Want to deliver for Spark? See driver pay, requirements, and how start!

Drivers in the gig economy are giving Walmart a fighting chance at catching up with Amazon delivery.

Walmart now partners with gig apps like Spark and Uber Eats to offer faster shipping and same-day delivery.

Like many other delivery apps in the gig economy, Spark pays independent drivers to pick up and deliver orders.

But Spark is unique: It exclusively focuses on Walmart, Home Depot, and Sam’s Club delivery.

If you’re interested in delivering for Spark, you can expect to make up to $20 per hour.

Just about anyone 18 or older with access to a car can try this gig, so if there are busy Walmart stores in your area, consider delivering for Spark!

In this Article

• Spark Driver Requirements
• How Much Do Spark Walmart Drivers Make?
• The Application Process
• What Do Spark Drivers Do? Work Overview
• Driver Ratings & Metrics
• Bonuses and Incentives to Increase Pay
• The Pros and Cons of Driving for Spark

Spark vehicle requirements: Spark accepts any car, SUV, truck, or van. There is no model year requirement and no vehicle inspection.

Scooters and bicycles are not accepted because they don’t have enough storage space for the typical Walmart order.

If you’re interested in scooter or bicycle delivery, try Uber Eats or DoorDash.

Related: Vehicle Requirements for Top Delivery Apps

How much do Spark drivers make?

Spark drivers are paid for each delivered order. There is no set hourly wage, but you can expect Spark pay to be around $10–$20 per hour, on average.

It’s possible to earn $500/week on part-time hours, but your actual pay will depend on how busy your market is and how many hours you can drive.

How Spark drivers get paid for deliveries

Spark drivers are paid for each completed delivery. Every delivery offers shows an estimated payout, the delivery distance, and the order type.

You are free to accept or reject any offers. So if an order payout is too low, you can reject it and wait for a higher-paying one.

How does Spark calculate the pay for orders?

Like many gig economy apps, the earnings calculation for Spark deliveries is based on an algorithm that isn’t fully explained to drivers.

That means that you won’t know exactly how the earnings are calculated for individual deliveries.

Sparks says that the earnings calculation takes into account distance traveled, order size, complexities of the drop-off, and more.

Getting paid: The Branch Wallet

Spark drivers are paid each Tuesday through the Branch Wallet, an electronic payment service that all drivers have to set up during the enrollment process.

Transfers from Branch to a bank account are free if you choose the option that takes 3–5 business days, but there is a 2% fee for instant transfers.

There isn’t currently a way to cash out your Spark earnings daily. Most other gig apps offer ways to cash out daily, so Spark has some catching up to do when it comes to payment flexibility.

How tips work for Spark drivers

Spark drivers receive 100% of any tips left by customers. Customers can include a tip during checkout, and any tip left before the delivery will be included in the estimated payout. Customers can also tip after the delivery is complete.

You can screen out non-tipping, low-paying orders—A low upfront estimate means that the customer didn’t tip during checkout, and customers are less likely to tip after the order is over.

Customers have 24 hours to adjust their tip, so it’s possible that a tip can be increased or decreased.

Unfortunately, that means tip baiting is possible—a customer can lure you with a great tip and remove it afterward. It’s not a common practice, but it’s something that Spark drivers should be aware of.

The application process to get started with Spark

Begin the application process at drive4spark.walmart.com. Click ‘Join Spark Driver’ at the top of the page and complete the enrollment form.

Follow the instructions to complete your Spark driver account, then consent to a background check and wait for the results.

After the background screening is completed, the next step is to wait for Spark to approve you to drive.

How long does it take to get accepted by Spark?

If your market is currently in need of new drivers, it can take as little as 3–7 days to get started. But for many applicants in 2023, it can take weeks or even months to get fully onboarded.

Many Spark applicants pass the background check, but end up waiting months to start delivering.

The longer wait time are likely due to over saturation—There are too many drivers for the current delivery demand, so Spark won’t approve a new batch of drivers until the market needs them.

If you are stuck at the “screening” or “accepted” stage and there aren’t any issues with your background check, you can try contacting Spark for an update. But there’s not much more you can do to move things along.

How to contact Spark about your application: Call driver support at 855-743-0457, or email [email protected]

What cities is Spark in?

Check this page to see which cities and states are accepting Spark drivers.

What do Spark drivers do? Work overview

Here’s what a day in the life of a Spark driver is like: First, you sign into the Spark driver app and mark yourself available by selecting Spark Now.

Then, you wait for order offers to come in.

When an order offers appears, it shows the estimated payout, store location, order type, and the number of orders.

After you accept an order, you will navigate to the store and follow instructions to pick up the order.

You will pick up some orders in the parking lot, and others will be inside the store.

Once your car is loaded with the order, navigate to the customer and drop it off according to the instructions in the app.

After you drop off the order, wait for your next order.

