Operations

Your June 3 Pre-Trip: Walmart to test Uber, Lyft delivery services

June 3, 2016

Here are five things worth knowing in trucking today.

Here are five things worth knowing today: 1. Walmart and Sam’s Club announced they will begin testing last-mile grocery delivery that uses Uber, Lyft and Deliv to deliver orders to customers’ homes. According to a Tech Crunch report, Walmart will test Uber and Lyft services and says it is “starting small” with these tests and will let customers guide the process going forward. Walmart-owned Sam’s Club will use parcel delivery service Deliv to test delivery of general merchandise to customers. Tech Crunch has more. 2. The owners of Metro Worldwide, a port trucking company that operates at both Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, were recently arrested for insurance fraud, the American Journal of Transportation reports. The owners were charged with 18 counts of workers’ compensation fraud and five counts of failing to pay taxes. According to the report, between 2009-13, the owners underreported payroll by more than $4.6 million, which shorted their insurer out of more than $2.1 million in workers’ compensation premiums. If convicted, they could face up to 36 years in state prison. 3. Schneider National has acquired Lodeso Inc. and Watkins & Shepard Trucking Inc. in an effort to push the company into the field of delivering furniture and oversize goods to homes, according to The Wall Street Journal. According to the report, the acquisitions come as more logistics and freight companies are moving to serve the growing market for online furniture sales. WSJ has more. 4. The city of Santa Monica, CA, has signed a multi-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract with Clean Energy Fuels, Energy Global reports. The five-year deal will fuel the city’s Big Blue Bus fleet, which is also one of the first agencies to incorporate the new Cummins-Westport 8.9L near-zero NOx engine, according to the report. Big Blue Bus, which already has 200 natural gas buses in its fleet, plans to replace more than 100 existing engines with the new near-zero NOx engines. Energy Global has more.5. J. B. Hunt Transport Services co-founder Johnelle Hunt made No. 5 on the latest Forbes list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, Arkansas Online reports. Hunt, who is 84, has a net worth valued at $2.3 billion. Arkansas Online has more.

About the Author

Cristina Commendatore

Cristina Commendatore was previously the Editor-in-chief of FleetOwner magazine. She reported on the transportation industry since 2015, covering topics such as business operational challenges, driver and technician shortages, truck safety, and new vehicle technologies. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.