Major ground failure in San Francisco.

[gixxer squid]

Things are much easier at Ground when you give up on the idea of performing exceptional service. Do what you can within reason. If success costs too much money failure is an option.

Agreed. However when you have a substantial investment which requires basically 5 PSA's which in my calculation is a 500k at a minimum, who is going to risk loosing a half million of their hard earned dollars. Those who were benefactors of RPS that had routes handed to them to service are at a slight advantage of those that have purchased. A different mind set per se. I by no means am resentful to those either being in the right place or right time. Bounty thought he was buying into the business only to have the rules changed. Many want to attack the likes of him saying he doesn't know how to run a business which I believe is far from the truth. New contractors are not willing to my knowledge to put that investment at stake when other assets including their homes are on the line. I guess in one sense you could say that X has once again outsmarted, outwitted and outplayed the common contractor

 

[dex 84]

Yes. You and I have discussed this a few times. I see your point, I really do. I don't have the time nor the inclination to be pulled into the office to discuss " what is your plan" lol with the P&D puppet. Am I not making the money I should? Yes. Do I have piece of mind not getting those phone calls? Yes.

It's a conundrum. Staff less and make more money. The boxes only start stacking up for the next day and unfortunately I was taught by the most important figure in my life, my father, that money does not buy class and your word is your bond, your honor. We signed the contract and till we are out, we will continue to provide the best possible error free service and accident free service that we can. Money may not buy happiness but it does buy piece of mind....

For what it's worth, Express habitually understaffs and cuts hours to the point that service is negatively impacted.

 

[It will be fine]

Agreed. However when you have a substantial investment which requires basically 5 PSA's which in my calculation is a 500k at a minimum, who is going to risk loosing a half million of their hard earned dollars. Those who were benefactors of RPS that had routes handed to them to service are at a slight advantage of those that have purchased. A different mind set per se. I by no means am resentful to those either being in the right place or right time. Bounty thought he was buying into the business only to have the rules changed. Many want to attack the likes of him saying he doesn't know how to run a business which I believe is far from the truth. New contractors are not willing to my knowledge to put that investment at stake when other assets including their homes are on the line. I guess in one sense you could say that X has once again outsmarted, outwitted and outplayed the common contractor

I'm just saying you can slack off quite a bit without actually risking the investment. You don't need to be perfect, adequate is good enough for Ground.
We're all caught in limbo. You can't really argue the money is not enough but still get the work done. FedEx sees the results and thinks it's obviously enough money. You can't fail too badly because they aren't going to pay you more if you do a bad job and if you do really poorly they pull the contract. All you can do is small failures and hope someone listens at some point, doubtful.

 

[FedGT]

For you guys who are agonizing over service. The contract I signed and perhaps the one you signed also called for a" competitive" level of service. It said nothing about 99% or a specific percentage. Now the TM we had at the time tried to tell me that it meant 99% Of course when I demanded that he present me with a contract that stated 99% and had my signature on it he couldn't produce it. So stop fretting over that service percentage Why? Because X will never give you enough money to develop and support the kind of redundancy needed to assure 99% in the face of a package volume that has no consistancy and never will and you guys are always the last to know when the volume spikes yet you are expected to simply snap your fingers and there will imediately appear extra assets to handle it.

When I bought in the TM told me service was 99.5%. I was driving my self crazy getting this numbers with a worthless crew I inherited. Even when we were getting the numbers they were changing our 02/03 codes to "correct addresses" then writing the correct address on the box with a sharpie so it wouldn't go through their system and hit the station. Found the TM doing quite a few things like that to make them look better and us look worse until they finally realized and we got called into a meeting. Our service numbers looked awful for obvious reasons and the TM was finally coming under fire, all of a sudden those things stopped happening and all our service numbers jumped up about 1% a day.

 

[MrFedEx]

Thanks for many great posts by many of you. I have spoken through back channels to many of you and have enjoyed the interaction.

I have a degree in business. I run two other businesses, thank god as I wouldn't survive on income from X with my lifestyle.

My profit margin on business A runs at 22% (net) only because I do not participate at all. (22 years and running)

Profit margin on business B which I run full time unless X steals me away is 30%(net), (12 years and running)

My two businesses above generate about half the total gross X generates but the profit margin is 4-6%

Maybe I am spoiled, but a business that generates over 800k in gross revenue IN MY MIND should generate a bare minimum of 10-12% profit margin, not 3-5%.

So one must ask ones self, where am I to increase the profits? I can't control insurance, I can't control gas as these are fixed/somewhat variable costs, maintenance there is not much control over. The only real control that we have at X is our employees, what we do or do not pay them? This is a tough job, the furniture and over sized boxes for our peanut pay delivered to high rises doesn't wash out. I have ethical standards as well as compassion for whats expected of our guys, I am not or will not ever try and screw them over for 50 bucks or 100 bucks a week for doing there job.

