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 because 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 $20 per hour on average.
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?
- Bonuses and Incentives to Increase Pay
- The Application Process
- What Do Spark Drivers Do? Work Overview
- Driver Ratings & Metrics
- The Pros and Cons of Driving for Spark
Spark Driver Requirements
- Drivers must be 18 or older
- Have access to a reliable vehicle
- Show proof of auto insurance
- Consent to background screening
Apply for Spark here: drive4spark.walmart.com
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.
A solid payout. Credit Jinroh75 on Reddit
Spectacular earnings for this driver. Results may not be typical! Credit AAV5150 on Reddit
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.
Sparks only says “the earnings calculation takes into account distance traveled, order size, complexities of the drop-off, and more.”
That means that you won’t know exactly how the earnings are calculated for individual deliveries.
Order offers show estimated payout, store location, order type, and distance. Credit LaxxedOtter on Reddit
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 at checkout 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 tips left at checkout, and 14 days to adjust a tip left after delivery.
Unfortunately, that means tip baiting is possible—a customer can lure you with a great tip and remove it afterward. It’s not very common, but it’s something that Spark drivers should be aware of.
Bonuses and incentives
Spark offers several different bonus incentives that can help you increase your earnings.
- Lump sum: Bonus for completing a number of trips. “Complete 5 trips to earn an extra $40”
- Tiered: A series of lump sum bonuses. “Complete 5 trips to earn $30, 7 to earn an extra $50”
- Earn per trip: A bonus for doing individual orders. “Earn an extra $4 for each trip completed today after 2pm”
- Guaranteed earnings: Get a bonus if you don’t meet the guaranteed earnings minimum.
There is no guarantee that you’ll receive bonus and incentive offers. Spark typically offers bonuses when they need extra drivers.
If you aren’t getting any incentive offers, there’s nothing you can directly do to get more.
Spark Rewards: Free Walmart+
Spark has a rewards program for drivers that offers one month of free Walmart+ and other rewards. To qualify, you must complete 20 deliveries in a month and maintain a rating of at lest 4.7.
If you qualify, Spark will email you in the first week of each month to give you a code to access Walmart+ and any other perks.
Getting paid on Spark: The Branch Wallet and One Wallet
Spark drivers are paid each Tuesday through the Branch Wallet, a free digital wallet and debit card that you set up during the onboarding process.
You can spend your Spark funds with the Branch debit card, or you can transfer your money to another account.
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 if you need an instant transfer.
Get instant pay with the One wallet
Spark also offers the One wallet and debit card as a payment option. Your earnings are automatically transferred to your One account after each trip.
You can transfer your funds out of the One account, or you can use the One debit card to make purchases.
The One wallet is the only way to get instant daily pay on Spark. The Branch wallet only offers weekly pay.
Read more about instant pay on Spark here.
The application process to become a Spark driver
Begin the application process at drive4spark.walmart.com. Click ‘Sign up’ at the top of the page and select the zone that you want to work in.
Follow the instructions to complete the rest of the application, 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 activate your driver account.
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.
You’ll be added to a waitlist if your zone is full
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.
You may be added to a waitlist, or you may only see a progress screen that gets stuck at one of the stages before ‘approval.’
Nobody knows how long you’ll stay on the waitlist
Stucks at “screening” or “completed”? You’re not alone
Spark can reject your application if they find that you don’t meet their current standards.
This applicant was rejected by Spark
Spark won’t say exactly why they rejected you, but usually it’s due to issues on your background check.
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 pickup area of 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 & 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 exclusive offers sent to individual drivers. You have several minutes to accept or reject the order.
Typically round robin offers come once per hour at the same time each hour. Your acceptance rate metric is based on how many Round robins you accept or reject.
Round Robin offers have a countdown timer on the accept button
First come, first serve offers are available to other nearby drivers, and the first driver to accept the request gets the order. Declining a FCFS order does not affect your acceptance rate.
Anyone can accept a first come, first served order. Notice no countdown timer on the Accept button
Order types on Spark
The order types on Spark are called delivery, shopping and delivery, and return to store.
Order requests will indicate where to pick up the delivery, and may have tags with extra information about the delivery like ‘alcohol’ or ‘heavy item.’
For delivery orders, you pick up a delivery that has been prepared for you.
The delivery could be groceries, hardware, home goods, or anything else that Walmart sells that can fit into a typical vehicle.
For Shopping and delivery orders, you enter the store to shop for a list of 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.
For return to store orders, you will pick up items from a customer and return them back to a Walmart store.
Store pickup: In-store vs curbside
Deliveries will be labeled as either in-store or curbside, which lets you know where you will be picking up the items.
For an in-store pickup, the app will direct you to a designated pickup location inside the store.
A store worker will ask for your driver code, then you will scan the customer label on each delivery.
For curbside orders, Walmart loaders will load items into your car in a designated loading area of the Walmart parking lot.
A store worker will ask for your driver code to confirm that you’re the right driver. Then you will scan the customer label on each order.
