Fixing the Peak Problem with Large Retailer Shippers

Squint

No more work for me!
The stock (UPS) didn't even take a hit at all. Amazon has it's rollout in December for their premium service every year. This year 79% of all orders taken in the third week of December were for their premium service members. Don't know how many of the 79% signed up for the premium service this year but you can imagine that's where most of the airs were from.

Amazon is second only to WalMart in sales.
 
We cant. Amazon and the like are to blame. If i have X amount of capacity, that's it. Just because Amazon can fill orders doesn't mean we can accept them all. Someone needs a reality check.

We can take them all. We just can't keep Amazons false promises on unattainable delivery dates.
 
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chuchu

Guest
We cant. Amazon and the like are to blame. If i have X amount of capacity, that's it. Just because Amazon can fill orders doesn't mean we can accept them all. Someone needs a reality check.
A simple "no guarantee" disclaimer would have been sufficient and the media would have had to go out and find some really life changing news to enlighten the bored masses with. Unlike Benghazi.

Or, "if you like your current insurance plan you can keep it".
 

kingOFchester

Well-Known Member
The stock (UPS) didn't even take a hit at all. Amazon has it's rollout in December for their premium service every year. This year 79% of all orders taken in the third week of December were for their premium service members. Don't know how many of the 79% signed up for the premium service this year but you can imagine that's where most of the airs were from.

Amazon is second only to WalMart in sales.
Amazon has a press release stating over a million people signed up for prime in the third week of december

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-mediaHome
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
Well the day has finally arrived (or the peak anyway) where the PUBLIC finally got to see how mismanaged UPS is. Bad management, outside hires and people in positions that have no clue have been rising for years, and now it's come to a head. I know there are a lot of IE, BD, and logistic people who think they really drive this company, but they need to get out of the offices.
UPS management avoids operations because it's hard work and long hours. It's much easier to be an IE person sitting around on conference calls telling OPs Managers what the centers are doing wrong (in their eyes anyway).

The failures this peak have to be placed on THOSE people and above, NOT the operators. Unfortunately, they won’t.

I’m sure after the new year, the conference calls will start back up with a clueless IE people saying “you’re center is one trip over plan” or “you have one too many people on your sort”.

Thank God for the mute button, because the disconnect between the people on each end of these calls is wider than it has ever been. Operators laugh on one end, while upper management, IE or whoever thinks operators don’t listen and refuse to comply with what they want. I wonder how many 14 hour days those office people put in this year? The operators in the centers drive this company not these people setting forth bad plans and have never worked in a center in their lives.

2013 proved that.

This, my friends, is the beginning of the end. The failures this year will make UPS more nuts next year. More conference calls, less resources, and more people outside the centers who have NO CLUE what they are doing.

In the end, UPS thinks technology will solve all their problems. Get rid of management or pay them less. We have technology and IE people that can run centers. Well, we saw how that worked for 2013.

Happy New Year!!
Amazon has a press release stating over a million people signed up for prime in the third week of December

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-mediaHome
Part of the responsibility for this situation has to lay with Amazon. The online giant said, as part of its traditional post-holiday recap, that more than a million customers, a new record, had signed up for Prime membership in the third week of December, the key week to qualify for guaranteed holiday delivery. Since Prime offers "free" guaranteed two-day delivery, the unplanned extra volume that flowed into the UPS and Fedex systems was a recepie for disaster and that is exactly what happened.

If Amazon depends on UPS and Fedex to fulfill the promises they make to their customers (and they do), they need to do a better job of communicating their plans with their delivery partners. Both UPS and Fedex make peak plans based on forecasted volume (economy, projections from customers, etc). Amazon suddenly adding 1 million customers to the shipping mix was not part of the plan so UPS and Fedex can not be faulted for having at least a million unplanned air & ground packages added to the system days before Christmas. It's not simply a matter of adding addtional aircraft, trailers and delivery vehicles a few days before Christmas-every plane, trailer and package car was already taken. Add in some volume that was already behind from various weather events around the country and it makes for an ugly situation.

I don't believe this can be blamed on squarely on UPS management. Where there could be some blame on UPS management is that they did not say "no" when certain large customers came to them at the last minute and said - "here's tens of thousands of unplanned packages to delivery, please help."

