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FedEx Ground Moving Via Express?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ricochet1a" data-source="post: 602623" data-attributes="member: 22880"><p>If FedEx tried to contract out the delivery of OVERNIGHT packages, then there may be some issues. Remember, FedEx's RLA classification isn't due to a court decision, it is due to a piece of legislation, the Railway Labor Act. Express has maintained that classification due to three reasons: 1) It has aircraft, 2) Other "airlines" are classified under RLA, 3) FedEx has enough of Congress in its pocket. </p><p> </p><p>The Express equipment will be used to deliver overnight volume. There will be the same number of routes, and virtually the same number of Couriers. What will change is that the Couriers will be shifted from an overwhelming full time force to a near complete part-time force. Labor cost will decrease and FedEx's risk of having it Courier force unionizing will virtually disappear. </p><p> </p><p>FedEx has already proven to itself that it can skirt the intent of the law with the IC model at Ground. It keeps on making the necesary tweaks to it operating practices at Ground to stay one step ahead of any court decision. Throwing the delivery of Express non-overnight volume to Ground isn't any earthshattering development. It is merely the use of a cartage agent to deliver packages. This is done all the time the world over and DHL uses that to deliver international volume within the US quite often now. </p><p> </p><p>The FAA only gets involved in the air cargo arena from the moment the package is tendered to the moment the package makes it to the destination airport. Once the package leaves its destination airport, the FAA is out of the picture - the package becomes just another piece of road revenue that the DOT regulates, but NOT the FAA. This is the perfect opening for FedEx to "transfer custody" of non-overnight volume to Ground and have them complete the final movement of the volume. From the FAA or DOT's perspective, nothing is happening. From an Express fulltime Courier perspective, it is the end of their career. </p><p> </p><p>As far as passing the "smell test", that was passed a a while back. Ground is already offering next day service to extended areas - performing "express" deliveries. What Ground and Express do is indistinguishable with the sole exception that Express is classified as an airline by the FAA due to its ownership of an air cargo fleet - that's it. </p><p> </p><p>You can't point to anything which specifically prohibits FedEx from doing this. This is the key. As long as the law doesn't specifically prohibit an action, anything else is considered fair game. AGFS will still be strictly Express employees. DGO will deliver all of the overnight volume. DGO will still pickup ALL volume that could potentially move by aircraft. There is no conflct with any FAA regulation and certainly not with any provision of the Railway Labor Act which was written long before FedEx even existed. </p><p> </p><p>When one flies the journey is regulated by the FAA in the US. Once one hits the curb of the airport and gets into a taxi for the final leg of travel, the FAA isn't concerned with the "journey" anymore. This is what will change. Instead of "United airlines" flying you to your destination airport and then driving you to your hotel or residence in a "United" shuttle bus, "United" will hand off your transportation to a third party at the airport for final "delivery". The fact that the third party is in fact owned by the same holding corportation is irrelevant. They maintain the "separate operating company" pretense, therefore no legal issues present themselves. </p><p> </p><p>Finally, this isn't just speculation on my part. It is a scenario that has been relayed to me over the past 18 months as being the FedEx "master plan" regarding the transformation of Express to keep it union free and with lower labor costs than UPS. The changes are already happening. They are slow and in many cases obscured with confused reasoning or outright lies to Express employees. When the "switch is flipped", the majority of Express employees won't realize what happened to them. They will be forced into performing their delivery route in a few short hours, then forced into an extended unpaid break until they start a PM pickup route. Most won't put up with this and will gradually retire or quit. This is precisely what Express will want. The Courier force will be gradually transformed from a full time, high experience (and from FedEx's viewpoint, over paid), force to a part-time, low compensation force that won't bother with unionization since they are transient in their employment with FedEx.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ricochet1a, post: 602623, member: 22880"] If FedEx tried to contract out the delivery of OVERNIGHT packages, then there may be some issues. Remember, FedEx's RLA classification isn't due to a court decision, it is due to a piece of legislation, the Railway Labor Act. Express has maintained that classification due to three reasons: 1) It has aircraft, 2) Other "airlines" are classified under RLA, 3) FedEx has enough of Congress in its pocket. The Express equipment will be used to deliver overnight volume. There will be the same number of routes, and virtually the same number of Couriers. What will change is that the Couriers will be shifted from an overwhelming full time force to a near complete part-time force. Labor cost will decrease and FedEx's risk of having it Courier force unionizing will virtually disappear. FedEx has already proven to itself that it can skirt the intent of the law with the IC model at Ground. It keeps on making the necesary tweaks to it operating practices at Ground to stay one step ahead of any court decision. Throwing the delivery of Express non-overnight volume to Ground isn't any earthshattering development. It is merely the use of a cartage agent to deliver packages. This is done all the time the world over and DHL uses that to deliver international volume within the US quite often now. The FAA only gets involved in the air cargo arena from the moment the package is tendered to the moment the package makes it to the destination airport. Once the package leaves its destination airport, the FAA is out of the picture - the package becomes just another piece of road revenue that the DOT regulates, but NOT the FAA. This is the perfect opening for FedEx to "transfer custody" of non-overnight volume to Ground and have them complete the final movement of the volume. From the FAA or DOT's perspective, nothing is happening. From an Express fulltime Courier perspective, it is the end of their career. As far as passing the "smell test", that was passed a a while back. Ground is already offering next day service to extended areas - performing "express" deliveries. What Ground and Express do is indistinguishable with the sole exception that Express is classified as an airline by the FAA due to its ownership of an air cargo fleet - that's it. You can't point to anything which specifically prohibits FedEx from doing this. This is the key. As long as the law doesn't specifically prohibit an action, anything else is considered fair game. AGFS will still be strictly Express employees. DGO will deliver all of the overnight volume. DGO will still pickup ALL volume that could potentially move by aircraft. There is no conflct with any FAA regulation and certainly not with any provision of the Railway Labor Act which was written long before FedEx even existed. When one flies the journey is regulated by the FAA in the US. Once one hits the curb of the airport and gets into a taxi for the final leg of travel, the FAA isn't concerned with the "journey" anymore. This is what will change. Instead of "United airlines" flying you to your destination airport and then driving you to your hotel or residence in a "United" shuttle bus, "United" will hand off your transportation to a third party at the airport for final "delivery". The fact that the third party is in fact owned by the same holding corportation is irrelevant. They maintain the "separate operating company" pretense, therefore no legal issues present themselves. Finally, this isn't just speculation on my part. It is a scenario that has been relayed to me over the past 18 months as being the FedEx "master plan" regarding the transformation of Express to keep it union free and with lower labor costs than UPS. The changes are already happening. They are slow and in many cases obscured with confused reasoning or outright lies to Express employees. When the "switch is flipped", the majority of Express employees won't realize what happened to them. They will be forced into performing their delivery route in a few short hours, then forced into an extended unpaid break until they start a PM pickup route. Most won't put up with this and will gradually retire or quit. This is precisely what Express will want. The Courier force will be gradually transformed from a full time, high experience (and from FedEx's viewpoint, over paid), force to a part-time, low compensation force that won't bother with unionization since they are transient in their employment with FedEx. [/QUOTE]
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