Third Qtr. Earnings Down, Prepare To Pay

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
FedEx Express just announced lower than expected Third Quarter earnings due to weather issues and high fuel costs. Translation: Prepare yourself to absorb this cost if you are an hourly employee.

As usual, FedEx will try to pass these costs onto employees, rather than to the customer, which is pretty much the way it's always been. So, we'll see hours cuts, a push for more productivity, and increased usage of recorders and later start times. In short, do more in less time so Fred can make-up the difference.

The problem is, that the orange has pretty much been squeezed dry already. The push for productivity has already caused more accidents (at least in my district), but since I don't have accident stats from FedEx, that's just information for my particular district.

The thing is, that now the accidents aren't just fender benders or scraped trucks. They are head-ons, and T-bones, and other serious wrecks that were our fault. Do you think pushing couriers beyond safe limits has anything to do with that? Nah, couldn't be, because FedEx is "safe". Go out there 30 minutes or an hour later, do the same amount of stops, and make service, but don't do anything "unsafe". Yeah, right.

I can only hope that the Personal injury attorneys out there get wind of how hard FedEx is pressing it's people. When it comes time to go to court, that kind of information would be a powerful weapon in the right hands.

If you have a serious accident in your district, and FedEx was at-fault, and you think it might have been because someone was pushed just too damned hard, do the right thing. Make an anonymous call to either the victim, their family, or their attorney if they point you in that direction. OR, call your local police department, highway patrol, or whatever jurisdiction handled the accident. This is the kind of information they need to know too.

Be moral, and do what's right, because you know that all Fred cares about is the money. What if it was your family member, friend , or loved one? The next time you're speeding through a residential area at 10:27 trying to deliver the Purple Promise, or not paying attention because you're looking at your PowerPad, know that it could be you. Don't play Fred's game. Protect yourself and the public.
 
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Cactus

Just telling it like it is
Well Fred bad weather is the cost of doing business, so just suck it up like we're told to do all the time.

Sooner or later this push for increased productivity is gonna catch up with the company and then there will be no way Fred's gonna weasel out of it especially if enough employees speak out that we supposed to do more in less time.

I'm surprised The National Safety Council hasn't investegated Fed Ex or has Fred paid them off too?
 

FedEx2000

Well-Known Member
FedEx Express just announced lower than expected Third Quarter earnings due to weather issues and high fuel costs. Translation: Prepare yourself to absorb this cost if you are an hourly employee.

As usual, FedEx will try to pass these costs onto employees, rather than to the customer, which is pretty much the way it's always been. So, we'll see hours cuts, a push for more productivity, and increased usage of recorders and later start times. In short, do more in less time so Fred can make-up the difference.

The problem is, that the orange has pretty much been squeezed dry already. The push for productivity has already caused more accidents (at least in my district), but since I don't have accident stats from FedEx, that's just information for my particular district.

The thing is, that now the accidents aren't just fender benders or scraped trucks. They are head-ons, and T-bones, and other serious wrecks that were our fault. Do you think pushing couriers beyond safe limits has anything to do with that? Nah, couldn't be, because FedEx is "safe". Go out there 30 minutes or an hour later, do the same amount of stops, and make service, but don't do anything "unsafe". Yeah, right.

I can only hope that the Personal injury attorneys out there get wind of how hard FedEx is pressing it's people. When it comes time to go to court, that kind of information would be a powerful weapon in the right hands.

If you have a serious accident in your district, and FedEx was at-fault, and you think it might have been because someone was pushed just too damned hard, do the right thing. Make an anonymous call to either the victim, their family, or their attorney if they point you in that direction. OR, call your local police department, highway patrol, or whatever jurisdiction handled the accident. This is the kind of information they need to know too.

Be moral, and do what's right, because you know that all Fred cares about is the money. What if it was your family member, friend , or loved one? The next time you're speeding through a residential area at 10:27 trying to deliver the Purple Promise, or not paying attention because you're looking at your PowerPad, know that it could be you. Don't play Fred's game. Protect yourself and the public.

