In many ways, it sounds like WalMart is going backwards, not forwards.
Starting with the drivers, a couple decades ago one of the things a driver searched heavily to avoid was slip seating. Now, it is acceptable if you are working for WalMart.
All this crap they envision doing at the dock is going to delay drivers. Another thing that this industry has worked towards removing.
When I started pulling for Schneider, it reintroduced me to Walmart. I was used to dreading that place. Now, I am beginning to do so again. We drop and hook everything, and they have somehow made that undesirable. Drop and hook freight is supposed to be a bonus, at WalMart it has become a pain. We literally have to pick up loads to satisfy the shipper (company drivers in this situation), and relay them to a drop yard to wait on a drop date. Loads that I, as an owner operator pick up, are becoming far less productive because I pick the load up one day, then sit most of the next day waiting for the specific drop date (just to drop in on their yard). In the past, we had a 2-3 day window, I could pick it up, take it to the DC, drop as soon as I could get it there basically, and leave. It's not like there is a lack of space at the DC, there is plenty of drop space.
In some cases, it's not even a 24 hour drop window anymore, they are even reducing that. For my operation, I now simply bypass those loads because I go home weekly, and have no time to sit on loads just so I can go in at a perfect time for WalMart.
WalMart has already took measures that created problems for us when they decided to move in and take over the freight that we always hauled. We lost it at a couple locations because WalMart had visions of being able to backhaul all of it. That lasted a couple weeks or so, and now it is being handed down to us anyway. Only problem is, we have less time to plan for these loads to become available, because places like P&G used to get the load info out to us way early, so we could book these loads days in advance.
WalMart expects perfection from everyone else, and cannot do their jobs properly. they load scrap paper on our trailers, and I sometimes watch those trailers sit for over a month before somebody remembers it's loaded and an a gate pass is generated for the paper plant so we can haul it. Yes, I have literally tracked trailers sitting their for 6 or more weeks, and Schneider sees them as being empty because WalMart has never informed them that they are loaded. It's not uncommon to run around the DC and check out 15 trailers only to find them all loaded with scrap, yet we have no loads in the system to show us they are loaded. So, we end up traveling all over town after one of their narrow drop windows to find an empty trailer at another place just so we can get our next load.
Overall, it is like WalMart seems like they feel as though they can do whatever they want, to whoever they want, and everyone will just fall in line because they are so powerful. They want the shippers to prioritize them, and they want the carriers to prioritize them, all for fear of losing them. This will backfire on them over time.
WalMart has legitimate competition now. All that strongarm tactics are going to do is push shippers and carriers over toward their competition.
I get folks are not liking the new constraints. Those are not just outside of Wallyworld. Plenty of folks here are figuring out just because they did it one way for 30 years does not mean we are not going to do it a different way now.
