long time full time drivers

[idas roses]

would like to know if across the country if full time express drivers (20-25-30) year employees are having a hard time getting 40 hours a week?

 

[Operational needs]

would like to know if across the country if full time express drivers (20-25-30) year employees are having a hard time getting 40 hours a week?

Not me. I get plenty on my route.

The area I'm in has a very high turnover rate though. Never enough bodies.

 

[idas roses]

never in my career with this company have we ever hired this many employees to the point that I cant get even get a 40 hour work week. Just trying to figure what is going on and is this across the board?

 

[dezguy]

I'm good up here in the great white North. Haven't been below 40 hours in a few years now.

Edit: I'm a 15ish year vet so don't know if I count.

 

[MrFedEx]

never in my career with this company have we ever hired this many employees to the point that I cant get even get a 40 hour work week. Just trying to figure what is going on and is this across the board?

My station just hired around 50, and they have announced that OT is going away. My guess is that 40 of them will quit, and the other 10 can do 5 SPH. It's just pathetic.

 

[5yearsleft]

Still able to get 40+ hours here. They keep hiring, but we are always understaffed.

 

[BrownMeetPurple]

All our drivers from 5 to 30yrs are getting 35-38 hours. Never 40.

 

[Cactus]

They keep hiring, but we are always understaffed.

That's because these new hires find out real quick that the company is crap so they quickly bail. Retaining new people is like trying to fill a barrel of water with a large gaping hole.

 

[Artee]

They are hiring lots of handlers at the stations around here. They don't want the couriers coming in for the sort and helping to unload at night. Cutting their hours that way right now. One of the managers I talk to can't believe they are hiring so many handlers. He doesn't have anything for them to do on the PM and wants them shifted to the AM. They are killing his hours report and in turn getting his butt chewed from the Senior.

At our RT they are hiring more part time drivers even though we don't have enough work for the full time ones. They sent two full timers home last night with them only working 4 hours each. Paying them minimums for the week. But lets hire more drivers...LOL Stupid.

 

[idas roses]

Still able to get 40+ hours here. They keep hiring, but we are always understaffed.

They are hiring lots of handlers at the stations around here. They don't want the couriers coming in for the sort and helping to unload at night. Cutting their hours that way right now. One of the managers I talk to can't believe they are hiring so many handlers. He doesn't have anything for them to do on the PM and wants them shifted to the AM. They are killing his hours report and in turn getting his butt chewed from the Senior.

At our RT they are hiring more part time drivers even though we don't have enough work for the full time ones. They sent two full timers home last night with them only working 4 hours each. Paying them minimums for the week. But lets hire more drivers...LOL Stupid.

 

[idas roses]

Sounds very close to what's going on at our station. FedEx express has never been so overstuffed,sending people home,paying people minimum pay,I don't get it. I wonder if there is some underlying reason for this and they are going to lower the boom on us. If anyone has a clue please let us know

 

[Route 66]

I wonder if there is some underlying reason for this and they are going to lower the boom on us.

We know that's just a given

 

[Cactus]

One of the managers I talk to can't believe they are hiring so many handlers. He doesn't have anything for them to do on the PM and wants them shifted to the AM. They are killing his hours report and in turn getting his butt chewed from the Senior.

That Senior sounds like he's a few bricks short of a load. He has to sign off on all those new handlers.

 

[Artee]

I wonder if there is some underlying reason for this and they are going to lower the boom on us. If anyone has a clue please let us know

Its getting tight around here. Talking to a long time Senior Manager the other night about how micro-managed DGO is compared to AGFS. He believes Smith is so far checked out of this company he doesn't know all of whats going on. The decisions upper management is making are ridiculous. He said if you want to see the real squeeze wait until Smith retires and an investment firm gains 51% control of this company and goes after every nickle and dime left on the floor, so they can re-sell FDX for a bigger profit a couple years later. You talk about going backwards and losing even more, those days could be on the horizon.

 

[59 Dano]

They are hiring lots of handlers at the stations around here. They don't want the couriers coming in for the sort and helping to unload at night. Cutting their hours that way right now. One of the managers I talk to can't believe they are hiring so many handlers. He doesn't have anything for them to do on the PM and wants them shifted to the AM. They are killing his hours report and in turn getting his butt chewed from the Senior.

It's never made sense why they would pay couriers to do handler work in situations where they could cover the work with handlers, but that manager shouldn't have hired them without a plan in place to properly use them.

