US retail giant Walmart is to buy the gig-driver management company Delivery Drivers Inc (DDI) that has been supplying its drivers for some time.

The aim in the acquisition is to streamline the driver experience in working with Walmart by providing a single point of contact. At the same time, all DDI employees will be offered jobs at Walmart.

Walmart is growing its delivery business and the acquisition is part of plans for further expansion. DDI was founded in the 1990s and is based in Irvine, California. It provides businesses with last mile delivery drivers while handling the human resources and driver management solutions for its client businesses.

“We’re always looking for ways to build a better experience, and heard from drivers that working through two companies for support wasn’t ideal. Bringing driver support in-house will provide a simplified experience,” the Walmart spokesperson said.

The drivers work via the Spark Driver platform that in turn reaches 84% of US households. This was launched four years ago and is now available in 600 cities.

“We now have thousands of independent contractors who choose to drive on the Spark Driver platform, making it the largest delivery provider for Walmart,” Nav Chadha, vice president of the Spark Driver platform, said in a company post.