You had a good argument going....right up until the last paragraph. If you knowingly sped, not to mention while looking at the powerpad, and that contributed to the accident it's on you every time. Those are the only things that are going to matter in a court of law, b/c FedEx can give thousands of other examples of people doing the exact same job with few or no accidents who are under the same pressure everyday. Now if they weren't able to determine your speed, so you claim to have been going the limit, and you lied about looking at the Ppad....is that any better than anything you accuse Fred/FedEx of? I will add that we have had a few more accidents than last year at my station, 3 to be exact, luckily they have all been very minor as far as damage/injury goes.....and without looking them up, I believe roughly 50% of them have been non-preventable.
 

snackdad

Well-Known Member
Management has always played a game with couriers. It is like they never believe it when we tell them we are overwhelmed with too much work already to do. When they heap on the additional work with complete disregard to SPH goals and capacity what are we left to do? Most people in my station work everyday through paid and unpaid breaks off the clock just to keep management off our backs. I have had managers threaten me that they would soon be "starting more and more pressure" The other alternative is to speed and cut corners with safety. Driving around with W700 bulkhead doors open, jamming van sliding door locks open with a Magic Marker pen, delivering and doing pickups during breaks and entering manually later on and scanning later on.
Another major factor is the dumbing down of the work force. The courier position used to attract career minded individuals who stayed on 20 years or more. The company is actively getting rid of senior employees who are over 40 and are topped out with more than 20 years of service. The turnover rate now is very high at FedEx and most new hires last about 3 to 5 years. Which according to my Senior Manager in Northern California is what the position is designed for by The Company.
Even through they feed you the BS about a career as a courier, very few people can successfully run the gauntlet year after year and survive all the tricks of management and behavior filled with favoritism and revenge.
The R.O.A.D.S system is another example of the company trying to automate the job resulting in a dumbed down workforce. Who needs to think anymore when the packages are route labeled for you and soon will be mapped out in stop order. Disappearing are days when we would memorize huge areas of complicated terrain, get to know the names and businesses of our customer and really care about our performance. We do not have the time anymore for real customer service and business and safety will suffer for it.
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
You had a good argument going....right up until the last paragraph. If you knowingly sped, not to mention while looking at the powerpad, and that contributed to the accident it's on you every time. Those are the only things that are going to matter in a court of law, b/c FedEx can give thousands of other examples of people doing the exact same job with few or no accidents who are under the same pressure everyday. Now if they weren't able to determine your speed, so you claim to have been going the limit, and you lied about looking at the Ppad....is that any better than anything you accuse Fred/FedEx of? I will add that we have had a few more accidents than last year at my station, 3 to be exact, luckily they have all been very minor as far as damage/injury goes.....and without looking them up, I believe roughly 50% of them have been non-preventable.

The stated policies of FedEx regarding "safety" always gives them an out on paper. My argument isn't weakened by the statements I made about rushing to deliver the Purple Promise or looking at your PowerPad while driving, and here's why. Trying to force even more productivity out of an already overburdened courier is going to encourage them to cheat, either by driving faster, looking at the PowerPad while driving, or performing some other unsafe act. If you know that your manager is going to be badgering you about gap times or lates, many people are going to try and avoid that confrontation and possible discipline.

FedEx knows they encourage unsafe acts, and the company goes all-out on "safety" so that when you T-bone that school bus at 10:29, you'll get blamed because you were looking at your PowerPad instead of the road. It doesn't matter that they gave you 55 P1's on a route that can safely handle 45, because the manager who just told you to "don't have lates" at 0845 is going to tell the jury that he told you to be "safe". That manager's senior, who rolled-back start times for the AM sort 20 minutes to save money, is going to tell the jury the same thing.

You know this game, and don't pretend that you don't.
 

LTFedExer

Well-Known Member
You had a good argument going....right up until the last paragraph. If you knowingly sped, not to mention while looking at the powerpad, and that contributed to the accident it's on you every time. Those are the only things that are going to matter in a court of law, b/c FedEx can give thousands of other examples of people doing the exact same job with few or no accidents who are under the same pressure everyday. Now if they weren't able to determine your speed, so you claim to have been going the limit, and you lied about looking at the Ppad....is that any better than anything you accuse Fred/FedEx of? I will add that we have had a few more accidents than last year at my station, 3 to be exact, luckily they have all been very minor as far as damage/injury goes.....and without looking them up, I believe roughly 50% of them have been non-preventable.
I wonder if the new Powerpads will similar to UPS's DIAD? You can't even look at it with the engine running without management knowing. That would change LOTS of couriers habits and I see a lot of letters being given at the start.
 

snackdad

Well-Known Member
I wonder if the new Powerpads will similar to UPS's DIAD? You can't even look at it with the engine running without management knowing. That would change LOTS of couriers habits and I see a lot of letters being given at the start.

