...nor am I impressed with Crete...to get back to the point:

Obviously you don't seem to see beyond your own trucks hood...this changes nothing in how Wally has done business in the past....go back 15 years and it remains the same...go back 17 years and it changes...Wally used only their own equipment until they outgrew their own supply need at the DC's...but like most steering wheel holders, you haven't the foresight or insight to realize what is happening around you. but being a driver and not a contract or sales person, you wouldn't know the real inner workings of the transportation industry.

The "paragraph" doesn't qualify one item outside of what they already do, and have done for over a decade, almost two decades. Se la vie, mon amie!

 

man it's great when two drivers know everything.

 

Everything has a broader definition than one subject...this is one subject, and having almost 16 years out here, I have pulled my share of Wally World, and been involved in dispatching a Wally fleet...if you have something that has verifiability to add or to rebut anything said...please do!

 

You may notice people post in the thread they know stuff about. Well not all of them. Some just throw out a completely pointless comment.

 

Is this your normal style, or are you being deliberately obtuse?

This is a significant change in how WalMart operates! They are now going back to their suppliers and working with them to lower the shipping costs - having their own trucks and those of their "contractors" pick up more and more of the inbound freight, instead of having the supplier determine the inbound carrier.

My lack of foresight and insight into the industry tells me that --

1) - WalMart has begun using route specific software to determine the fuel prices along any given route. Instead of paying a blanket, one-size-fits-all fuel surcharge, they're able to determine what the fuel prices are along a route, and pay fuel surcharges accordingly.

2) - Then, instead of paying JoeBlow Trucking a massive fuel surcharge, they'll be able to work with their fleet - and their "contractors" - to either pocket the fuel surcharge, or else reduce the CPM of the inbound load to a bare minimum. Companies won't be able to make money off of the fuel surcharge anymore.

3) - I suspect that WalMart trucks will be making more of the multiple-stop pickups, or else their "contractors" will lower their charges for making multiple pickups.

4) - I also suspect that WalMart will begin working with their carriers on the outbound side to insure availability of freight. Instead of delivering a load from Chicago to Lewiston, ME and being done, WalMart will begin working with it's suppliers and carriers to minimize the unproductive empty "deadhead" miles to get the next load.

Although I can't see past my hood, it appears that WalMart is reaching further and further into the supply chain to minimize their transportation costs, and is doing everything possible to save money - which they can use to lower their costs, and reduce the price the average consumer pays for merchandise.

Average sales per store are down from FY-09 for WalMart, and they've pledged to lower the cost by an average of 30% on certain core consumer staples. WalMart is cutting it's costs everywhere it possibly can, and this is IMHO just the beginning.

That's how I see the inner workings of the transportation industry!

Arrivederci, testamerde!