What have you heard about the future of Surepost?

bumped

Well-Known Member
We have hundred of packages stacked in the corner of people that use the basic/surepost for returns. The customer cuts off the UPS barcode so there is just the address. How pissed do you think customers are that their returns are not getting credited.
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
Creepy is the weirdo that lives on the corner. Wait, isn't that your car that's always parked there?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

upsgrunt

Well-Known Member
Sure post is sold as a no frills service. It is a competitive response to fedex smartpost and based on the demand from consumers for cheap or free shipping. I have one shipper that uses it and he says customers get what they pay for when there is an issue. He offers ground side by side on his website and people choose the cheap option 90% of the time even when he pushes guaranteed delivery for ground residential. Bottom line is we will lose our brown shorts if costs of delivering residential continue to increase. I'm sure hateful management is always looking for driver input to reduce costs for residential delivery...


I'm sure what you say has some merit, but I've been here 25 years and have been told the same thing every year. A story about a little boy crying wolf is the point I'm trying to make.
 

cosmo1

Perhaps.
Staff member
Sure post is sold as a no frills service. It is a competitive response to fedex smartpost and based on the demand from consumers for cheap or free shipping. I have one shipper that uses it and he says customers get what they pay for when there is an issue. He offers ground side by side on his website and people choose the cheap option 90% of the time even when he pushes guaranteed delivery for ground residential. Bottom line is we will lose our brown shorts if costs of delivering residential continue to increase. I'm sure hateful management is always looking for driver input to reduce costs for residential delivery...
. Maybe, if I need 5 stops to be in range, management could find them near the end of my trip or on the way back to the center instead of 7-10 miles across town.
 

Bubblehead

My Senior Picture
. Maybe, if I need 5 stops to be in range, management could find them near the end of my trip or on the way back to the center instead of 7-10 miles across town.
Then you wont dispatch. It's no accident that you are being sent out of the way. It's the only way "they" can come close to meeting the impossible standards in place.The irony is the next day when you receive the pcm about idle time and saving fuel.
 

Packmule

Well-Known Member
I hate it both as a driver and as a customer. Standing around waiting for postmaster to finish with THEIR customers before they will answer the door for me at the back is very frustrating. Also, the PO sends back any of my customer's pkgs that don't have proper PO numbers, but guess who hears about it? Then last Christmas I ordered a perishable pkg for my mother thinking it would be left at her door. Instead, it was left at a neighborhood mailbox drop spot that she doesn't use because she maintains a PO box at the post office and gets her mail there. By the time she found it the food was shot and the shipper got a nasty call from me. Her replacement was delivered to her door via UPS. At the very least shippers need to be very clear to their customers how these things are going to be delivered so receivers know what to expect.
 

Taco

Well-Known Member
Does anyone have the numbers to all USPS locations across the country handy?
Yeah, go to the Post Office locator on their website. Click the location you want, and underneath the 800 number is the local number to the location. Like the Central City post office in Alanta, GA's number is (404) 222-0765.

I've had to call a few local POs tracing "lost" packages, including one that they stuffed in my letter carrier's bag but didn't feel like delivering that day.
 

whenIgetthere

Well-Known Member
When I got home from work yesterday, my wife asked me to get "the package that UPS stuffed in the mailbox" (her words. I told her UPS wouldn't do that, and that it must be Surepost! I proceeded to yank it out ripping the bag to pieces because it had been stuffed so tightly into the mailbox. Sure enough, Surepost, mailman too damn lazy to walk 25 feet from mailbox to garage door!!! The USPS is really making UPS look bad with these packages!! You all bust your butts, and these mail carriers destroy your company reputation!!
 

worldwide

Well-Known Member
New volume???
BTW, I know you where being facicist.
The majority of the packages that I deliver to the Post Office are Lands End, JCP, GNC, QVC, HSN, to name a few.
All companies that shipped through UPS dock to door.

This is nothing more than an attempt to cut routes.

Bubble,

What is your solution to UPS retaining current UPS ground residential business when customers want a less expensive alternative? If UPS does not provide a solution, what should the customer do?

There are many alternatives to UPS ground residential:
FedEx SmartPost, Streamlite, Blue Package Delivery, Newgistics, DHL Global Mail, Fairrington Transportation, Kaleidoscope Services, OSM Worldwide, ParcelPool and SP Express.

How do you propose UPS compete in this market without Surpost as an option?

BTW, JC Penny was won back from Fedex Ground--all new volume due to SurePost. They left UPS ground to Fedex Ground years ago.

Interesting article on trends in the ground residential market.

http://www.parcelindustry.com/ME2/d...91&tier=4&id=A451989C3B014D548E335653F572973C
 

Bubblehead

My Senior Picture
Bubble,

What is your solution to UPS retaining current UPS ground residential business when customers want a less expensive alternative? If UPS does not provide a solution, what should the customer do?

There are many alternatives to UPS ground residential:
FedEx SmartPost, Streamlite, Blue Package Delivery, Newgistics, DHL Global Mail, Fairrington Transportation, Kaleidoscope Services, OSM Worldwide, ParcelPool and SP Express.

How do you propose UPS compete in this market without Supposed as an option?

