The Latest "Change/Take Away"

[Operational needs]

With the expection of using assigned gas stations, all the other measures on your list have been instituted periodically during the last 10+ years, and none of which are particularly news worthy.

I don't recall saying they were news worthy, but yes, most of the things have been instituted previously, many times over in my 25+ years at FedEx. Your point is?

Eleven hour rule is new to me though, as well as the gas situation and half of our trucks spending time in the body shop.

 

[MrFedEx]

Soooo, have any of your stations been told that OT is being cut back and no one is to go over 11 hours a day, even those doing splits? Also, uniform ordering is only for new hires and food and meetings will be limited. The best one though is that "select routes" will be given a list of gas stations with the cheapest gas. That's the latest word at my station, all so Fred can keep his word to the shareholders. Lol.

Oh yeah, I forgot, new hires at my station think they're working at a demolition derby, so everyone must practice 5 keys of defensive driving to avoid another fiscal year of 50% of our trucks spending time in the body shop.

I think we've all been hearing variations of this for years now. What I know is happening is that Express profits are getting slammed by all of the turnover and accidents. Their "answer" is to buy cheaper toilet paper, find cheaper gas etc. I always get the most expensive gas I can find, although we are limited to a list of providers we can use.

Fred can spend hundreds of millions on new airplanes and trucks that are more fuel efficient, but he can't stem the incredible number of people walking away, the increasing overall inefficiency of operations, and customer dissatisfaction with crappy service from poor quality employees. The fuel he saves by operating new Boeings can't offset the costs I just mentioned, and he still has to pay for them. Oh, and because the newer fleet actually has less lift, we leave freight behind...a lot. The TNT acquisition will be even more expensive than it would appear because TNT has to divest itself of it's aircraft fleet as a condition of the sale. That means Fred will be spending even more on new planes. The extensive TNT ground network is the real reason Fred bought them, and good luck on trying the contractor model in Europe.



Too bad, Fred. Good luck on making Express more profitable by increasing the pressure and instituting more takeaways.

 

[Operational needs]

I think we've all been hearing variations of this for years now. What I know is happening is that Express profits are getting slammed by all of the turnover and accidents. Their "answer" is to buy cheaper toilet paper, find cheaper gas etc. I always get the most expensive gas I can find, although we are limited to a list of providers we can use.

Fred can spend hundreds of millions on new airplanes and trucks that are more efficient, but he can't stem the incredible number of people walking away, the increasing inefficiency of operations, and customer dissatisfaction with crappy service from poor quality employees.

Too bad, Fred. Good luck on making Express more profitable by increasing the pressure and instituting more takeaways.

According to my SM, FedEx is doing well and is having a solid year, and this is all because we are entering the final year of the "Profit Improvement Plan".

 

[MrFedEx]

According to my SM, FedEx is doing well and is having a solid year, and this is all because we are entering the final year of the "Profit Improvement Plan".

Sure they are. The "PIP" isn't working too well.

 

[Route 66]

According to my SM, FedEx is doing well and is having a solid year, and this is all because we are entering the final year of the "Profit Improvement Plan".

oh darn!....looks like MEM must've screwed up and sent the wrong copy out to all the stations and ramps. That one was supposed to go to the shareholders. We were supposed to get the memo which read "we're in dire straits so we're going to need to be very proactive in searching for ways to sodomize - er, rather economize our operations (read slash and cut hourlies compensation and bennies even further - if that is even humanly possible).

Senior and ops managers please find a novel way to blow this latest smoke up your employees' rectums and remind them of the purple-headed promise which they must be willing to provide for free (and potentially even at their own expense) if it should come to that - FWS"

 

[Slick silver]

I give it till July when everything goes back to normal again with overtime. Right now I will take the time at home at my neighborhood pool.

 

[Artee]

Soooo, have any of your stations been told that OT is being cut back and no one is to go over 11 hours a day, even those doing splits? Also, uniform ordering is only for new hires and food and meetings will be limited. The best one though is that "select routes" will be given a list of gas stations with the cheapest gas. That's the latest word at my station, all so Fred can keep his word to the shareholders. Lol.

Oh yeah, I forgot, new hires at my station think they're working at a demolition derby, so everyone must practice 5 keys of defensive driving to avoid another fiscal year of 50% of our trucks spending time in the body shop.

What you are describing is a budget problem at your particular station. You senior is finding any way possible to save some cash and save his sinking ship. We were like that at the end of the last quarter. With the start of the new fiscal year we are all ordering uniforms, stations throwing food around again, and people back to working 9-10 hours with just a 30 minute break.

 

[Serf]

Soooo, have any of your stations been told that OT is being cut back and no one is to go over 11 hours a day, even those doing splits? Also, uniform ordering is only for new hires and food and meetings will be limited. The best one though is that "select routes" will be given a list of gas stations with the cheapest gas. That's the latest word at my station, all so Fred can keep his word to the shareholders. Lol.

