About Those Planes

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
That's not how an employer/employee relationship works. In general, a business is free to pay its employees whatever it wants. An employee is then required to perform whatever tasks at whatever pace the employer sets as long as there's no illegal activity etc. It doesn't make it right or fair but it is what it is. You, as an employee, don't get to tell your employer that you are going to work at the pace you decide.


Analogies often don't work well however just to clarify, as you seem to have misinterpreted mine, if you call a repairman and he tells you he charges $xx/hour, your expectation (as his "employer") is that he will work at an acceptable pace. If he's sitting on your couch drinking beer and still charging you $xx/hour, I doubt that you are going to be ok with that just as FedEx isn't going to be ok with you setting your own pace.

Again, not debating whether or not the hourly wage is fair. Just clarifying that a business can and does dictate what it expects from its employees.

Let's put it this way. If Fred doesn't pay-up, his refrigerator is only going to be about 75% as efficient as it used to be because the "repair people" won't fix-it properly. He can continue to dictate what he expects and fed-up employees will not meet his expectations. They will call-in sick, not provide good customer service, and generally gum-up the works. He's already pushed further than he should have. Now is where the resistance comes in, and I'm already starting to see it in the form of reduced performance. People are finally figuring it out, and won't play the game under the same old rules. There are many subtle ways to create inefficiency and chaos at FedEx. What if everyone "accidentally" locked their keys in their truck at 1700? Ooops. Accidents happen, and almost everyone is aware of what Fred is doing even though Memphis isn't saying anything to employees. Word travels very fast.
 

fxdwg

Long Time Member
Is that all you've got? And no, it doesn't. My point is that UPS employees generally project a more professional image to the customer.

That's what 100+ years gives you. Old school, old style, old principles, old work ethic................UPS


Fedex may have it as well, but they;ve got 60+ years to go in much different era.
Once the Boomers have died off....maybe then, but not for a long time
 

quadro

Well-Known Member
Let's put it this way. If Fred doesn't pay-up, his refrigerator is only going to be about 75% as efficient as it used to be because the "repair people" won't fix-it properly. He can continue to dictate what he expects and fed-up employees will not meet his expectations. They will call-in sick, not provide good customer service, and generally gum-up the works. He's already pushed further than he should have. Now is where the resistance comes in, and I'm already starting to see it in the form of reduced performance. People are finally figuring it out, and won't play the game under the same old rules. There are many subtle ways to create inefficiency and chaos at FedEx. What if everyone "accidentally" locked their keys in their truck at 1700? Ooops. Accidents happen, and almost everyone is aware of what Fred is doing even though Memphis isn't saying anything to employees. Word travels very fast.
Aside from the fact that most people have at least a decent work ethic and won't do what you suggest, you run a huge risk in purposely working at a sub-par level because, once again, the employer (contract, no contract, makes no difference) sets the acceptable work standard and is within its rights to hold you accountable to that.
 

vantexan

Well-Known Member
Most likely if FedEx ever raises our pay substantially it will be due to extremely high inflation. Then they can claim that they care, but if you calculate for inflation you'll probably find you are no better off and possibly worse off.
 

fxdwg

Long Time Member
Most likely if FedEx ever raises our pay substantially it will be due to extremely high inflation. Then they can claim that they care, but if you calculate for inflation you'll probably find you are no better off and possibly worse off.

What's "Substantional"? Just curious.
Give me as range for different positions.

Thanks
 

vantexan

Well-Known Member
What's "Substantional"? Just curious.
Give me as range for different positions.

Thanks

If we see inflation like we had in the late 70's they would have to give us 10 to 15 percent annual raises just to keep up. Hopefully it won't happen but one way to pay for all the government debt is to inflate the money. Really bad for those with the fixed benefit pension that they terminated. My $13k or so at 55 will suffer enough with regular inflation. With really high inflation it'll be almost worthless as there's no annual cost of living adjustment attached to it.
 
The problem is, whether you like it or not, your employer is really not obligated to increase anything unless you are under a bargaining agreement or...they love you very much.
 
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MrFedEx

Engorged Member
Aside from the fact that most people have at least a decent work ethic and won't do what you suggest, you run a huge risk in purposely working at a sub-par level because, once again, the employer (contract, no contract, makes no difference) sets the acceptable work standard and is within its rights to hold you accountable to that.

Again, if most people decide that the acceptable work standard is unreasonable and do not comply, what is FedEx going to do? If they fire all of us there won't be any slaves to deliver the golden packages, right?