Another voice of reason
 

TUT

Well-Known Member
When they offer free 2-Day or for $4 overnight shipping, that is going to bypass the ground network for many and straight to air. Air is much more limited for everyone. As for Amazon is going to review carrier performance, they and everyone else does that ongoing. Very generic, but at the same time, truthful.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
I got the perfect idea. First off have people on call that didnt invest 100 bucks into traveling to get hired.
@nd, lets get retirees to come in for jumpers and area knowledge, and can drive when we hit our 60 hr limit
Problem solved.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
And lets work Sunday and Christmas, for people who forgot little Johnny or Mom, until Monday night, Christmas eve, eve. And lets get the snow plows and salt trucks to lead us and follow us. We will get all the roads cleared. Lord knows I pay enough city taxes, I should get a chaperone. Shut down the highways except for emergency vehicles and UPS. And the airports, except for our planes and Fed ex, should only accomodate us as it is a national story. No one cares if passengers get delayed at airports for days,sleep on floors, miss their entire Christmas, those logistics somehow they understand. but they sure as hell care they didnt get their last minute pkg.
 
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chuchu

Guest
And lets work Sunday and Christmas, for people who forgot little Johnny or Mom, until Monday night, Christmas eve, eve. And lets get the snow plows and salt trucks to lead us and follow us. We will get all the roads cleared. Lord knows I pay enough city taxes, I should get a chaperone. Shut down the highways except for emergency vehicles and UPS. And the airports, except for our planes and Fed ex, should only accomodate us as it is a national story. No one cares if passengers get delayed at airports for days,sleep on floors, miss their entire Christmas, those logistics somehow they understand. but they sure as hell care they didnt get their last minute pkg.
I have a better idea. Anything that comes into our system after Dec 22nd goes straight to Surepost and then the post office can take one for the team....er, I meant get the credit and unbiased media coverage for a job well done.
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
We can take them all. We just can't keep Amazons false promises on unattainable delivery dates.
Don't know if anyone has mentioned this but how about the last week before Christmas we suspend all shipping discounts. I love amazon prime and often order stuff next day because it's under $10. That's cheaper for nda than ground about anywhere.
 

upscat

Well-Known Member
Exactly, UPS is letting these greedy shippers destroy the rest of our customer base.
Amazon does not care about UPS or their employees ... in fact, they seem to hate us.
Amazon may be the biggest shipper but they are also the the single worse enemy of UPS as well.

It is that greed that keeps us in business. Controlled shipping Would limit supply and drive up prices.the next thing we would then be blamed for. We work off of trends. There were no signs the volume would go nuts at peak. Adjust next years and move on. Shippers got a good reminder of why the industry tells everyone to ship early. They needed that reminder.
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
It is that greed that keeps us in business. Controlled shipping Would limit supply and drive up prices.the next thing we would then be blamed for. We work off of trends. There were no signs the volume would go nuts at peak. Adjust next years and move on. Shippers got a good reminder of why the industry tells everyone to ship early. They needed that reminder.
There were no signs volume numbers would go nuts? According to who? I think most drivers saw this coming. I didn't think it would happen for another 4-5 years but I figured it would happen.
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
UPS doesn't offer discounts to consumers; Amazon, Walmart, Toys R Us, etc. offer the discounts. UPS and these retailers negotiate on a settled price.
We give amazon a massive discount compared to our regular prices. Call it what you want it's a discount. So much of a discount that some wonder if we even make money on a large number of amazon packages.
 

upscat

Well-Known Member
There were no signs volume numbers would go nuts? According to who? I think most drivers saw this coming. I didn't think it would happen for another 4-5 years but I figured it would happen.

Then you didnt think it would happen this year either? Some operations saw a 60 or 70 percent increase over past results. Thats huge. No way anyone is going to plan that big a jump.
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
Then you didnt think it would happen this year either? Some operations saw a 60 or 70 percent increase over past results. Thats huge. No way anyone is going to plan that big a jump.


Yes 60-70% is nuts. Hard to forecast that but after thanksgiving weekend it was obvious ups' 8% increase forecast was going to be way off. Unfortunately with such a short amount of time between the two holidays there wasn't time to recover.
 
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