It's becoming clearer and clearer how some couriers are milking it. It's worse in some places than in others. One of my old stations was small and a been-there-forever (of course) employee would always volunteer to stay and assist with the reload. All he wanted to do is scan docs and would just stand around waiting on more docs if he didn't have any to scan. He would usually finish the docs 15 minutes prior to the end of the reload and hang around doing nothing. He was getting 8 hours of OT a week pulling that crap. He's probably the worst I've ever seen. His buddy was pretty bad, too, and both were replaced on the reload with a handler.

You can't blatantly do that kind of crap and expect it to go on unabated. The abuse of in-station OT has prompted closer scrutiny of couriers' in-station hours and is a big reason that we're seeing more handlers brought in to replace couriers.

Talking to a long time Senior Manager the other night about how micro-managed DGO is compared to AGFS. He believes Smith is so far checked out of this company he doesn't know all of whats going on. The decisions upper management is making are ridiculous. He said if you want to see the real squeeze wait until Smith retires and an investment firm gains 51% control of this company and goes after every nickle and dime left on the floor, so they can re-sell FDX for a bigger profit a couple years later. You talk about going backwards and losing even more, those days could be on the horizon.

Yep.

A year or so ago the head of a hedge fund who is also a large stakeholder in FDX met with Smith. Much of his time was spent talking about Express and let's just say that he is not fond of our 'peopleness.' He doesn't believe in minimum pay but he does believe in laying couriers off during slower parts of the year. Once someone else controls a majority of the stock, hope for a long term guy. The pain won't be as bad. A short term guy will slash everything, drive up the stock price, and then sell. He won't show any mercy because he won't be around to deal with the fallout. A long termer will.

 

[Mr. 7]

I'd say we don't have any "peopleness"

 

[idas roses]

Cjinx I think you are in management and look in the mirror to see who is full of crap!

 

[Cactus]

Cjinx I think you are in management and look in the mirror to see who is full of crap!

You're learning!

 

[59 Dano]

I'd say we don't have any "peopleness"

We will find out how much we have once someone else ends up with a majority of the stock or any other Fredless situation. Contrary to popular belief there isn't anyone out there who is dying to take charge of the company and has "improved pay and benefits for Express couriers" anywhere on his to-do list. There isn't anyone who would put much effort into trying to preserve what we have now unless we include other executives that are already with the company who are close to Fred himself.

There are those under the assumption that getting rid of Fred means that we're gonna get some benevolent guy who loves giving raises. No. The corporate world wonders why he doesn't have large layoffs and and why he pays minimums and that sort of thing. The current FedEx (flaws and all) is better than what we'll have after Fred. An outsider who takes over doesn't see anything but an opportunity to slash costs to the bone and, if possible, make Express look more like Ground.

 

[Goldilocks]

It's never made sense why they would pay couriers to do handler work in situations where they could cover the work with handlers, but that manager shouldn't have hired them without a plan in place to properly use them.

It's becoming clearer and clearer how some couriers are milking it. It's worse in some places than in others. One of my old stations was small and a been-there-forever (of course) employee would always volunteer to stay and assist with the reload. All he wanted to do is scan docs and would just stand around waiting on more docs if he didn't have any to scan. He would usually finish the docs 15 minutes prior to the end of the reload and hang around doing nothing. He was getting 8 hours of OT a week pulling that crap. He's probably the worst I've ever seen. His buddy was pretty bad, too, and both were replaced on the reload with a handler.

You can't blatantly do that kind of crap and expect it to go on unabated. The abuse of in-station OT has prompted closer scrutiny of couriers' in-station hours and is a big reason that we're seeing more handlers brought in to replace couriers.



Yep.

A year or so ago the head of a hedge fund who is also a large stakeholder in FDX met with Smith. Much of his time was spent talking about Express and let's just say that he is not fond of our 'peopleness.' He doesn't believe in minimum pay but he does believe in laying couriers off during slower parts of the year. Once someone else controls a majority of the stock, hope for a long term guy. The pain won't be as bad. A short term guy will slash everything, drive up the stock price, and then sell. He won't show any mercy because he won't be around to deal with the fallout. A long termer will.

There will always be a slacker at every station. Point is, why attack the people who are always there on time, safe drivers, with good productivity? Leave us alone and let us do our jobs. Period