UPS slammed by a different holiday season mess-up

[cheryl]

UPS slammed by a different holiday season mess-up - Fortune

UPS cuts its profit forecast, blaming the cost of extra measures it took to ensure deliveries were on time during the 2014 holiday season, and hinted it would start charging retailers more.

While total package volume for the holiday season came in as expected for UPS, that was largely because of the surges on Cyber Monday, the biggest e-commerce day of the year, and Dec. 22, typically the peak day for UPS because of retailers’ cutoffs for guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve. Demand for the other 59 days of the holiday season came in below UPS expectations, meaning a lot of that extra holiday muscle went unused.

 

[thisjobaintforeverybody]

So basically corporate needs to figure out how to make more money on each box! Because the volume is there!

 

[Boulevard859710]

Hiring people as helpers and then letting them work preload thus wearing their asses out didn't help me any. Don't let them do anything other than what you hired them for. I might be out less time, saving you money.

 

[herbigharo32]

Over the last several years, UPS has been playing alot of catch up on infrastructure maintenance/upgrades. That surely ate into the bottom line. Is raising prices necessary? Probably not. In the long run, keeping up the infracture is a good move. There was a point when half the work stations were in disuse at the hub I am in, no joke. Several peaks were very rough because of such. There still needs much work done in my hub. Best example are the package chutes leading down to the rollers. While loading trailers, many of these package chutes jams excessively necessitating a person doing NOTHING but breaking jams. Rollers in good working order, not badly worn and having the chutes retooled will allow the loaders to work more effectively. It would cost about $3,500.00 per dock to retool the chutes and replace rollers. The amount of time saved on wasted labor and damages caused to packages will pay off the investment within 6 months easy.

 

[Packmule]

Used to be, mainly by the PO, heavy advertising was done to encourage people to mail early. Now we have a huge campaign put out by the shippers saying just the opposite. Now it's order late and it doesn't matter. We'll guarantee it arrives on time anyway via cut rates on air service. Unfortunately, it is an economically unsustainable promise and the big carriers need to push back hard with earlier cutoff dates that they advertise starting in October.

 

[oldngray]

Customers are going to continue to get worse every year about waiting until the last minute to order. UPS has to set firm cut off dates and deliver that last minute volume after Christmas. The retailers need to also learn to stop promising deliver at the last minute. UPS can't have the capacity for a peak of 2 or 3 days before Christmas and slow volume before that.

 

[rshoe4056]

Top management is responsible for poor 4th Qt. results. They simply tossed a lot of money at a problem. It's strange, I do not hear FDX complaining and they are in the same business as UPS!

 

[Brownslave688]

Used to be, mainly by the PO, heavy advertising was done to encourage people to mail early. Now we have a huge campaign put out by the shippers saying just the opposite. Now it's order late and it doesn't matter. We'll guarantee it arrives on time anyway via cut rates on air service. Unfortunately, it is an economically unsustainable promise and the big carriers need to push back hard with earlier cutoff dates that they advertise starting in October.

I think dynamic pricing is the answer. The heavier the day and the closer to xmas the more we charge.

 

[Brownslave688]

Top management is responsible for poor 4th Qt. results. They simply tossed a lot of money at a problem. It's strange, I do not hear FDX complaining and they are in the same business as UPS!

They did exactly what everyone here has been saying they should do for years. They maybe went a little over the top this year but service was good. That's the important part.

Volume is very hard to predict now. Just 5-10 years ago a volume chart for peak looked liked a bell curve. Now it looks like an EKG.

 

[Brownslave688]

I'm surprised no one has said anything about ups blaming pension increases on their poor yearly outlook?

 

[oldngray]

I'm surprised no one has said anything about ups blaming pension increases on their poor yearly outlook?

Give them time.

 

[HEFFERNAN]

They did exactly what everyone here has been saying they should do for years. They maybe went a little over the top this year but service was good. That's the important part.

Volume is very hard to predict now. Just 5-10 years ago a volume chart for peak looked liked a bell curve. Now it looks like an EKG.

Plus we had a lack of snowstorms that we were prepared for. If we had a storm that caused havoc as it crossed the country, we would have been ready.
We were set up for worst case scenario and it bit us. Last year we weren't and it bit us. I guess we have to find that happy medium.

 

[Brownslave688]

Plus we had a lack of snowstorms that we were prepared for. If we had a storm that caused havoc as it crossed the country, we would have been ready.
We were set up for worst case scenario and it bit us. Last year we weren't and it bit us. I guess we have to find that happy medium.

Still made over a billion dollars. I mean it's not all doom and gloom. Lol

 

[Coldworld]

Still made over a billion dollars. I mean it's not all doom and gloom. Lol

To ups everything is doom and gloom..lol

 

[Brownslave688]

To ups everything is doom and gloom..lol

This isn't about ups though. It's about Wall Street.

 

[smapple]

Seems to me my UPS hub wasted a lot of money replacing old belts with new ones when all they needed were some proper maintenance. But then again maybe that's the catch, it was cheaper to install new machines than pay the maintenance hours. which then makes me wonder how much the engineers/mechanics are making. If that is the case then I guess "c'est la vie a le UPS."

 

[rod]

Seems to me my UPS hub wasted a lot of money replacing old belts with new ones when all they needed were some proper maintenance. But then again maybe that's the catch, it was cheaper to install new machines than pay the maintenance hours. which then makes me wonder how much the engineers/mechanics are making. If that is the case then I guess "c'est la vie a le UPS."

I bet they sent your old belts to another center labeled "New Belts".

 

[Coldworld]

This isn't about ups though. It's about Wall Street.

To wall street everything is doom and gloom..If you come in one penny below estimates then the world is ending.same people who got all upset at profitable Costco because they felt that 1.50 for a hotdog and drink was not enough money. Same group who think it's okay for Apple to pay dome of their employees 12 an hour while on the other end they are sitting on 175 billion dollars in cash...really???

 

[Brownslave688]

To wall street everything is doom and gloom..If you come in one penny below estimates then the world is ending.same people who got all upset at profitable Costco because they felt that 1.50 for a hotdog and drink was not enough money. Same group who think it's okay for Apple to pay dome of their employees 12 an hour while on the other end they are sitting on 175 billion dollars in cash...really???

Apples cash hoard is stupid right now.

I mean who freaking cares if you have almost 200 billion sitting on the sidelines.

 

[Coldworld]

Apples cash hoard is stupid right now.

I mean who freaking cares if you have almost 200 billion sitting on the sidelines.

Makes ups' few billions seem like chump change