Walmart Stores is reportedly putting pressure on its delivery truck operators, warning them they will have to stop hauling goods for Amazon or lose Walmart’s business.
That’s according to a report that quoted transportation consultant Satish Jindel as saying the latest move on the part of Walmart is part of the so-called “cold war” between the two retailers. Jindel said he learned of Walmart’s warnings via some of his sources, whom he declined to disclose. “I know that Walmart has expressed its views to truckload carriers,” Jindel said. “Walmart would prefer to do business with carriers that are not doing business with Amazon.” According to the report, Walmart started having conversations with delivery companies during the last 30 days. The retailer told TheStreet.com that the report about the truckers was false, noting it’s “illegal for us to tell them who they can do business with,” a spokesperson said.
The warning to truckers, true or not, comes at a time when Walmart is picking up its fight with Amazon, which has long been the dominant e-Commerce leader in the U.S. Just last week, the Wall Street Journal reported Walmart has started telling technology partners to not run applications for the retailer on Amazon Web Services (AWS). According to the paper, tech executives said that if they want to continue to keep Walmart’s business, they have to use other cloud-computing services like Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. Walmart maintains most of its data internally, but a spokesman confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that there are cases where some of the cloud apps it uses run on AWS. The spokesman wouldn’t disclose the apps, but did confirm it has urged vendors to use other cloud-computing business solutions in those cases. “It shouldn’t be a big surprise that there are cases in which we’d prefer our most sensitive data isn’t sitting on a competitor’s platform,” the spokesman told the Wall Street Journal. He noted it’s in a small number of cases.