Oh yeah, I forgot, new hires at my station think they're working at a demolition derby, so everyone must practice 5 keys of defensive driving to avoid another fiscal year of 50% of our trucks spending time in the body shop.

We have been forbidden to go over 11 hours since February. Only with absolute special exception, and verbal permission from the Senior are we allowed to have exceptions. Since we are also heading into slow season, I expect do go thru July and August again with out toilet paper, paper towels, and hand soap. I had cleaner porta johns in Baghdad.

 

[Purplepackage]

What you are describing is a budget problem at your particular station. You senior is finding any way possible to save some cash and save his sinking ship. We were like that at the end of the last quarter. With the start of the new fiscal year we are all ordering uniforms, stations throwing food around again, and people back to working 9-10 hours with just a 30 minute break.

Yeah with the new year there's is plenty of money to be blown right now, of course the best months are November and December when stations pretty much light money on fire with just over time

 

[Route 66]

We have been forbidden to go over 11 hours since February. Only with absolute special exception, and verbal permission from the Senior are we allowed to have exceptions.

Don't forget to remind them of this come December. You are forbidden to go over 11 hours, and only with absolute special exception and verbal permission from the Spouse are you allowed to have exceptions.

 

[CJinx]

They recently rolled out a new sick time policy for Ground employees. It does have a few people grumbling... ironically enough, those same people who were abusing it (and pissing off their coworkers who weren't, and aren't affected by the change).

 

[overflowed]

The 11 thing. How would this work in large Metro stations where people start at 545 600 and don't get off till 6 or later?

 

[Serf]

New Director takes over in the Northeast. Wants to fix the bottom line to look like a hero. For the better part of the fiscal year, (excluding peak season) overtime is limited. From what I understand they thought at one point they could make it a 10 hour rule, but quickly found out it was not feasible right now. This has been passed down and force fed to incompetent management who in some ways are also subjected to torture, reprisal, and deception.
On a lighter note. A long time RTD employee who is always at the station explained to me how his training back in 1991 had him in Arkansas for a few weeks learning how to drive a tractor trailer. Something the company took very seriously. He told me now, for every 10 Joe's they get off the street, 2 or 3 pass the training that consists of driving around a large parking lot near the airport. Turnover is atrocious, and accidents are at an all time high. He said one new jack managed to not only slice his trailer basically in half, but also sliced the 3 AMJ cans in half as well. This employee was not fired, instead relegated to yard duty. But the best part of the story is when FedEx and the Police were doing the paperwork for the accident, the driver was not wearing his uniform, instead he was in a FILA track suit!

 

[Route 66]

I can usually be seen driving my CTV in my full body Spandex cycling outfit (purple natch)....I may not actually be going any faster - but I sure feel like I am

 

[Purplepackage]

New Director takes over in the Northeast. Wants to fix the bottom line to look like a hero. For the better part of the fiscal year, (excluding peak season) overtime is limited. From what I understand they thought at one point they could make it a 10 hour rule, but quickly found out it was not feasible right now. This has been passed down and force fed to incompetent management who in some ways are also subjected to torture, reprisal, and deception.
On a lighter note. A long time RTD employee who is always at the station explained to me how his training back in 1991 had him in Arkansas for a few weeks learning how to drive a tractor trailer. Something the company took very seriously. He told me now, for every 10 Joe's they get off the street, 2 or 3 pass the training that consists of driving around a large parking lot near the airport. Turnover is atrocious, and accidents are at an all time high. He said one new jack managed to not only slice his trailer basically in half, but also sliced the 3 AMJ cans in half as well. This employee was not fired, instead relegated to yard duty. But the best part of the story is when FedEx and the Police were doing the paperwork for the accident, the driver was not wearing his uniform, instead he was in a FILA track suit!

What district are you in? I'm in the northeast but I have heard nothing about not going over 11 hours, but honestly 11 hours out there is enough for me regardless of a rule or not

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I don't work 11 hours even during Peak.

 

[Purplepackage]

I don't work 11 hours even during Peak.

Some people have no choice, our station covers a huge area and some of those guys are an hour and a half from the station, so right there is 3 hours just in travel

 

[Serf]

What district are you in? I'm in the northeast but I have heard nothing about not going over 11 hours, but honestly 11 hours out there is enough for me regardless of a rule or not

Northern NJ

 

[Purplepackage]

What you are describing is a budget problem at your particular station. You senior is finding any way possible to save some cash and save his sinking ship. We were like that at the end of the last quarter. With the start of the new fiscal year we are all ordering uniforms, stations throwing food around again, and people back to working 9-10 hours with just a 30 minute break.

We haven't had to take hour breaks for months, ops manager told us if we're running over 100% we don't have to take the whole hour. Every month he posts a list with 4 or 5 people who have to take an hour break until they are running over 100% again

 

[By The Book]

We haven't had to take hour breaks for months, ops manager told us if we're running over 100% we don't have to take the whole hour. Every month he posts a list with 4 or 5 people who have to take an hour break until they are running over 100% again

Sounds like discrimination to me.