being profitable.
1.8% profit last quarter at express.
- Thread starter DRAisawesome
- Start date
MAKAVELI
Well-Known Member
Thats not up to us that's up to Fred S and his cronies. Nobody's stopping you guys for making a plan and taking it to Fred S to take over.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
Management has been the undoing of Express much more than "market forces" or a flat overnight segment. Ground is Fred's Golden Goose right now, but what makes you think they can't mismanage Ground too? Express used to be a major profit generator, long before they started to micromanage it into the absolute mess it is today.
There is exactly one reason Ground is successful, and that is ultra-low labor costs. That's it. Take away your underpaid box monkeys and what do you have...nothing. Let's see how successful Ground is if and when labor costs rise.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
Actually Ground beats us in time in transit and is on the road earlier than we are.
Has Express ever had a 20% operating margin? It's really impossible for us to do what Ground does given the low pay, no benefits, trucked instead of flown environment. That they are doing this is their business, not my place to tell them how they should choose to run a business. That they used us, lied to us, screwed us over when we were doing the work that made them successful and made Fred über rich is our business. I'm sure that they feel differently, but they owe it to us to do better by us. I think, seriously, the reason they're taking their time with the transition is they know too much too fast will probably cause some violence. I can say that I'm 51, will retire soon, yada, yada, will deal with it. But tell a 38 year old divorced father of three paying child support that he'll have to work another job along with FedEx just to get by after 15 years of hard work and you may have a guy snapping. And there are probably a few thousand in the ranks that have the potential to snap. This is a B.S. environment to put us all in while they pursue more profit, and if someone ends up doing something terrible the word will get out about what they're doing to the future of their employees.
SmithBarney
Well-Known Member
1.8% profit 1.7% goes to bonuses for upper executives, and .2% goes to shareholders.. that's right the extra is coming out of CRRs in the form of NO RAISE!
So you would have me employ overpaid box monkeys? No, I think maybe I'll stick with what I have. Thanks.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
I figured you would. As soon as they (the drivers) have to be paid a livable wage and benefits, the Ground "advantage" disappears. Don't think tht day is ever coming?
not any time soon. By definition Express couriers are the overpriced box monkeys. I have no intention of matching that pay.
thedownhillEXPRESS
Well-Known Member
If we are overpaid box monkeys what the heck are UPS drivers?
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
Not considering what we have to do. The Express courier position is a lot more difficult than the Ground driver job. You will never match the pay anyway. That would end the scam.
A decades old model that will soon be forced to change or be seriously challenged for market share (if they aren't already).
I still believe we may one day find out what the courier position is all about. In time. Perhaps not too distant future.
If the only thing that matters is that owners and management do well, and employees exist for their benefit, then say goodbye to the world's largest middle class, which has already been greatly reduced. I want owners to succeed, but they aren't owed palaces and battleship sized yachts. Everyone going into business should have the philosophy that they'll help their fellow man to the best of their ability, not make promises they know they'll never keep but go to great lengths to maintain the illusion that they will. Most of mankind's written history included slavery, and we are getting close to having a society where the ruthless have decided that they can't live extravagantly unless they force others to live on the edge of poverty while in their employ. One day we may have a caste system that classifies some as untouchable so that they are forced to do menial labor with no hope of something better. Can't happen? We're watching a century's worth of labor gains being eroded right in front of us with the help of palm greased legislators.
hypo hanna
Well-Known Member
It will be the world we leave our children and if that isn't enough to fight against it, I don't know what is.
We got rid of apartheid by isolating South Africa and boycotting them. Change can come if we are smart about it, which is exactly what was wrong with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Solved nothing, made people sympathetic to Wall Street. We need a cultural shift in attitudes, that we won't do business with companies that exploit their own people. Not expecting us to all be paid $100k with gold plated benefits. But companies should strive to do the very best they can, not push people to accept less and less while they live like robber barons.
I hope tomorrow one day leave my business to my childrenbso that they can dominate and subjugate their peers.
as long as the populace can be bought off with beer, big screen TVs, and Wii consoles, the robber baron class is quite safe.