X asked me before ISP negotiations, "what is your cost of doing business, what does it cost you per stop." I figured my cost per stop with 15% profit margin was approximately $4.84 per stop. After doing all these detailed calculations with supporting spreadsheets for what we were asking, do you think that X ISP negotiator gave a chit, hell no, he disregarded everything. They told us thats what they wanted and when we actually had supporting documentation to support they did not even want to see it although we told him we had it. Folks, its NOT a negotiation. Its a take it or leave it and those that have serious money invested will take it ;-(((((((

As far as legal and contractor relations. Are they paid by us the contractor? If not, they don't represent us, plain and simple. They will always cover X ass. ALWAYS.

As far as failure percentages. Thats just not who I am or what my company is about. I am paid errrrr slaved to do a job and I will do it to the best of my ability while grumbling under my breath or ranting on this board. I am NOT a X hater to a certain degree.

What I want is adequate compensation to be able to pay my hardworking staff a decent living in the bay area and to pull a decent income on having to manage all crap X throws at my face.


Some really good dialogue by many without derailing. Kudos to you all.

Just an FYI. OTR trucking companies have traditionally had returns of 2-3%, as in an operating ratio of 97-98%. They make money on volume, and a lot of them used to make extra bank on owner/operators. I'm sure Mr. Smith believes you should be happy with 3-5%, because he's been making 18-20% on top of what you get. Ground is the Golden Goose of FDX.

 

[MAKAVELI]

Hey gixxer, you can always offer your drivers to rent your truck to live in.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...-FedEx-truck-S-friend-rentals-get-6674249.php

 

[CJinx]

. Even when we were getting the numbers they were changing our 02/03 codes to "correct addresses" then writing the correct address on the box with a sharpie so it wouldn't go through their system and hit the station. Found the TM doing quite a few things like that to make them look better and us look worse until they finally realized and we got called into a meeting.

Changing the service codes during the nightly van service audit to try and protect service is really dumb. Anyone can go into the WAMT and see the mismatched codes (handheld even warns you of this if you do it). They already threw you and us a bone by exempting any 02/03 from service if QA or somebody performs an address correction.

 

[Cactus]

Changing the service codes during the nightly van service audit to try and protect service is really dumb. Anyone can go into the WAMT and see the mismatched codes (handheld even warns you of this if you do it). They already threw you and us a bone by exempting any 02/03 from service if QA or somebody performs an address correction.

God please. Not the scanning police again!

 

[13zipcodes]

What is an 03? I've never used that one. I assumed it was 'unable to locate recipient address'. When would one use this?

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

What is an 03? I've never used that one. I assumed it was 'unable to locate recipient address'. When would one use this?

When you can't find their house, most likely due to a bad or incorrect address.

 

[It will be fine]

When you can't find their house, most likely due to a bad or incorrect address.

That's it exactly. I used it recently. Map said I was in the right place, google said I was in the right place, couldn't find the house. 03 should let QA know you need more info to locate the address. They typically just slap a map on it and give it back, which helps no one.

 

[13zipcodes]

We would just 02 that.

 

[NYCFXG]

Since we haven't gotten the expected volume, the terminal has been shoving 3, 4, 5, and 6 attempt packages down our throats. I told my guys if it is small just leave it in the truck and don't worry about it. But, if it an IC that is staying there and they can not make me take it out another day. I have done my job.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Since we haven't gotten the expected volume, the terminal has been shoving 3, 4, 5, and 6 attempt packages down our throats. I told my guys if it is small just leave it in the truck and don't worry about it. But, if it an IC that is staying there and they can not make me take it out another day. I have done my job.

You are attempting the same package 6 times?

 

[Cactus]

3 attempts is more than generous enough. The post office will only attempt once then YOU can come down and pick up it up. The way it should be.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

3 attempts is more than generous enough. The post office will only attempt once then YOU can come down and pick up it up. The way it should be.

They tell us that we make money on the 1st, break even on the 2nd and lose money on the 3rd.

 

[IVE GOTTA PACKAGE 4U]

They tell us that we make money on the 1st, break even on the 2nd and lose money on the 3rd.

That's why they started using access points.

 

[It will be fine]

They tell us that we make money on the 1st, break even on the 2nd and lose money on the 3rd.

They pay us nothing for attempts, only actual deliveries. So it costs them nothing to keep sending it out.

 

[Future]

That's why they started using access points.

pervert

 

[Cactus]

They tell us that we make money on the 1st, break even on the 2nd and lose money on the 3rd.

Yeah, that sounds about right. C.O.D. And Direct Signature required are most likely the worst offenders.