Receiving order requests: Round robin offers & First come, first serve

When you’re signed in and waiting for orders, new order requests come in two ways: Round robin offers and first come first, serve offers.

Round robin offers are sent to individual drivers, and you have several minutes to accept or reject the order. Typically round robin offers come once per hour.

First come, first serve offers are sent out to many nearby drivers simultaneously, and the first driver to accept the request gets the order.

Types of orders on Spark

The primary order types on Spark are called curbside, dotcom, express, and shop & deliver. 

Curbside orders are picked up in a designated loading area of the Walmart parking lot. The items are typically grocery items. A Walmart employee will load your vehicle. Customers can pre tip on curbside orders.

Express deliveries are for customers who request shipping within two hours or less. In the app, express orders are indicated by a blue lightning bolt. Most Express orders are shopping and delivery orders.

Dotcom orders are items purchased from Walmart.com, like cleaning supplies and other general items. Dotcom orders allow unattended dropoffs, meaning you can drop off the item without contacting the customer.

Customers don’t have the option to tip during checkout on Dotcom orders, so they aren’t always the preferred order type for many Spark drivers.

Dotcoms also tend to be batched together, so you’ll have to make several stops at different addresses.

For Shopping and delivery orders, you have to enter the store to shop for items. After collecting all the items, you pay for the order using a QR code in the app and deliver the order as normal. It’s similar to shopping for Instacart.

• All about Shopping and Delivery on Spark: Tips and Strategies

Can someone else ride with you while you deliver for Spark?

According to the Spark Driver FAQ, you can bring a passenger along, but they are not permitted to participate in any work. Your passenger is not supposed to help you load, unload, or deliver orders.

You can bring a child along, but only if they are old enough to be left alone in a vehicle. And only if they don’t help you with any of the work.

Sparks ratings: Driver performance metrics

Spark keeps track of 4 different metrics for drivers: Acceptance rate, on-time arrival, drop order rate, and customer rating.

Metrics are calculated based on your 50 most recent orders or the trips you’ve completed within the last 3 months.

Unlike other delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats, your acceptance rating on Spark affects the offers you receive.

Spark drivers with a higher acceptance rate receive order priority on round robin orders, so it’s best to keep your acceptance rate above 70%.

Your acceptance rate is the number of offers you accepted out of the numbers you received when you were available. First come, first serve offers don’t count toward your acceptance rate.

On-time arrival measures the number of times you arrived at the store within 15 minutes of the scheduled pickup time.

Drop order rate counts how many orders you dropped (cancelled) less than 30 minutes before the pickup time.

Customer rating is a 5-star scale. It is calculated based on your 50 most recent customer ratings.

When does Spark deactivate drivers? Spark can deactivate you for violating the terms of service. Common reasons for deactivation are: Too many misdelivered orders, complaints from customers, and complaints from Walmart store workers.

• Deactivations on Spark: How to appeal and get reactivated

Bonuses and incentives for Spark drivers

Spark offers several different bonus incentives that can help you increase your earnings.

The lump sum incentive gives a bonus payment for completing a set number of trips. For example, “Complete 4 trips to earn an extra $25.”

The tiered incentive is a series of lump sum incentives. For example, “Complete 4 trips to earn an extra $25, 6 to earn an extra $40, and $8 for an extra $40.”

Guaranteed earnings will give you a bonus if your earnings don’t meet a guaranteed minimum. So if the guaranteed minimum is $250 and your earnings were only $200, you will get a $50 bonus.

Pay-per-trip incentives give you a bonus for doing a single trip. For example, “Earn an extra $3 for each trip completed today after 2pm.”

 

Not getting any incentives? Here’s why

There is no guarantee that you’ll receive bonus and incentive offers. Getting bonus offers is mainly a matter of luck and being available to work when bonuses are offered.

Spark typically offers bonuses when they need extra drivers, and some Spark drivers find that the bonuses work too well to lure in drivers, “I hate bonus weeks or days. All the part timers show up, makes it difficult to accept orders.”

Is it worth driving for Spark? Pros and cons

Spark is worth considering if your area has busy Walmart stores. In a good area, earnings can be strong and you can rely on Spark for part-time income.

Another perk of Spark compared to other delivery gigs is that you’ll only be working out of the Walmart stores in your zone.

With other delivery gigs, you have to drive all over town to different restaurants and stores.

On the negative side, earnings for Spark can dip low if your market isn’t very busy. Many drivers also report that the Spark app isn’t as polished compared to other services, so you may run into more issues than you’d like.

The way that orders are distributed is another point of complaint from some drivers.

You must maintain a high acceptance rating to get the best offer, which means accepting low-paying orders that you would skip on an app that doesn’t incentivize a high acceptance rating.

Other delivery gigs to look into

If you’re interested in delivering for Spark, these other on-demand delivery gigs are worth considering.

• DoorDash
• Instacart
• Uber Eats
• Amazon Flex
• Shipt