Amazon "Express"

[MAKAVELI]

I never understood that. Most all of the Ground guys I know get paid a flat rate and work slowly. The sooner I finish, the sooner I go home, and the more I make per hour. If I hated the pay, I sure wouldn't prolong the work day.

Working too fast may only just get you more work with the same pay just like Express.

 

[Cactus]

Working too fast may only just get you more work with the same pay just like Express.

Well Dano will never understand that 'cause he's not a real courier though he pretends to be. And badly at that.

 

[bacha29]

If Bezos is going to take the easy in town stuff and leaving the "boonie boxes" for the other carriers then X and UPS should simply refuse to take it leaving Bezos to deal with the USPS better known as the carrier of the last resort.

 

[MAKAVELI]

If Bezos is going to take the easy in town stuff and leaving the "boonie boxes" for the other carriers then X and UPS should simply refuse to take it leaving Bezos to deal with the USPS better known as the carrier of the last resort.

USPS can't handle a lot of the large heavy boxes that Express takes. I can't see a mail courier delivering a 150lb Weber, or a 150lb piece of furniture.

 

[vantexan]

If Bezos is going to take the easy in town stuff and leaving the "boonie boxes" for the other carriers then X and UPS should simply refuse to take it leaving Bezos to deal with the USPS better known as the carrier of the last resort.

If we are already delivering small pkgs in the boonies why would we turn down Amazon? If we are giving them a break on price due to high volume, we would simply reduce the discount with lower volume.

 

[59 Dano]

If Bezos is going to take the easy in town stuff and leaving the "boonie boxes" for the other carriers then X and UPS should simply refuse to take it

And then instead of taking 5 packages down a long road into the middle of nowhere, we would only take 1 or 2. You don't think these things through very well.

 

[OrioN]

If we are already delivering small pkgs in the boonies why would we turn down Amazon? If we are giving them a break on price due to high volume, we would simply reduce the discount with lower volume.

Stop making sense, thats not the fedex or ups way #sarcasm.

As for dano comment about working slower, i agree.. its bad enough that my on-road miles is more than my stop count

The plus side of my rural/suburbia mix is less strain on my joints. Since im mostly residential, HD, i have less bulk and businesses than the ground driver in the same area.

Plus, He's trying to squeeze that p1000 van down the same dirt/gravel driveways as my lil 10' uhaul boxvan

Sidenote, i didnt know the rural usps couriers(the ones that don't wear a uniform ) get a planned pay rate as well... they're speeding around trying to beat beat their planned day, but still get paid the same if they finish early.

 

[Star B]

And then instead of taking 5 packages down a long road into the middle of nowhere, we would only take 1 or 2. You don't think these things through very well.

on the flip side, how many of these stops become stand alone runners, basically wasting a half hour or more of a couriers time?

It cuts both ways, the trick is to find out which way it cuts for the most part.

 

[outtatime]

on the flip side, how many of these stops become stand alone runners, basically wasting a half hour or more of a couriers time?

It cuts both ways, the trick is to find out which way it cuts for the most part.

How is it wasting the couriers time if you're still getting paid for it? Those far out stops are easy money in my eyes. Pay me some OT to deliver one stop...no problem.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

How is it wasting the couriers time if you're still getting paid for it? Those far out stops are easy money in my eyes. Pay me some OT to deliver one stop...no problem.

We had a program called Rural Remote which allowed us to hold those stand alones until we had enough packages to justify running them off.

 

[McFeely]

on the flip side, how many of these stops become stand alone runners, basically wasting a half hour or more of a couriers time?

How is it wasting the couriers time if you're still getting paid for it? Those far out stops are easy money in my eyes. Pay me some OT to deliver one stop...no problem.

30 minutes to deliver one package is wasting the courier's time in the eyes of FedEx, and no profit is made.

30 minutes of easy OT is great for the courier, however.

Just depends on who you're asking

 

[59 Dano]

on the flip side, how many of these stops become stand alone runners, basically wasting a half hour or more of a couriers time?

It cuts both ways, the trick is to find out which way it cuts for the most part.

We already have those areas that eat up too much time with too few pieces of freight. The solution is to increase the piece counts in those areas, not decrease them.

 

[bacha29]

What is for certain is that Bezos is simply another new entrant into an already crowded business. The impact he will have depends on the pace with which his company continues to grow, his willingness to deliver nationwide and that seems doubtful and if the antitrust saber rattling evolves into something real of just election year rhetoric . The biggest question of all will be how long will it take for the public in general to realize that they are hauling his boxes for very little in return.

 

[Purplepackage]

We already have those areas that eat up too much time with too few pieces of freight. The solution is to increase the piece counts in those areas, not decrease them.

My station covers almost 2 whole counties, one of them is a super rural area with mountains and crazy long roads that generally lead to nowhere. How do you Increase piece counts there? You can just pull new homes out of your ass to deliver too.

