Memphis Accountability?

[MrFedEx]

Word has it that there is a new PR program in the works pleading poverty and urging us toward being better servants for this wonderful company. Good luck with that.

How about some accountability from the top? We face discipline and/or termination for so many different things. Speeding in a school zone, not making SPH, RTB times, cranky customers who can get you fired in a heartbeat even if you didn't really do anything wrong, and on and on. The new RTD Police Report (Webtech) can get an RTD fired for exceeding the corporate speed limit...once. Just looking at someone the wrong way can get you an OLCC.

So, how about the morons who are running this division into the Ground (pun intended)? Part of the Express debacle is absolutely planned and desirable because that means they'll have a "reason" to move business over to Ground. The new Poverty Program, if it happens, may be totally by design, but I suspect that they've exceeded their expectations, and are now looking at an opco that will soon be a money-loser. Can't have that, now can we?

If Express really is down the toilet and on the way to the sewer, maybe a few of the talking heads should be held accountable. DRA alone has to be costing millions in terms of inefficiency, and turning a loyal, viable workforce into employees who could care less within a very short period of time both count as major disasters that come straight from the Memphis Council of Clowns.

Let's see how this plays out and if another announcement telling us that "we're sorry, but we HAVE to give E2 to Ground just so we can survive"..SOB...is in the works. OR, have they just totally effed it up?

 

[whenIgetthere]

Wouldn't Memphis and accountability be an oxymoron?

 

[DOWNTRODDEN IN TEXAS]

Speaking of DRA, which has not rolled out at my station, we now have to leave the next days freight behind. Wednesday package on a Tuesday? (Say it in your head like that stupid Geico commercial..) "Not in my house.." It's laughably sad the mounting levels of stupidity that we are encumbered with on a daily basis.

 

[Code 82 Approved]

At my very first stop today I had a fairly complex close quarters navigation task, and after it all I see some "suit" looking at my truck, looking as he dialed and looking back up at my truck. He scurried inside pretty quick when I grabbed two thick area rugs off the back and tossed them on my shoulder while he looked on. Maybe they will start replacing Ground guys as some sort of "make it up to you".

Whatever his issue, the whole thing was unnerving.

 

[Operational needs]

Speaking of DRA, which has not rolled out at my station, we now have to leave the next days freight behind. Wednesday package on a Tuesday? (Say it in your head like that stupid Geico commercial..) "Not in my house.." It's laughably sad the mounting levels of stupidity that we are encumbered with on a daily basis.

At my station, we are also leaving next day's freight behind. They send it down the belt, pull it off to another belt, and load it into a straight truck. Then after the couriers have left the building, they load it back into cans to unload the freight again the next day. If it's not due for two days, the same thing happens with those packages the next day. In what "other world" does this make sense? Whatever happened to minimizing handling of packages? This is the new FedEx.

 

[MAKAVELI]

At my very first stop today I had a fairly complex close quarters navigation task, and after it all I see some "suit" looking at my truck, looking as he dialed and looking back up at my truck. He scurried inside pretty quick when I grabbed two thick area rugs off the back and tossed them on my shoulder while he looked on. Maybe they will start replacing Ground guys as some sort of "make it up to you".

Whatever his issue, the whole thing was unnerving.

Dude you got issues.

 

[MrFedEx]

At my station, we are also leaving next day's freight behind. They send it down the belt, pull it off to another belt, and load it into a straight truck. Then after the couriers have left the building, they load it back into cans to unload the freight again the next day. If it's not due for two days, the same thing happens with those packages the next day. In what "other world" does this make sense? Whatever happened to minimizing handling of packages? This is the new FedEx.

Double and triple-Handling always makes a lot of sense. Perhaps they can handle it 4 times and be even more wasteful. This is someone's bright idea to help make service and/or distinguish the different services. My guess is that this person (or leadership group) has never spent any time in a real station.

 

[Ricochet1a]

At my station, we are also leaving next day's freight behind. They send it down the belt, pull it off to another belt, and load it into a straight truck. Then after the couriers have left the building, they load it back into cans to unload the freight again the next day. If it's not due for two days, the same thing happens with those packages the next day. In what "other world" does this make sense? Whatever happened to minimizing handling of packages? This is the new FedEx.

This is all in keeping with DRA. DRA WILL NOT plot stops for pieces that are not due on a given day (the software DOESN'T look at what packages are in the station, it merely looks at what packages are DUE for delivery). The label (yellow ROADS) will indicate the commitment day, and the stations are supposed to pull those pieces (either at the front or back end of the sort), then get them into a can with a loc stat on them (in station, delivery not due) and then send them down the belt with the NEXT AM's sort. If you have a 3rd day package that is intra-market (stayed within the area of your serving ramp), then the package will be pulled TWO days in a row, before it is retagged with a ROADS label and pulled off the belts and placed onto a truck.

This is also being done to discourage customers from using Express Saver intra-market, and having their volume delivered the next day. Express wants that revenue if it is going to deliver the next day.

