Amazon Impact on UPS

[Catatonic]

Especially now that some industry experts have updated the talking heads' scripts for them to read.
Now, it's UPS and FedEx and Amazon FAIL.
There are increasing number of coverage spots that are putting the blame on Amazon.
I saw one on MSNBC where they had an industry analyst who said Amazon is going to have to pony up some money in future holiday season to buy some capacity. He said this capacity costs money and Amazon is going to have to pay for it.
Maybe the analysts have been reading Brown Cafe!

 

[browniehound]

This is my take: Its the consumer who failed. Everyone who works at UPS, FedEx, Amazon, etc. are human. Humans make mistakes. We also live in a real world where S--- happens (remember Murphy's law). If you wait 1 day before x-mas eve to order you kids' gift and expect it to arrive in 1 day you're asking for too many things to go right with too many humans to make it happen. Then add weather and now you're really living dangerously.

If its something you really want to get your kid for Christmas then don't wait until Dec. 23rd to buy it. You're old and wise enough to know nothing ever goes smoothly in this world.

 

[oldngray]

Remember when peak was about a week before Christmas then tapered off the last couple of days before Christmas? When people realized they needed to ship items a reasonable period of time in order to expect them to arrive before Christmas? The customer is spoiled by how well delivery companies have done to get packages delivered in a timely manner and expects the same service on the busiest days of the year. Maybe this will serve as a wake up call for customers to order and ship earlier next year. But it won't. People are stupid.

 

[Brownslave688]

Remember when peak was about a week before Christmas then tapered off the last couple of days before Christmas? When people realized they needed to ship items a reasonable period of time in order to expect them to arrive before Christmas? The customer is spoiled by how well delivery companies have done to get packages delivered in a timely manner and expects the same service on the busiest days of the year. Maybe this will serve as a wake up call for customers to order and ship earlier next year. But it won't. People are stupid.

Hell I remember those days and I have been here under 10 years.

I'm amazed at how heavy we still were today. All seasonals still on and only a few guys had off. Trucks parked all over the place again. Oh well I have vacation in a few weeks so show me the money. Lets start 2014 off right.

 

[The Milkman]

Remember when peak was about a week before Christmas then tapered off the last couple of days before Christmas? When people realized they needed to ship items a reasonable period of time in order to expect them to arrive before Christmas? The customer is spoiled by how well delivery companies have done to get packages delivered in a timely manner and expects the same service on the busiest days of the year. Maybe this will serve as a wake up call for customers to order and ship earlier next year. But it won't. People are stupid.

So True Gray

 

[over9five]

Maybe the analysts have been reading Brown Cafe!

I just hope no-one from Amazon reads Brown Cafe.
I question the wisdom of creating a thread with a title that so disses our largest customer. Imagine the job losses that would occur if we suddenly didn't have Amazon packages in our hubs and on our vehicles.
Just something to think on...

 

[cachsux]

I just hope no-one from Amazon reads Brown Cafe.
I question the wisdom of creating a thread with a title that so disses our largest customer. Imagine the job losses that would occur if we suddenly didn't have Amazon packages in our hubs and on our vehicles.
Just something to think on...

So we should lie to them?

 

[over9five]

So we should lie to them?

Do you really think they don't already know why all those packages were late?

 

[Brownslave688]

Do you really think they don't already know why all those packages were late?

Because too many ppl ordered stuff last second and amazon made promises they had no control over.

 

[cachsux]

They know. But they also should know that at best we are only partly responsible as are they and as are the customers.

 

[PT Stewie]

The customers have to realize but never will that there is not a little person inside you computer tower,laptop,tablet or smartphone that makes,packages ,warehouses ,ships,and delivers your presents."Just point click and ship" LMAO it doesn't work that way. And to the congress member that granstanded about refunds from UPS and Amazon I will bet he was home by the fire leaving some important bill un-passed while I have missed 15 Christmas Eve dinners (my choice to work) waiting until the last air driver got in @ past 9 pm
PS I was home this year.

 

[MrFedEx]

Remember when peak was about a week before Christmas then tapered off the last couple of days before Christmas? When people realized they needed to ship items a reasonable period of time in order to expect them to arrive before Christmas? The customer is spoiled by how well delivery companies have done to get packages delivered in a timely manner and expects the same service on the busiest days of the year. Maybe this will serve as a wake up call for customers to order and ship earlier next year. But it won't. People are stupid.

True, people are stupid, especially the ones that order on the 22nd or 23rd and then are "promised" delivery on the 24th. Amazon didn't blow it...we did, especially here at FedEx. UPS manned-up with temp drivers, runners, etc...FedEx did almost nothing, until it was beyond obvious that it was an incredible cluster. UPS seems to be taking most of the heat, but IMO, our stations look worse than your centers, and FedEx (Express) failed incerdibly in a total TEPCO-style meltdown, complete with stonewalling and lies to the media.