One of our routes covers a very nessecary 200 miles but sometimes only leaves with 50 stops, there is no way Amazon will put a warehouse or service an area like that

 

[bacha29]

Excellent points. All he wants is the easy in town stuff taking away from the other carriers the volume density they have for decades used to offset the losses incurred in the depressed rural areas of this nation. The answer as previously noted is to make Bezos pay the full tab for hauling his boxes out to those areas. I thing that this is something Bezos has never considered. He no doubt has a bug up a body cavity over the fact that his shipping costs increased by more than 42% year over year and he's set out to do something about it All the average gear puncher can do is to wait and see what impact the startup losses have on the stock price and if it depresses it what if any shareholder backlash there may be . Important because remember his stock is a growth stock not a dividend or value stock.

 

[59 Dano]

Excellent points. All he wants is the easy in town stuff taking away from the other carriers the volume density they have for decades used to offset the losses incurred in the depressed rural areas of this nation. The answer as previously noted is to make Bezos pay the full tab for hauling his boxes out to those areas.

He's not going to pay it. He already diverts the majority of his freight away from Express. Thank you, drive through.

I thing that this is something Bezos has never considered. He no doubt has a bug up a body cavity over the fact that his shipping costs increased by more than 42% year over year and he's set out to do something about it All the average gear puncher can do is to wait and see what impact the startup losses have on the stock price and if it depresses it what if any shareholder backlash there may be . Important because remember his stock is a growth stock not a dividend or value stock.

Please stop.

 

[59 Dano]

It'll be interesting to see how this works out for them. I'm not that worried since I work in a small town that isn't anywhere close to a major metropolitan area and I don't see Amazon putting forth the money and effort to put us out of work anytime soon.

Hell, I'm banking on this blowing up in their faces anyways especially if they don't pay them very well or provide benefits. A lot of stolen or "lost" merchandise would definitely not look good on Amazon.

I've browsed driver reviews of the job. You can make a killing on some days and very little on others. There have been issues with drivers not being able to get any shifts (it is, or was, done via an app on your phone) and then there are issues with too many drivers. Maybe they have different ways of scheduling, I don't know. Not going to read through 50 pages of posts to learn every nuance. Nonetheless, there are also issues with drivers manipulating the system in some way at the expense of others.

From the drivers' experiences it sounds a LOT like Uber/Lyft in that it will probably attract too many drivers for anyone to make good money with the exception of a few who know how to work the system.

 

[vantexan]

My station covers almost 2 whole counties, one of them is a super rural area with mountains and crazy long roads that generally lead to nowhere. How do you Increase piece counts there? You can just pull new homes out of your ass to deliver too.

One of our routes covers a very nessecary 200 miles but sometimes only leaves with 50 stops, there is no way Amazon will put a warehouse or service an area like that

On my previous domiciled rt had a customer order big bags of dog food through Amazon. It was much cheaper with her Amazon Prime free shipping than to drive the 80 miles roundtrip to the nearest supermarket that carried it. Amazon could actually grow in remote areas as people realize that benefit.

 

[MrFedEx]

If Bezos is going to take the easy in town stuff and leaving the "boonie boxes" for the other carriers then X and UPS should simply refuse to take it leaving Bezos to deal with the USPS better known as the carrier of the last resort.

I'm thinking you're correct in that Bezos will take the easy, high profit packages, and leave the rural "undesirables" for everyone else. Bezos is a lot like Fred, with sweatshop distribution centers, low pay, and vehement anti-union philosophy. In other words, he's a cheap MF, just like our Fred.

Recently, I had a worker from a customer quit and go to work for the local Amazon Distribution Center. He lasted about 3 weeks of the 90-day probationary period and got his old job back. Extreme micromanagement, and highly physical despite all the robotics and high tech. You had to do a minimum number of orders per hour or you were put on punishment duty, which was to haul water to on-duty workers. I, for one, believe all of the bad press about a psychotic Amazon management culture and "sweatshop" DCs.

 

[vantexan]

I'm thinking you're correct in that Bezos will take the easy, high profit packages, and leave the rural "undesirables" for everyone else. Bezos is a lot like Fred, with sweatshop distribution centers, low pay, and vehement anti-union philosophy. In other words, he's a cheap MF, just like our Fred.

Recently, I had a worker from a customer quit and go to work for the local Amazon Distribution Center. He lasted about 3 weeks of the 90-day probationary period and got his old job back. Extreme micromanagement, and highly physical despite all the robotics and high tech. You had to do a minimum number of orders per hour or you were put on punishment duty, which was to haul water to on-duty workers. I, for one, believe all of the bad press about a psychotic Amazon management culture and "sweatshop" DCs.

And he's a major Democrat Party supporter to boot!