As all of this drags-on, there will be an increasing number of people who decide they don't want to play Fred's game. Granted, for now at least, most people are going to keep working hard because they have a good work ethic. But what about 3 or 4 months from today, when Fred has lost his appeal and things get nasty? How are a lot of employees going to feel then?

At our local stations, there is a major rise in sick calls, way over and above the norm for mid-May, even when you take into account people trying to use-up sick days. The winds are changing.
 

TechGrrl

Space Cadet
That's what 100+ years gives you. Old school, old style, old principles, old work ethic................UPS


Fedex may have it as well, but they;ve got 60+ years to go in much different era.
Once the Boomers have died off....maybe then, but not for a long time
NOT 60+ Fredly started his flight-by-night startup in either 1971 or 1973. Not quite 40 years.
 

The Mayor

Well-Known Member
I know that this thread started out about the "planes", but I just have to ask. I anyone else's station seeing a truck shortage? :biting: At my station, we currently run approximately 80 a.m. routes with now 32 rental vans! Talk about a waste of money!:surprised: The W 700's have been getting retired faster than you can say abbra cadabra because of frame cracking issues. So, our brilliant idea has been to replace them with rental vans (which of course costs thousands). We have been constantly been told that, "just hang in there, the trucks are on the way." Well, this was back in January....It's now the end of May.:angry-very2:

This brings me to the point of how are we able to afford these new planes when they keep saying that we are so broke and that our volume is down? Hmmmmm, I don't know about you, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the truth here. :knockedout: I can't wait to see the 4th quarter report and see how they will try to snowball the financial report over on us. I am so sick of this bull****** and being lied to. :angry-very2::angry-very2:Why do we need bigger planes if volume is down? The cost of 1 777F aircraft could yield a heck of a lot of trucks to transport our frieght. Oh wait, that's right, volume is down....what was I thinking. :sick:
 

vantexan

Well-Known Member
I know that this thread started out about the "planes", but I just have to ask. I anyone else's station seeing a truck shortage? :biting: At my station, we currently run approximately 80 a.m. routes with now 32 rental vans! Talk about a waste of money!:surprised: The W 700's have been getting retired faster than you can say abbra cadabra because of frame cracking issues. So, our brilliant idea has been to replace them with rental vans (which of course costs thousands). We have been constantly been told that, "just hang in there, the trucks are on the way." Well, this was back in January....It's now the end of May.:angry-very2:

This brings me to the point of how are we able to afford these new planes when they keep saying that we are so broke and that our volume is down? Hmmmmm, I don't know about you, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the truth here. :knockedout: I can't wait to see the 4th quarter report and see how they will try to snowball the financial report over on us. I am so sick of this bull****** and being lied to. :angry-very2::angry-very2:Why do we need bigger planes if volume is down? The cost of 1 777F aircraft could yield a heck of a lot of trucks to transport our frieght. Oh wait, that's right, volume is down....what was I thinking. :sick:

Those 777's are supposed to fly farther on less fuel. Will allow fewer planes to do the work, saving money in the long run, or so I've read. My station isn't as large but we've been using 4 or 5 rentals for awhile. Which makes me wonder is there a scenario developing in the near future that won't require as many trucks? Might be more cost effective to rent short term than buy if not as many trucks will be needed eventually. Just a theory...
 
Unless someone on this forum has actually negotiated a contract with Boeing or Airbus, whether FEDEX or UPS, all responses are just speculation and nothing more.:happy2:
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
For some reason Ground kept very hush-hush a change in planning for the coming contract. The odd thing was that when we finally learned the "secret", noone could understand why the hush-hush. Simply put, the company will no longer contract with LLCs, LLPs, or sole proprietorships. The context of this change had to do with ongoing litigation of the contractor model, but it didn't really seem to fit. This is really such a small issue (incorporating takes a lawyer and $500) but they kept repeating that "much more about this will be forthcoming in the next few months." So where's the connection? There is none evident but that there should be anything more than the 12 minute meeting suggests there is much more going on than what they are saying. As for adding routes, no but everybody knows they need to. In fact, that on it's own suggests a change coming in some respects. Why add contracts if the model is going to change? I have one supplemental that runs about 90 stops in 170 miles makes 8-10 pickup stops and delivers about 300 pieces a day. I don't know about at express, but at ground that constitutes a 9-10 hour day easily. In fact we have several such supplementals (basically routes without contracts) in our terminal.

Now the other thing that seems strange is that I know of two websites where I could put in orders for new vans and with verification of bank funding have the vehicles within a week. Why can't Express? Because for some reason they don't want to or considering future moves they may be planning they don't see any reason that the would need to. Maybe they think the economy is about to tank again. Personally I don't think that is their rationale.
 
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