 

[Catatonic]

I just hope no-one from Amazon reads Brown Cafe.
I question the wisdom of creating a thread with a title that so disses our largest customer. Imagine the job losses that would occur if we suddenly didn't have Amazon packages in our hubs and on our vehicles.
Just something to think on...

Using that same logic, UPS pays for our wages, salaries, pensions, healthcare and yet 90% of the threads on here slam UPS.
I can assure you that anyone at UPS or Amazon that makes a difference will not be reading Brown Cafe.

They will have others read Facebook and Twitter though.

 

[pretender]

Remember when peak was about a week before Christmas then tapered off the last couple of days before Christmas? When people realized they needed to ship items a reasonable period of time in order to expect them to arrive before Christmas? The customer is spoiled by how well delivery companies have done to get packages delivered in a timely manner and expects the same service on the busiest days of the year. Maybe this will serve as a wake up call for customers to order and ship earlier next year. But it won't. People are stupid.

I have been thinking the same thing--In a way, UPS is the victim of its own success.

 

[over9five]

Because too many ppl ordered stuff last second and amazon made promises they had no control over.

Exactly.
But there's no need to rub their face in it.
Somebody has been mentioning how we'd be more profitable without Amazon. How we make next to nothing on their packages.
I'm completely comfortable with UPS making "next to nothing" on each Amazon package if it means having 5000 more Teamster jobs across the country. Because without Amazon, we lose Teamster jobs.

Big picture. Think about it...

Sent from Mordor using BrownCafe app

 

[over9five]

Using that same logic, UPS pays for our wages, salaries, pensions, healthcare and yet 90% of the threads on here slam UPS.
I can assure you that anyone at UPS or Amazon that makes a difference will not be reading Brown Cafe.

They will have others read Facebook and Twitter though.

There's a big difference between dissing your own company on a website designed for peers to discuss their jobs, and dissing your biggest customer IMO.

Sent from Mordor using BrownCafe app

 

[PT Stewie]

Using that same logic, UPS pays for our wages, salaries, pensions, healthcare and yet 90% of the threads on here slam UPS.
I can assure you that anyone at UPS or Amazon that makes a difference will not be reading Brown Cafe.

They will have others read Facebook and Twitter though.

At the end of the day Amazon is our customer and if we value our jobs we need to take care of them. Without the customers we are no-where, no matter what the expectations are. We have to do our best for them or they will go elsewhere. People, as I said earlier will never get or grasp what it takes to deliver their items .So we have to bitch and moan to ourselves but figure a way to hit the slider the next time we come to bat.

 

[PT Stewie]

I was just at a house Christmas party of a friend that was recruited by Amazon away from one the big accounting firms in Philly and is transferring to Seattle. Maybe I should tell him to reconsider ,I already have kidded him out organizing the work force.

 

[barnyard]

To me, this all boils down to one thing: people will value something that they pay for and the more they pay for something, the more they value it.

When shippers offer 'free NDA', consumers place ZERO value on it. The complaints and comments that I have been hearing reflect the value they place on getting something from across in the country in less than 24 hours.

We should be charging WAAAAAY more for NDA and NDA saver.

"Create unlimited demand for your limited product and control the supply with price."

 

[The Other Side]

Its amazing the lengths UPS will go to place the blame on the consumer or shipper. Despite its clear mishandling of PEAK overall, it still wants the knuckleheads out there to blame the customers.

Maybe its time for UPS to invest on its infrastructure? Buildings are too small for todays trucks, package cars and trailers. Buildings that were designed to handle 28 foot long trailers are now housing 53 foot long trailers that dont fit.

Reducing the number of package cars on the road delays all shipments and angers customers. Having drivers knocking on door after 8pm should be an embarrassment for UPS but in todays scheme of things, UPS calls that a success story.

The rails can only handle so many trailers at one time, and the need for sleeper runs in a busy economy has to be a must. Pretending to be able to do more with less is the product of IE personnel who dont understand the business.

No matter what the excuse, this peak was forecasted by the drivers to be extremely busy, and yet the company pencil pushers used thier powers of SWAG to make ill fated decisions.

Its this SWAG that cost this company its reputation this peak and nothing more.

Stop blaming Amazon, the customer and the shippers and lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of Scott Davis for his lack of understanding of the business at large.

I pretty sure that S. Davis authorized the SWAG decisions at every level believing he would save the company money, and as Doctor Phil would say "how did that work out for ya?"

P.S. For those who are wondering... SWAG is an accronym for "SOME WILD A-S-S GUESS"

TOS.