UPS can't compete because of high labor costs?

[Braveheart]

"We are excited to learn that everything now is in place to implement our agreement with the Teamsters," said Mike Eskew, UPS's chairman and CEO. "This agreement helps to ensure that UPS is well positioned for success in the coming years."


Acoording to our CEO, the contract we signed in the fall of 2007 insured our competitive advantage. How things change.

UPS could get away with smaller raises, flat raises or even revert to profit sharing only. Problem is they do not want to back off the harassment game plan.

Make the job safer, more flexible, you know worker friendly. Instead they ramp up the gestapo police with sensors all over the truck.

If you treat people like thugs then they want to get paid more and more and more.

Make some work rule changes to make UPS a better place to work and I would go to a flat $30 per hour and profit sharing checks once per year.

Give me A/C and I will go down to $28 per hour.

 

[upssalesguy]

And you wonder why the drivers won't do your job for you and collect sales leads that you can't get yourself.

It is easy to tell who has any experience actually "working" for UPS.

You and 2Units should grab some doughnuts while we load and move the packages.

I think one of the biggest problems with UPS right now is that no one with any real experience will ever go into management anymore.

Why don't you go and sell cars or insurance somewhere?

because I sell transportation for UPS. stop sucking on UPS teats. we will always make a profit. sorry buddy, we are a business, not a charity for the drivers. I want my stock to go UP.

 

[Re-Raise]

because I sell transportation for UPS. stop sucking on UPS teats. we will always make a profit. sorry buddy, we are a business, not a charity for the drivers. I want my stock to go UP.

I can pretty much guarantee you that my UPS stock holdings are every bit as large as yours and I don't consider salesman like you part of the "we" that generates that profit.

So paying that people that perform the service that you sell is charity? If I were a gambling man I would wager you were hired from the outside.

 

[DS]

because I sell transportation for UPS. stop sucking on UPS teats. we will always make a profit. sorry buddy, we are a business, not a charity for the drivers. I want my stock to go UP.

salesguy.in one breath you are praising ups drivers as the best in the industry,then putting us down as being overpaid charity cases?

I bet you'd be crying like a baby in a week after being sent out with a load of incomplete shipments,falling apart packages,misloads,and 11 hour days.You are not seeing the pissed off customers that are paying dearly for your stocks going up.
If you walked a mile in a ups drivers moccasins you would appreciate the care we take every day to try to make service on every package,
When we are overdispatched,we are often told to sheet the packages as missed and concentrate on pickups.
You don't get to see the BS that goes on trying to make your stocks rise.
Your good intentions are being undermined by number crunching unrealistic messiahs of operations knowledge that don't care about reality.
All you care about is money.We are abused and intimidated for insignificant metrics,that don't mean squat in real life.
If I could find the time in those 11 hours on road I would be happy to try to get you some new leads,but I am a tad reluctant because I may well be having 12 hour days if I do.
I think soberups although repetitive,speaks the truth.
Its not my job, 12th door on the left,employee suggestions

 

[Coldworld]

UPS is your employer. they owe you nothing more than that.

UPS making profits keeps you employed. It's no secret that our drivers are the best in the iundustry and paid that way. It's for that reason that your trucks are packed and routes are cut. If we didn't pack the truck, we would not make a profit. UPS wont send half filled trucks on the road, we can't afford it.

fedex can. go work for them.

I always keep hearing that ups drivers are the best in the industry, the hardest working, etc, but on the labor relation front drivers are harassed, fired, written up for absolutely ridiculous things...sometimes its a joke coming from one of the "most respected companies" in america...if OUR customers really knew what went on sometimes. This is nothing new, has been going on for years, just dont know why it is necessary 90% of the time. I understand ups is the employer, I have no problem with that, but when a sup goes out to observe a driver(something else I have no problem with) and cant find anything wrong with what they are doing except not grabbing a handrail and gets a warning letter over it....how is that anything less than a joke...there is a MAJOR divide at this company and it is getting larger and larger...dont seem to be that way at fedex, and no I dont need to quit to go over there either. Oh by the way, even if drivers were making 12 bucks an hour our trucks would be packed and routes would still be cut...GUARANTEED....ups would still make a huge profit working everyone til 6 and level out the routes or add routes if needed...right. You as a sales person should be pushing for more trucks to be run it does mean more reliability and better service.

 

[Coldworld]

I can pretty much guarantee you that my UPS stock holdings are every bit as large as yours and I don't consider salesman like you part of the "we" that generates that profit.