Managers can pull up reports showing whether an airbill number was entered manually instead of scanned and how often this happens everyday. A flurry of them after morning 28/29 breaks or after a 13/14 breaks would be sure to indicate the courier is delivering during breaks and manually entering the released stops when back on road. Does management run these reports, Heck no. They are getting free labor. If they do not run any of these reports showing how couriers adapt to the increased work load, why would they even glance at a report as to who is operating a power pad while the engine is running.
Another example is the courier doing regular pick ups during breaks, usually the second 30 minute break and then it appears that right after lunch the courier did 6 pickups in a 7 to 9 minute window. Wow, give that courier a Bravo Zulu!
Sorry the Bravo Zulu's are only paper now, no cash since the cutbacks.
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
Managers can pull up reports showing whether an airbill number was entered manually instead of scanned and how often this happens everyday. A flurry of them after morning 28/29 breaks or after a 13/14 breaks would be sure to indicate the courier is delivering during breaks and manually entering the released stops when back on road. Does management run these reports, Heck no. They are getting free labor. If they do not run any of these reports showing how couriers adapt to the increased work load, why would they even glance at a report as to who is operating a power pad while the engine is running.
Another example is the courier doing regular pick ups during breaks, usually the second 30 minute break and then it appears that right after lunch the courier did 6 pickups in a 7 to 9 minute window. Wow, give that courier a Bravo Zulu!
Sorry the Bravo Zulu's are only paper now, no cash since the cutbacks.


So true about the falsification. I was sitting in the office one day during peak while waiting for late freight and was working on the computer. Manager P is sitting at his desk with the door open, and then his phone rings. It's the senior manager, and Manager P proceeds to tell him all of the people who were working through their breaks, loud enough so I can hear him on the speaker phone. He rattles-off 5 names, all Purple Promise People who would do anything to not ever take a late, or say anything bad about either FedEx or management. The senior directs Manager P to "just keep it quiet", and "do nothing". Just then, Manager P realizes he has an audience (me), so he shuts the door and turns off the speaker phone. End of story.
 

LTFedExer

Well-Known Member
Managers can pull up reports showing whether an airbill number was entered manually instead of scanned and how often this happens everyday. A flurry of them after morning 28/29 breaks or after a 13/14 breaks would be sure to indicate the courier is delivering during breaks and manually entering the released stops when back on road. Does management run these reports, Heck no. They are getting free labor. If they do not run any of these reports showing how couriers adapt to the increased work load, why would they even glance at a report as to who is operating a power pad while the engine is running.
Another example is the courier doing regular pick ups during breaks, usually the second 30 minute break and then it appears that right after lunch the courier did 6 pickups in a 7 to 9 minute window. Wow, give that courier a Bravo Zulu!
Sorry the Bravo Zulu's are only paper now, no cash since the cutbacks.
While all of the above could be true, I doubt it would be watched at the station level. I'd like to hear from a UPS driver on who comes to them when they get caught. Is it a manager, or does it come from higher up down to the manager to handle?
 

northeast swing driver

Well-Known Member
So true about the falsification. I was sitting in the office one day during peak while waiting for late freight and was working on the computer. Manager P is sitting at his desk with the door open, and then his phone rings. It's the senior manager, and Manager P proceeds to tell him all of the people who were working through their breaks, loud enough so I can hear him on the speaker phone. He rattles-off 5 names, all Purple Promise People who would do anything to not ever take a late, or say anything bad about either FedEx or management. The senior directs Manager P to "just keep it quiet", and "do nothing". Just then, Manager P realizes he has an audience (me), so he shuts the door and turns off the speaker phone. End of story.
I can't believe someone would actually work thru their break. It boggles my mind.
 

