An Invitation To FedEx Management

[MrFedEx]

It would be great if some of our fearless leaders came out of hiding and explained themselves and their continuing push to squeeze all of the little remaining blood from hourly employees. Ops and Senior managers would be fine, but how about some of you MD's and above? Sure, times are tough, and fuel prices are high, but once you've extracted all the productivity out of a human "asset", where else is there to go? It's interesting how nearly all of the cost-cutting gets shifted onto the hourlies, and very little is demanded of "leadership". Your salaries stay the same, and the bloated upper and middle management workforce in Memphis continues it's mindless dicates to the field on how we need to cut costs by slashing away at labor. And since you generally don't have a clue about Field Ops, many of your ideas actually cost more money than they save. Have you ever considered consulting people who do work in the field, talk to real-life customers, and have actually handled a pkg during their careers? You can sit in your cubicles and meeting rooms all day long brainstorming "solutions", but if they are all worthless, what have you accomplished? By the way, how many of you have been shifted away from your families to Tues-Sat workweeks? ....NONE.

 

[COSMOS]

I don't think anyone's hiding. As far as I can tell, management has been pretty upfront. Things are being pushed and tightened because the company needs to continue to turn a profit. The alternative is layoffs... which haven't happened at FedEx...ever. I'm no shill for the company but if you think you'll get much sympathy from a UPS driver over being asked to work harder, think again.

 

[The Mayor]

Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You wanna save money. Here's a $7 million dollar plan. Take the 1,000 engineers we have at $70,000 a year and say 'goodbye.' They wouldn't know how to find their way out of a paper bag with 5 gallons of water.

 

[MrFedEx]

My issues are their "blanket" solutions, which generally don't work, and the fact that hourlies nearly always bear the brunt of the cuts.Do you really think that MT3 and all the big shots have suffered at all? Everyone expects to work harder...I just wish they would use better judgement. There are not very many people drinking the Kool-Aid any more. Have a big gulp if you want.

 

[The Mayor]

If you make it green jello, you got a deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[Coldworld]

It would be great if some of our fearless leaders came out of hiding and explained themselves and their continuing push to squeeze all of the little remaining blood from hourly employees. Ops and Senior managers would be fine, but how about some of you MD's and above? Sure, times are tough, and fuel prices are high, but once you've extracted all the productivity out of a human "asset", where else is there to go? It's interesting how nearly all of the cost-cutting gets shifted onto the hourlies, and very little is demanded of "leadership". Your salaries stay the same, and the bloated upper and middle management workforce in Memphis continues it's mindless dicates to the field on how we need to cut costs by slashing away at labor. And since you generally don't have a clue about Field Ops, many of your ideas actually cost more money than they save. Have you ever considered consulting people who do work in the field, talk to real-life customers, and have actually handled a pkg during their careers? You can sit in your cubicles and meeting rooms all day long brainstorming "solutions", but if they are all worthless, what have you accomplished? By the way, how many of you have been shifted away from your families to Tues-Sat workweeks? ....NONE.

Mr. Fedex, the more I read your posts the more I like you. Its the same ol, too many chiefs, not enough indians. Management want the customers money, but dont want to give them the service they are paying for. If the customers wanted a basic delivery of a parcel, they would use the post office. Companies like ups and fedex dont make any goods, all they do is move a parcel from point a to b, which is a service, thats it, and customers pay more with ups and fedex to do it for many reasons, usually the higher service we give them over dhl and the post office. I think our companies look at the competition over a given period of time to decide how much "service" the customer is given. For example, when dhl bought airborne, all anyone heard about at ups was service, service. They knew dhl was going to target many of ups' accounts so our service was high. Now look at things, dhl is tanking, and then add some of the problems fedex is having and service has taken a backseat to production....dhl and fedex are giving unstable service, so will ups. You know what I mean...anyway you have some excellent posts, keep it up!

 

[3 done 3 to go]

I have been saying all along. FedEx needs to get in a union. Upper management has been making a killing off of the backs of you guys. One reason they are losing money is there are 4 different trucks going to the same addresses. The poor ground guys are having to pay for their trucks. that is just wrong!

 

[Coldworld]

I have been saying all along. FedEx needs to get in a union. Upper management has been making a killing off of the backs of you guys. One reason they are losing money is there are 4 different trucks going to the same addresses. The poor ground guys are having to pay for their trucks. that is just wrong!

trucks, insurance, gas(or at least most if it), uniforms, rent the scanner, etc, etc. It is absolutely pathetic, and I cant believe most of them havent jumped on the lawsuit bandwagon...its just not right.

 

[The Mayor]

The reason why is because FredEx falls under the NLRB and railway act. This means that for us to unionize, the entire country would have to vote on it. FedEx uppermanagement (Fred) has sank millions upon millions of dollars to politicians, and other government agencies for us to even begin to get a chance to even put it before a vote. That will never happen if you have politicians in your pocket. This is for the Express division.

We even have a plane in Washington D.C. that is always on standby to take whatever senator or representative to whatever location they need to go to just to win over their vote. Pretty bad, eh?


Now for the Ground division, they can work on it and bring it to a vote. That is what has been happening in California, and they Won! From what I hear, news is spreading and it will hopefully spread like wild fire.They recieved over $600 million in restitution. This is why they "seperated" the "different" FedEx entities. They call us seperate companies, but we all operate under the same name.....go figure. Hope this clarifies a little.

 

[bbsam]

coldworld, why do you think most ground contractors haven't jumped on the lawsuit bandwagon? and did the lawsuits really win in California? the company has forced mwa's (multiple work areas) onto contractors. that is to say that contractors with only one route had to buy another route, sell their's to another or not have their contract renewed. and about fuel cost, the is this little understood provision called a fuel supplement that keeps fuel cost at about $1.25/gallon. before you go feeling sorry for ground contractors, you really should read the contract. sadly far too few of our contractors even understand it. contractor like myself, however, find that it can be very rewarding. and MrFedEx people like you make me think Phil Graham might have a point.

 

[MrFedEx]

bbsam,
Keep right on believing if you want to. Perhaps you are an unusual case and are really happy with FedEx....good for you. Until you understand the Express side your "whining" analogy is completely invalid. The only reason that you have a good deal with Ground is the new MWA provision you refer to in your post and the pressure from the IRS and the courts on FedEx to make "employees" independents in the eyes of the law. What do suppose the FedEx logic in going with owner-operators was in the first place? It's all about the money. Not owning any trucks, not paying any benefits or taxes, and keeping the cost structure low makes Ground a low-cost alternative to UPS. As soon as that goes away Ground has big issues, and the courts are still ruling against FedEx on a consistent basis. What do you think will happen to you when Fred has to pay-up??