So paying that people that perform the service that you sell is charity? If I were a gambling man I would wager you were hired from the outside.

Guys, sales is an important part of the company...come on, do any of you think it is easy to keep accounts that fedex is trying to undercut. The one thing I find a bit disturbing in sales guy posts is he is sounding like ops management...I have always known the sales staff around here to be the pep squad for drivers...even most of them think the drivers are treated like crap sometimes for no good reason. Maybe the drivers are fed up with leads being ignored, staff from out of state calling customers instead of a local person, of drivers winning a large account and instead of getting an amex card, now getting a "prize" out of a catalogue...who knows. I just wish ops would start thinking like a customer and stop being tough guy johnny law all of the time. I dont care what anyone says, things at this company could run sooo much smoother, with just a little effort...its all about control, micromanagement...what would poor Jim Casey think????

 

[Coldworld]

salesguy.in one breath you are praising ups drivers as the best in the industry,then putting us down as being overpaid charity cases?

I bet you'd be crying like a baby in a week after being sent out with a load of incomplete shipments,falling apart packages,misloads,and 11 hour days.You are not seeing the pissed off customers that are paying dearly for your stocks going up.
If you walked a mile in a ups drivers moccasins you would appreciate the care we take every day to try to make service on every package,
When we are overdispatched,we are often told to sheet the packages as missed and concentrate on pickups.
You don't get to see the BS that goes on trying to make your stocks rise.
Your good intentions are being undermined by number crunching unrealistic messiahs of operations knowledge that don't care about reality.
All you care about is money.We are abused and intimidated for insignificant metrics,that don't mean squat in real life.
If I could find the time in those 11 hours on road I would be happy to try to get you some new leads,but I am a tad reluctant because I may well be having 12 hour days if I do.
I think soberups although repetitive,speaks the truth.
Its not my job, 12th door on the left,employee suggestions

DS, unfortunately ups is loosing out on the the single largest thing they have going for them in regards to customers...the drivers "relationship" with them. Ups wants to "sell" the relationship between their drivers and the employees, but they are the first ones to have a fit spending the extra 30 seconds dealing with customer issues..even if they are business related. I think drivers should be sales people to an extent...but the personal time is needed to do this and ups doesnt want to give any....that is why you are seeing fedex more and more now...sneeking up on ups again just like in the 70's.

 

[DS]

tough guy johnny law HA
Vlad the impaler
Ivan the terrible
greed

 

[Coldworld]

UPS could get away with smaller raises, flat raises or even revert to profit sharing only. Problem is they do not want to back off the harassment game plan.

Make the job safer, more flexible, you know worker friendly. Instead they ramp up the gestapo police with sensors all over the truck.

If you treat people like thugs then they want to get paid more and more and more.

Make some work rule changes to make UPS a better place to work and I would go to a flat $30 per hour and profit sharing checks once per year.

Give me A/C and I will go down to $28 per hour.

They dont treat people like the" best in the industry", do they....its the same ol' song, the drivers are out to ruin the company...it is truly sad.

 

[brown_trousers]

because I sell transportation for UPS. stop sucking on UPS teats. we will always make a profit. sorry buddy, we are a business, not a charity for the drivers. I want my stock to go UP.

Its that kinda of corporate attitude that undermines the values UPS was founded on.

 

[Jones]

because I sell transportation for UPS. stop sucking on UPS teats. we will always make a profit. sorry buddy, we are a business, not a charity for the drivers. I want my stock to go UP.

A sales guy talking about "we" making a profit and accusing the people who actually do the work that pays his salary of "sucking on UPS teats"? Pure comedy gold
I bet your idea of a "hard day" involves not having enough creamer for your coffee.

 

[Re-Raise]

We had a sales guy standing around work one day in the morning who always carried around a daily planner. He left it sitting on the counter and one of the guys picked it up to see who it belonged to.

He opened it to find page after empty page with probably three entrys in a month.

Upssalesguy claimed on the MIP thread that he should receive a large MIP because he had retained all of his business. HUH. Who does he think retained this business?

I believe they are necessary but I would pay them little more than the guy at the cell phone store who goes over my wireless contract.

 

[soberups]

We had a sales guy standing around work one day in the morning who always carried around a daily planner. He left it sitting on the counter and one of the guys picked it up to see who it belonged to.

He opened it to find page after empty page with probably three entrys in a month.