snackdad

Well-Known Member
You being in the North East may have things different and I am glad for you. I go home every year to the North East where I am from and the differences in business practices can be seen everywhere. When I go into a Home Depot in Massachusetts there are many people who work there and are always asking "can I help you" every 5 or 10 minutes.
However in California you could die of starvation in our Home Depot if you happened to get lost and had no one to ask for directions. I often see 10 people cover a whole store where back East there may be 40. I cannot explain why the differences but it seems like in California companies try to get by with the bare minimums of investment into the work force. FedEx is included in this scenario.
We are daily required (during rainy,storm season) to call in for start times. Many times we are told to start later to save the company 10-15-20 minutes even though the freight is already in our station. Managers regularly lie about "Weather in Memphis", late planes, CTV traffic, etc., etc. to save their budgets (and bonuses).
Couriers are routinely forced to take more than they can handle. Intimidation and threats are common even though worded discretely. We all want to stay off the radar so we just try to get through our day any way possible without coming under the scrutiny of management. I see couriers all day, everyday working through unpaid breaks. Does management run a report to see this stuff, NO!
I even remember about 5 years ago when during Peak the last week before Christmas I worked 61.5 hours. When I got my paycheck it said 59.8 hours! Just under the magic 60 hour mark. I asked my direct manager what happened and he went into the system and it showed the last person who adjusted the hours was my Senior Manager. I confronted her with this and she said "Well we told everyone not to go over 60 hours!"
She had put longer breaks onto everyones timecards through peak to save her budget and over 60 hour violations. Can you believe it! We work like dogs in the dark, rain, cold, winding hills and she is taking money out of our pockets that we earned! It does not get much lower than that and stories like that are multiple, ongoing and documented.
 

packageguy

Well-Known Member
what i don't understand is, ups blow there numbers out of the water. fdx choked and fdx stock keeps going higher and higher. ups is the opposite i just don't get it.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
what i don't understand is, ups blow there numbers out of the water. fdx choked and fdx stock keeps going higher and higher. ups is the opposite i just don't get it.

Maybe the market is looking ahead to 2013 and sees labor issues looming. With the current union busting going on in the public sector, private gonna get hit again.
 

FedEx2000

Well-Known Member
what i don't understand is, ups blow there numbers out of the water. fdx choked and fdx stock keeps going higher and higher. ups is the opposite i just don't get it.

I agree with bbsam, I think the Union factor is mostly to blame. Investors don't like the risk it entails and are still gun-shy of mostly Union companies due to the failures of GM, Chrysler, etc......regardless of the fact of whether the unions were to blame or not. In addition to that, I think they are looking at our expansion in China/India and what that will mean down the road as far as growth. Part of our earnings appearing to be low is the amount of capital expenditures we have, FedEx's capital expenditures are 14.33% vs. 1.61% for UPS. We are spending a lot of money on planes, facilities, expanding into growing markets, etc. Not to say UPS isn't, but we are spending a much larger % of our money doing so, which hopefully bodes well for us in the years to come as the global market stabilizes and grows.

Here's a link with more info also:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...storms-higher-fuel-prices.html?cmpid=msnmoney
 

northeast swing driver

Well-Known Member
what i don't understand is, ups blow there numbers out of the water. fdx choked and fdx stock keeps going higher and higher. ups is the opposite i just don't get it.
I'm not 100% positive but I think it has something to do with what UPS drivers make. And how little FEDEX drivers make. I'm not making a joke. I think somehow that factors into it. The profit margin is less at UPS because of the pay.
 

Cactus

Just telling it like it is
I agree with bbsam, I think the Union factor is mostly to blame. Investors don't like the risk it entails and are still gun-shy of mostly Union companies due to the failures of GM, Chrysler, etc......regardless of the fact of whether the unions were to blame or not. In addition to that, I think they are looking at our expansion in China/India and what that will mean down the road as far as growth. Part of our earnings appearing to be low is the amount of capital expenditures we have, FedEx's capital expenditures are 14.33% vs. 1.61% for UPS. We are spending a lot of money on planes, facilities, expanding into growing markets, etc. Not to say UPS isn't, but we are spending a much larger % of our money doing so, which hopefully bodes well for us in the years to come as the global market stabilizes and grows.

Nice scenario.

But the truth is FedEx can't even make many domestic deliveries on time let alone the rest of the world.
 
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