BTW, JC Penny was won back from Fedex Ground--all new volume due to SurePost. They left UPS ground to Fedex Ground years ago.

Interesting article on trends in the ground residential market.

http://www.parcelindustry.com/ME2/d...91&tier=4&id=A451989C3B014D548E335653F572973C

I"m glad you asked, and for starters I would like to say that I am not so short sighted to see that this a good alternative in some scenarios.
In it's infancy, Smartpost (or Basic as it was known then) was a bold initiative.
It enabled us to fore go some of the residential rural stops that were less or nonprofitable, addresses that the USPS was going to anyway.
The problem as I see it as a driver within a major metropolitan city; is that I am now taking hundreds of packages a month to the post office that I am driving right by, or in many cases, actually delivering to from other consignees that very day.
How in these dense urban settings is it advantageous to our future to divert this business to the USPS?
The only logical answer is, to thwart growth in staffing.
I believe this a mistake made possible by the short sighted, stock market mentality of instant gratification.
We should be concentrating on dominating what will be the future, Internet driven business to home delivery.
Instead we are stunting our growth by giving our urban business to the USPS, when we could be strategically building our infrastructure in these densely populated urban areas.


Once again, let the Post Office have the rural stuff.
Unfortunately UPS has taken a good thing and went way too far with it as usual.
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
We should be concentrating on dominating what will be the future, Internet driven business to home delivery.
Instead we are stunting our growth by giving our urban business to the USPS, when we could be strategically building our infrastructure in these densely populated urban areas.

That's not where our future is ... important part of our business but not where growth and profitability is.

Anytime there is one package at a stop, there is little or no profit.
 

Bubblehead

My Senior Picture
That's not where our future is ... important part of our business but not where growth and profitability is.

Anytime there is one package at a stop, there is little or no profit.

That's what happens when you take a sentence out of context.
If you read closer and hear what I'm saying you'll conclude that I contend the future holds that these customers already receive multiple packages from multiple shippers daily.
As the world gets smaller and the convenience of home delivery makes shopping malls dinosaurs, I believe within dense urban settings, many households will receiving multiple packages on a daily basis.
Unfortunately I routinely come up upon a package sitting squarely on the porch, in plain sight, in the rain, with UPS and USPS on the label.
The shame of it is, I dropped that package at the Post Office yesterday or the day before.
We could have taken that package the whole way and received the entire shipping charge with little to no extra expense.

Again, I'm not saying this application doesn't have it's place, just that UPS has made to much of a good thing.
 

brownmonster

Man of Great Wisdom
That's not where our future is ... important part of our business but not where growth and profitability is.

Anytime there is one package at a stop, there is little or no profit.


That's fine. What is the excuse for the lack of business volume? I deliver to most of my business stops every day. Why do I have 15 pkgs for Walmart and 5 for Shopko when they used to get 150 between them 20 years ago. Nothing I did. My rural stops and resi stops still pull pretty heavy. Why is this company pissing away all of the gravy?
 

MC4YOU2

Wherever I see Trump, it smells like he's Putin.
That's not where our future is ... important part of our business but not where growth and profitability is.KiAnytime there is one package at a stop, there is little or no profit.
So lets assume that this is correct and that UPS is aiming a different direction that seems more profitable at this time. What if the PO becomes privatized and this volume is then up for grabs? What is the current belief at the corporate level of UPS, do they believe the PO can survive it's current hemorrhaging? Is there any concern that by diverting current accounts into this service, that we are helping to keep the PO on life support after the brain has left the bldg?I, like Bubble, have seen solid accounts moved to Basic from ground at quite a clip and he's correct, the customers think they are paying for and getting a service level thats not provided. I have ordered stuff online "ship ups ground" and it shows up basic.
 

worldwide

Well-Known Member
I"m glad you asked, and for starters I would like to say that I am not so short sighted to see that this a good alternative in some scenarios.
In it's infancy, Smartpost (or Basic as it was known then) was a bold initiative.
It enabled us to fore go some of the residential rural stops that were less or nonprofitable, addresses that the USPS was going to anyway.
The problem as I see it as a driver within a major metropolitan city; is that I am now taking hundreds of packages a month to the post office that I am driving right by, or in many cases, actually delivering to from other consignees that very day.
How in these dense urban settings is it advantageous to our future to divert this business to the USPS?
The only logical answer is, to thwart growth in staffing.
I believe this a mistake made possible by the short sighted, stock market mentality of instant gratification.
We should be concentrating on dominating what will be the future, Internet driven business to home delivery.
Instead we are stunting our growth by giving our urban business to the USPS, when we could be strategically building our infrastructure in these densely populated urban areas.


Once again, let the Post Office have the rural stuff.
Unfortunately UPS has taken a good thing and went way too far with it as usual.

Thanks for reply.

You did not cover the most important question.

What is your solution to UPS retaining current UPS ground residential business when customers want a less expensive alternative? If UPS does not provide a solution, what should the customer do?

When a customer tells you they are leaving for Fedex Smart Post or Newgistics because the UPS price has become too higher and their customers are demanding "free shipping" and unless UPS drops their price dramatically, they will divert. What should UPS do?
 
Top