Upssalesguy claimed on the MIP thread that he should receive a large MIP because he had retained all of his business. HUH. Who does he think retained this business?

I believe they are necessary but I would pay them little more than the guy at the cell phone store who goes over my wireless contract.

The difference is that the guy at the cell phone store I use can actually help me if I am having a problem with my bill or my phone. He provides "hands-on" service when I have a billing issue or a technical glitch with my cell phone.

The UPS sales rep, on the other hand, has no connection with the actual service that the customer is paying for. His only role is to try and persuade the customer to use UPS as opposed to the competition.

Its sort of like a football game between UPS and FedEx. Management coaches the team and draws up the plays; the hourly employees are the ones on the field doing the blocking and tackling and running with the ball; and the sales reps are the cheerleaders who dance around wave their pom-poms at the crowd. They are fun to watch but their actions have no effect on the outcome of the game.

 

[Catatonic]

This thread makes me feel younger ... sort of like being back in High School.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Have any of you guys ever been on a sales call with an AE? If you had I would bet you would have a different opinion of their role in the overall scheme of things. These guys get the brunt of any complaints the shipper may have that they had absolutely no involvement in, such as late/missed pickups or excessive damages. They also get to hear any compliments the shipper may have. They also have to try to retain current and secure new volume while staying within the parameters set by the company, which are dictated by our operating costs and price point. Finally, this is a job where your compensation is directly affected by factors totally out of your control. They can go out and bust their butts securing new volume only to see that effort wasted by a poor decision made by the center team (changed pickup time, not sending an additional feeder, etc) or by the poor attitude of either the delivery or pickup driver.

While it is true that few if any BD folks could step in to our role on a moment's notice the reverse is also true. It ain't as easy as it looks.

 

[bbsam]

LOL. You guys sound more and more like MrFedex's vision of Fedex.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

LOL. You guys sound more and more like MrFedex's vision of Fedex.

Is the LOL you laughing all the way to the bank?

 

[Coldworld]

Have any of you guys ever been on a sales call with an AE? If you had I would bet you would have a different opinion of their role in the overall scheme of things. These guys get the brunt of any complaints the shipper may have that they had absolutely no involvement in, such as late/missed pickups or excessive damages. They also get to hear any compliments the shipper may have. They also have to try to retain current and secure new volume while staying within the parameters set by the company, which are dictated by our operating costs and price point. Finally, this is a job where your compensation is directly affected by factors totally out of your control. They can go out and bust their butts securing new volume only to see that effort wasted by a poor decision made by the center team (changed pickup time, not sending an additional feeder, etc) or by the poor attitude of either the delivery or pickup driver.

While it is true that few if any BD folks could step in to our role on a moment's notice the reverse is also true. It ain't as easy as it looks.

I wonder how much volume we loose or can potentially loose beacuse of ops friend ups or absolutely stupid decision toward the customers...I see that it usually is a poor decision by mgt rather than a cranky driver. I have seen fedex bring in an air feeder into stops for 30 or so air pieces that will go to other accts and then straight out to the airport. I also sometimes see 2 fedex drivers picking up a heavy air stop ups has to call in another driver that gets there at closing time and makes the customer wait 45 minutes...have seen it countless times. Seems like our type of system isnt flexible enough..especially with everyone so loaded down...it like swimming up river on a daily basis.

 

[Re-Raise]

Have any of you guys ever been on a sales call with an AE? If you had I would bet you would have a different opinion of their role in the overall scheme of things. These guys get the brunt of any complaints the shipper may have that they had absolutely no involvement in, such as late/missed pickups or excessive damages. They also get to hear any compliments the shipper may have. They also have to try to retain current and secure new volume while staying within the parameters set by the company, which are dictated by our operating costs and price point. Finally, this is a job where your compensation is directly affected by factors totally out of your control. They can go out and bust their butts securing new volume only to see that effort wasted by a poor decision made by the center team (changed pickup time, not sending an additional feeder, etc) or by the poor attitude of either the delivery or pickup driver.

Okay you have listed all the things they don't have any control over.

How is it that they "bust their butts securing new volume"?

If they worked at the pace that is expected of hourly UPS employees they could actually generate new accounts. I don't see that happenoing unless we do it for them.

I still say my cell phone guy does more , he has to listen to me complain sometimes also.

 

[bbsam]

Is the LOL you laughing all the way to the bank?

Kinda. Bank by way of golf course.