Can You Say Epic Cluster?

[SmithBarney]

Unfortunately this will become common every year for both companies, as more and more people ship vs shopping local for the holidays both companies are going to have to come up with better operating plans.
our Volume tripled on the 21st, 23rd, and 24th, and actually for the 24th it might have been quadrupled since we still have CTV/RTV trucks sitting outside FULL, including 1/2 of our interior parking is taken up by packages sorted on the floors belts and anywhere else it will fit.

Short of having more FT employees who get used less in the off season, I can't see how our location could have improved, we all ran about 200% capacity on routes. short doubling staff by use of cartage agents (most of which are useless hiring family members as cartage agents should be forbidden, nepotism anyone?)

 

[El Morado Diablo]

Short of having more FT employees who get used less in the off season, I can't see how our location could have improved, we all ran about 200% capacity on routes. short doubling staff by use of cartage agents (most of which are useless hiring family members as cartage agents should be forbidden, nepotism anyone?)

Are you one of my co-workers?

We dumped entire routes worth of stops on cartage agents this year. Our manager admitted we would have been screwed without them. If they're smart they will up the rates they charge FedEx next year knowing we won't have any choice but to use them.

 

[DontThrowPackages]

This is the one. Count on it. Total meltdown is here.

You Called it on the money.

 

[!Retired!]

Unfortunately this will become common every year for both companies,

Will become? It's been the same story in my 15 Christmas's at Express. To many packages,not enough time/couriers.

 

[Goldilocks]

You Called it on the money.

Bingo! He sure did! Thousands of unhappy customers. Thousands of unhappy Johnny's waiting for their Christmas gift. And that's just in my area.....

 

[Goldilocks]

Will become? It's been the same story in my 15 Christmas's at Express. To many packages,not enough time/couriers.

Not like this one. This is my 29th. Never seen it so bad.

 

[Cactus]

I don't think anyone should submit any sales leads ever again.

 

[bbsam]

isn't it funny that even when it comes to sucking, UPS still puts Fedex to shame!

 

[TUT]

Unfortunately this will become common every year for both companies, as more and more people ship vs shopping local for the holidays both companies are going to have to come up with better operating plans.
our Volume tripled on the 21st, 23rd, and 24th, and actually for the 24th it might have been quadrupled since we still have CTV/RTV trucks sitting outside FULL

Not surprised and drivers just assume it's easy or smart to make it all work. There are only options of who gets stuck with the package OR the customer adjusting expectations. One thing I didn't see this year as much was "Guaranteed Delivery By:" that was anything reasonable. People were still pushing Monday as the last date, sure some will get it on time, but that isn't reasonable. So the etailers were greedy to, not wanting to stop orders with messages of "This may not make Christmas" and just put it on the carriers. Carriers refusing is a hard thing to do as well, that is revenue and most will still make it or those receiving it will be just fine. It's the 1000's that represent 1%, that get loud on the internet. IMO.

So you can play with this either way, someone will be at fault. Believe me (you won't) if you were in the position to analyze and decide, you would be in the same predicament your managers are. I always say you don't know how bad something was until next time. So next year, you will get to see how mad the people really were. If there is a huge drop off, then they learned and it cost the carriers. If the volumes are the same or more, which is what I predict, this is all things that the internet magnifies in the heat of the moment.

Again I have two lates, no sweat over here. Johnny isn't crying and if he were it would be his bad and there would be a lesson there to be told. Just calling it like I see it (as you do) but it's just not this bad and YES I even got a $20 Gift Card from Amazon, for one of my orders that was late. Cool, but unneeded. Both companies will continue to grow in 2014.

 

[SmithBarney]

I don't think the consumers or shippers will learn... as long as sites offer last minute shopping deals (sense of urgency sells lots of stuff) If any of the shippers learn I hope at least it's the perishable shippers, Lobsters, Fish, crabs, flowers, all these companies are going to be paying out a lot in some form, whether it's through refunds, re-shipments, legal costs to battle carriers etc, they have a lot to lose this year.

90% of my 150stops today were Tuesdays and 1/2 were perishable... at least I can say good for the volume since without it I wouldn't have worked today

 

[bbsam]

You Called it on the money.

completely overshadowed by the UPS meltdown.

 

[TUT]

I don't think the consumers or shippers will learn... as long as sites offer last minute shopping deals (sense of urgency sells lots of stuff) If any of the shippers learn I hope at least it's the perishable shippers, Lobsters, Fish, crabs, flowers, all these companies are going to be paying out a lot in some form, whether it's through refunds, re-shipments, legal costs to battle carriers etc, they have a lot to lose this year.

90% of my 150stops today were Tuesdays and 1/2 were perishable... at least I can say good for the volume since without it I wouldn't have worked today

Well then the worst case is this repeats itself. Business not really harmed, just have to take some slack the week after Christmas. Wall Street won't care if the numbers keep going up.

 

[Railbird52]

Not like this one. This is my 29th. Never seen it so bad.

 

[Railbird52]

29 for me too g-locks. never seen it so bad!
this is UPPER MANAGMENTS fault!!

 

[SmithBarney]

29 years ago amazon didn't exist. It will only become more common during peak to have these same issues, unless with Amazons spreading warehouse network, they decide to absorb some of the "local" <100mile delivery volume on their own.

 

[overflowed]

29 years ago amazon didn't exist. It will only become more common during peak to have these same issues, unless with Amazons spreading warehouse network, they decide to absorb some of the "local" <100mile delivery volume on their own.

Why would they, when they make their money back from prime on one shipment of 150 lbs. air conditioner when there is a heat wave in your city. If they knew they could make more money creating a huge courier network they would have already. The air conditioner of course will be a 3 story walk up. Take a door tag and not the air.

 

[Goldilocks]

29 for me too g-locks. never seen it so bad!
this is UPPER MANAGMENTS fault!!

Yep, its called piss poor planning

 

[kingOFchester]

Where are the numbers? How many packages did UPS sit on? How many did Fedex sit on? What are the percentages of packages fedex sit on? What are the percentages of packages UPS sat on?

Until these numbers are known, it is pure speculation on who friend'd up worse.

 

[hypo hanna]

Where are the numbers? How many packages did UPS sit on? How many did Fedex sit on? What are the percentages of packages fedex sit on? What are the percentages of packages UPS sat on?

Until these numbers are known, it is pure speculation on who friend'd up worse.

I don't think either company is going to fess up the actual numbers/percentages.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I don't think either company is going to fess up the actual numbers/percentages.

Even if they did choose to release the numbers the public would doubt their accuracy and would see it as an attempt to save face.

I don't think you will see any further discussion on the topic from either company.