Walmart Asks Supply Drivers to Show Id in Individual

• Walmart is asking some Spark supply drivers to confirm their identities at a retailer.
• Gig supply employees get $15 for verifying their identification in individual.
• Some drivers have used Spark accounts to make deliveries underneath different individuals’s names.

Walmart is asking a few of its Spark drivers to show who they are saying they’re the old school manner — and paying them to do it.

Some drivers for the retailer’s supply service are being requested to carry their driver’s license to a Walmart retailer, the place somebody from the massive field chain will confirm their identification in individual, in response to an in-app message reviewed by Enterprise Insider.

Spark drivers who confirm their identification at a retailer will obtain a one-time $15 fee, the e-mail mentioned.

“All drivers in your space might want to full an in-person identification verification” to maintain utilizing the Spark app, in response to the message, which directed drivers to a retailer in Northwest Arkansas, the area dwelling to Walmart’s company headquarters. The e-mail gave the drivers a deadline of this week to finish the test.

One Spark driver in Arkansas who accomplished the verification mentioned that she acquired a notification within the Spark app about it.

On the retailer, a Walmart worker took photos of the driving force’s picture ID and requested her to take selfies utilizing an organization smartphone, she mentioned. The motive force requested to not be named on this article as she was not approved by the corporate to discuss the matter.

“It actually was not an enormous deal for me,” the driving force mentioned. “It might be an enormous deal for someone else if they don’t seem to be who they are saying they’re.”

“We’re at all times new and progressive safety know-how,” a Walmart spokesperson mentioned when BI reached out in regards to the requirement. “It is a pilot we’re testing in sure markets, and we are going to consider the outcomes earlier than making any longer-term choices.”

The in-person ID test seems to be Walmart’s newest effort to discourage people who find themselves utilizing Spark underneath identities apart from their very own.

Some Spark drivers seem to buy and ship for the service utilizing accounts underneath different individuals’s names, BI beforehand reported.

Accounts for Spark and different supply apps are sometimes supplied on the market on social media, corresponding to in Fb teams for gig employees. A number of the posts make a pitch to individuals who haven’t got “papers,” a reference to not having work authorization within the US, or say that having a number of accounts will permit them to ship a number of orders directly and make more cash.

Some drivers have mentioned that hackers seem to have gotten into their Spark accounts and delivered orders utilizing them. Walmart mentioned final yr that hackers accessed 200 Spark accounts, exposing drivers’ private data.

Walmart began verifying Spark drivers’ identities utilizing a facial recognition function within the app in late 2023. The software requested customers to take a collection of selfies with their smartphones, which Walmart then in contrast with their ID picture. Spark drivers have to finish the test every time they log into the app, Walmart mentioned final yr.

The function wasn’t good, although. Some Spark drivers instructed BI that Walmart kicked them out of their Spark accounts despite the fact that their photos and particulars matched their licenses. Walmart instructed BI on the time that the function “was working as supposed.”

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