On curbside orders, you can be paid for your wait time if you arrive at the stated time and the order isn’t ready. Wait time pay is around $2 for each additional 15 minutes of waiting.
Get paid to wait! But it’s not much
Delivery types
Grocery orders have typical grocery items like produce and packaged food or drinks.
Dotcom orders are items purchased from Walmart.com, like cleaning supplies and other general items.
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.
There is no ‘dotcom’ label for orders, but dotcoms typically are for in-store pickup and have more than 2 orders in the batch.
Grocery orders are typically curbside pickup with no more than 2 orders in the batch.
Spark also offers deliveries from other retails through the Walmart GoLocal program.
You may see offers for deliveries from Home Depot, Advanced Auto Parts, Sams Club, and others.
Offer tags: More info about each order
Offers may have tags that give you more info about each order to help you decide if the order is right for you.
The Express tag indicates that the customer requested shipping within two hours or less. Most Express orders are shopping and delivery orders.
The Alcohol tag indicates that the order contains alcohol. You will have to ask for a driver’s license or government ride to verify that the person you are delivering to is 21 or older.
The heavy item tag indicates that there is at least one heavy item, and that extra earnings are included in the payout
The Apartment tag indicates that the delivery address is an apartment. This can help you skip apartment orders, or give you a heads up that the drop-off may be more difficult than a non-apartment order.
The Pharmacy tag indicates that you will be picking up prescriptions. You will have to get a signature from someone 18 or older to complete the delivery.
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. A 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 metrics: Driver performance ratings
Spark keeps track of 5 different metrics for drivers: Acceptance rate, on-time arrival, drop order rate, customer rating, and items found.
Metrics are calculated based on your 50 most recent orders or the trips you’ve completed within the last 3 months.
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.
Spark used to state that your acceptance rating on Spark affects the offers you receive, but they removed those statements from the shopper documentation.
Now it’s unclear if your acceptance rating gives you ‘prioritized orders’ or not.
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.
Items found measures the percentage of items that you find. When you can’t find an item and remove it from an order, your items found metric will decrease.
When does Spark deactivate drivers?
Spark can deactivate drivers for violating the terms of service. Common reasons for deactivation are: Too many misdelivered orders, complaints from customers, and complaints from Walmart store workers.
Following a deactivation, you can attempt to get your account reactivated by contacting Spark driver support or by emailing [email protected].
Acceptance rating is more important on Spark than other gig apps. Credit SyracuseBills1 on Reddit
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 a solid part-time income.
Another perk of Spark compared to other delivery gigs is that you only work out of the Walmart stores in your zone.
That’s in contrast to other delivery gigs that have you drive all over town to different restaurants and stores.
On the negative side, earnings for Spark can be low if your market isn’t very busy, or if Spark onboards too many drivers.
Like other jobs in the gig economy, there’s no guarantee that you’ll hit your earnings goal every day or every week. Income on Spark is unpredictable.
Another complaint is that many deliveries can involve carrying several heavy items like cases of water. If the delivery is at an apartment, expect extra leg work.
Inconsistent order volume is another complaint. Sometimes you can go for long stretches without getting any orders.
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
MARIANA says
This is a JOKE! orders we get a $7 for single stop- $11-15 for 2 stop IF includes a very small $1-3 tip.
They couple orders with tips along with orders without tips so you are lucky if you get a $15 order!
The drive to drop the orders is around 2-7 mile in general, BUT you need to drive to the store and then wait between 15-39 min for them to bring you the orders to your car. You are not paid for driving to the store or waiting in the parking lot. If you have to return an order to the store, they pay you about $2.25. I hardly use the APP this days. Every week I go to a store and wait for an order 15 minutes just to find out the order is not in the system. Then I have to stay on 10 min call with the customer’s service to get paid $2.15. Terrible app. They don’t calculate the stop and delivery time either ( when you arrive to the drop address). If you pick up a .com order, with 7 stops, let’s say a typical order for 28 mile with 7 stops, they say you will finish in 1H10 min and they offer you $22 (real scenario example ). That order is going to be well over 2 hours, buy the time you drive to the stire with the offer, wait q5 minutes or so in the parking lot, then add 3 min at least for each stop. Then, if you have an apartment complex and 5 min, or 10 if the buildings do not have numbers clearly marked. I even had 20 min stops in certain apartment complexes, orvteailers with no numbers on them. I think I said enough to give an honest and nonbias overview.
GA says
I had a question about a store in my town. There’s a spark driver and his wife/partner works in curbside. This guy gets orders non stop can shop deliver them drive up and already have another. While other drivers are still waiting. Can you spark and have a significant other working on curbside?
Michelle says
The fact that it has $10-$15 an hour is a palling because they’ve lowered the base pay and it’s not $10-$15. You’re lucky to make minimum wage you’re making less than a dollar a mile. It’s almost not worth it to do it anymore. don’t get your facts from spark or from Walmart itself why don’t you ask the drivers what it’s like to drive for spark right now.
john eric spangenberg says
I click sign up enter zipcode, pick location to deliver then when I hit continue… nothing happens. By the way there is NO join spark driver link at the top of the page either.