UPS sees no rerun of glitch-marred December: CFO

[cheryl]

UPS sees no rerun of glitch-marred December: CFO - Reuters

The No. 1 U.S. courier company is investing in new technology and expanded capacity so that the 2014 holiday season should go smoothly, Chief Financial Officer Kurt Kuehn said on Thursday.

UPS has increased investments in capacity expansion by $500 million, a large part of which is a direct reaction to the recent holiday season's glitches, Kuehn said. Total capital expenditures in 2014 are expected to reach $2.5 billion.

The company is also going to focus on improving communications with key customers as part of the new strategy, while adding technology that makes it easier to estimate volumes.

 

[upschuck]

Needs more than $500 million. Our bldg. had a small expansion last year and they said it cost $1 mil. It will get even busier next year, and people will still wait until the end to purchase.

 

[cachsux]

They say the definition if insanity.........

 

[Catatonic]

Needs more than $500 million. Our bldg. had a small expansion last year and they said it cost $1 mil. It will get even busier next year, and people will still wait until the end to purchase.

Don't count on Delivery Operations expansions via infrastructure investment.

 

[Catatonic]

They say the definition if insanity.........

Teah?

 

[cachsux]

Teah?

ing smart phone my ass

 

[Returntosender]

Will UPS hire peak employees in September rather than October?

 

[cachsux]

Will UPS hire peak employees in September rather than October?

March

 

[CharleyHustle]

The company is also going to focus on improving communications with key customers as part of the new strategy

Doesn't this sound like an admission that someone wasn't doing their job? Isn't the whole point of identifying a customer as "key" mean we're going to keep a close eye on them?

 

[HtownUPSer]

Could we please expand our building in Stafford Texas?! We are the fourth largest preload in the country and always have the worst numbers in our district. Every peak we put a PDC in our parking lot to expand however we are surrounded by acres of empty fields which we own! Please spend some money here and help our center be one of the best.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Could we please expand our building in Stafford Texas?! We are the fourth largest preload in the country and always have the worst numbers in our district. Every peak we put a PDC in our parking lot to expand however we are surrounded by acres of empty fields which we own! Please spend some money here and help our center be one of the best.

Other than Peak, is there need for an expansion? Could it be that the short-term costs associated with the PDC are much less than those for a full-blown expansion?

 

[Catatonic]

PDC or PDUs were initially put in place for temporary increases in volume (peak) but over the years, UPS realized that PDUs could be utilized year round for package car position expansion.

I remember getting "thrown" out of the East Carolina district back in 1993 or so by the District Manager because he turned in a request for building expansion and I came back with a 2 PDU expansion because it was a low pickup volume building but needed more car positions. It was about 1/10th the cost.

I was allowed back in a month or so and they got their PDU's.

 

[jumpman23]

Yeah see it to believe it. If the weathers bad again the results will be the same next peak.

 

[HEFFERNAN]

Hiring 30,000 seasonal workers in December is worthless. Throwing subpar-trained employees in high intensity situations will always fail. Proper training in key areas of operations is critical in delivering packages from Point A to Point B.

Giving every driver a helper doesn't work but hiring more drivers for extra routes and training them early enough so they will be successful has not been utilized properly. I will be very interested this September in seeing how UPS follows through in changing their past peak philosophies.

 

[HEFFERNAN]

To add to my post

The article makes mention that the addition of 30,000 extra low paid employees ruined their 4th quarter forecast but would have assumed that the refund of premium serviced failures would have added enormously to that number.
I've never seen anywhere if UPS did indeed have to pay back a substantial amount.

 

[Susan G Bennett]

Employees will hired or not?