So expect to see a can of freight each day in your station, that has volume with commitment dates either a day or two in the future (all pulled from the AM sort). The CSAs have been instructed to place a loc stat on the pieces in the can which will indicate to the call centers that the package IS NOT available for pickup or early delivery. If the customer presses for the package, then a full REX is to be applied, charging for both a trace to obtain the piece along with the service upgrade. How the shippers (who are paying for the shipping) are going to react to this remains to be seen.

This is all part of the new Express, better get used to it. Service will have revenue directly tied to it from now on, customers aren't going to be getting any "freebees" any more (packages delivered ahead of commitment).

 

[Ricochet1a]

Double and triple-Handling always makes a lot of sense. Perhaps they can handle it 4 times and be even more wasteful. This is someone's bright idea to help make service and/or distinguish the different services. My guess is that this person (or leadership group) has never spent any time in a real station.

Way back when I was in AGFS, we had a presentation where an 'engineer' stated that the cost to Express to run a package through a sort was 25 cents. This included the labor cost to put the download can 'on line', have handlers download it, have other handlers sort, scan and stack, then to have handlers move the filled cans off the sort. This also included the cost associated with the sort facility, equipment, maintenance, etc.

So to run a 4,000 package mini-sort, cost Express $1000. Since Couriers in stations participate in station sorts (they are paid higher), I'd have to imagine that running a station sort would cost somewhere between 35 and 45 cents per package. All of this is tracked with the 'package handling' time code - which can then have the total number of pieces run through the sort divided by total labor hours (multiplied by an assumed wage rate), to get a rough figure for cost per piece (adjusted for overhead expense). This is also why there is a separate code for document sorting - so that process can be more closely monitored for labor associated with that task (pieces per hour).

So the handling expense of running a package through a sort an additional time or two is rather minimal. Express is attempting to more closely match 'service with revenue', so in the process, if it ends up incurring an additional 40 or in some cases 80 cents in handling expense, in an effort to get customers to pay extra for a higher service level, then that expense is 'justified'.

I still think this is all part of the gradual process of getting the delivery of deferred product out of Express. The customers will decide if they REALLY want overnight delivery (and if so, they'll pay for it). Otherwise, it is off to Ground for that package (whether the customer chooses or FedEx eventually commits to shifting the delivery of deferred product over to Ground will be seen). I think the gradual introduction of Ground to current Express only customers is deliberate on the part of Express. Like everything in Express, they are playing it real slow, so that neither the customers nor wage employees recognize what is happening until one day it is a done deal.

 

[DontThrowPackages]

Hah, so by rolling 2 and 3day packages, the company insures the customer doesn't get those packages the next day. So maybe the plan isn't getting these people to use priority or standard but rather ground. The customer figures XS was ok when the package was getting there in 2 or even 1 day but since it takes 3 days regardless, why not just use ground and get in there the at the same time as XS but cheaper...Hahh.

 

[MAKAVELI]

Hah, so by rolling 2 and 3day packages, the company insures the customer doesn't get those packages the next day. So maybe the plan isn't getting these people to use priority or standard but rather ground. The customer figures XS was ok when the package was getting there in 2 or even 1 day but since it takes 3 days regardless, why not just use ground and get in there the at the same time as XS but cheaper...Hahh.

Yea , then tell the express employees a sob story that they really wanted to give us a raise but couldn't because of lower volume and profits. But no mention of the boat loads of cash on the ground side.

 

[Dirt Merchant]

We started rolling the deferred product just before the roll out of DRA. It's all a part of the DRA process.

 

[thedownhillEXPRESS]

I think this is all just an orchestrated poison pill so to say.
They are putting so many different new initiatives and rules designed to constrain and lower profit that this must be the case.
Shrink and stagnate Express, and forcibly grow ground.
I have believed this for about 6 months now as DRA is a total disaster and they seem just fine with it.

 

[Goldilocks]

At my very first stop today I had a fairly complex close quarters navigation task, and after it all I see some "suit" looking at my truck, looking as he dialed and looking back up at my truck. He scurried inside pretty quick when I grabbed two thick area rugs off the back and tossed them on my shoulder while he looked on. Maybe they will start replacing Ground guys as some sort of "make it up to you".

Whatever his issue, the whole thing was unnerving.

Maybe he was checking YOU out.

 

[Mr. 7]

I just love all the "Yay, happy 40th birthday" bullsheet memos we've been getting.
Yay, get bent.

 

[Disgruntled2]

I just love all the "Yay, happy 40th birthday" bullsheet memos we've been getting.
Yay, get bent.

I received my 40 year anniversary foam can holder and mechanical pencil! Cheap fother muckers!

 

[DOWNTRODDEN IN TEXAS]

I received my 40 year anniversary foam can holder and mechanical pencil! Cheap fother muckers!

Just like Charlie Brown, I got a rock. Actually, we got jack-a-doodle-doo.