Whats Going On Here ?

[TeamLift]

I have noticed some changes going on at my hub, some small some bigger ones. First, we have always used the truck wash to wash our sprinter vans and step trucks. Pay was taken out each week from our contractors settlements for this, now they have stopped that and we can't use the wash anymore. Yet they have come out with their clean campaign, supervisors going around checking your van and telling the contractor what needs to be done. In my case the wheels of my 2004 Dodge sprinter van, used to be an Express van, needed to be painted and the sticker that said operated by FedEx Ground needed to be removed.

They also used to take money each week for uniforms from the contractor, now that has stopped as well, and he has to pay full price whenever a driver needs something. I see a growing trend of FedEx doing everything possible to separate themselves from the contractors and drivers of this company. Does it have to do with lawsuits such as accidents ? I don't know. But the only people who really count at this job are treated with total disregard. Last week an unloading supervisor missed a trailer or three that hadn't been unloaded yet as we were all in the office trying to get our paperwork We had to go back out to the floor and wait over an hour. Ground had already left and so they brought all that crap to our side. No package handlers either so Supervisors had to unload everything. They brought me one large package, I told them it wouldn't fit, tossed it on the floor and left. No action taken against the obvious overlook of the Supervisor, imagine if I had missed 30 packages in my truck that I failed to deliver.

When they screw up, it doesn't affect their going home time, but it can push us into heavier traffic and getting home real late. Customers don't like it either, I just tell them next time chose UPS.

 

[CJinx]

That manager that missed a trailer was very likely tarred and feathered behind closed doors. That's a very serious offense. Depending on the size of the station in question, an entire trailer of freight not going out can cause the service to be shot for the day, the week, or the entire month.

As for your other comments, is your state on the verge of ISP? We made similar changes when the business model got tweaked in our state. Brand promotion fees are paid to the entity for maintaining appearance standards of trucks and uniforms. Also, we eliminated the truck wash due to too many complaints about it. Now one of the ISPs had a side business of washing trucks off-site.

 

[It will be fine]

Sound like ISP changes. FedEx gets blasted on lawsuits when they take money out of settlement. I'm surprised if was still going on at all.
If you have enough trucks in the building you can probably find a pressure washing company to come out weekly and do all the trucks.
Just ignore them when tell you nonsense like painting rims. Their trailer rims look like garbage so it's just blowing smoke. They don't really discipline anyone. If it doesn't get your contract pulled it doesn't matter.
If you don't want your going home time to change, don't change it. Fail on some boxes, tell them late dispatch was the cause and you still needed to work safely which includes proper rest. They won't do anything.

 

[TeamLift]

Sound like ISP changes. FedEx gets blasted on lawsuits when they take money out of settlement. I'm surprised if was still going on at all.
If you have enough trucks in the building you can probably find a pressure washing company to come out weekly and do all the trucks.
Just ignore them when tell you nonsense like painting rims. Their trailer rims look like garbage so it's just blowing smoke. They don't really discipline anyone. If it doesn't get your contract pulled it doesn't matter.
If you don't want your going home time to change, don't change it. Fail on some boxes, tell them late dispatch was the cause and you still needed to work safely which includes proper rest. They won't do anything.

We had a company a year ago or so that came out on Saturdays to wash trucks, contractor has to buy coupons for that, it disrupts leaving time though, you have to get in line after you get your paperwork which can be a pain. Not worth the time to paint rims on a 11 year old sprinter van with 550000 miles on it, that should be the real issue, forcing contractors to buy newer and safer trucks. FedEx Express got rid of this van when it had about 250000 miles on it, but FedEx home delivery doesn't mind running an unsafe piece of garbage, until it kills someone. There should be a certain age and mileage when these trucks are no longer permitted to be used for delivery.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

My former brother in law has a pressure washing business and he does both Express and Ground; ironically, his son in law is now a manager at Express. He tells me the contract is quite lucrative.

 

[STFXG]

We had a company a year ago or so that came out on Saturdays to wash trucks, contractor has to buy coupons for that, it disrupts leaving time though, you have to get in line after you get your paperwork which can be a pain. Not worth the time to paint rims on a 11 year old sprinter van with 550000 miles on it, that should be the real issue, forcing contractors to buy newer and safer trucks. FedEx Express got rid of this van when it had about 250000 miles on it, but FedEx home delivery doesn't mind running an unsafe piece of garbage, until it kills someone. There should be a certain age and mileage when these trucks are no longer permitted to be used for delivery.

That's ridiculous. What does the mileage have to do with the safety of the truck? If it's maintained and passes safety inspections then what's the problem?

 

[Cactus]

That's ridiculous. What does the mileage have to do with the safety of the truck? If it's maintained and passes safety inspections then what's the problem?

How about the frames that rust and turn to crap?

 

[STFXG]

How about the frames that rust and turn to crap?

It wouldn't pass inspection if the rust was bad enough.

 

[MrFedEx]

I have noticed some changes going on at my hub, some small some bigger ones. First, we have always used the truck wash to wash our sprinter vans and step trucks. Pay was taken out each week from our contractors settlements for this, now they have stopped that and we can't use the wash anymore. Yet they have come out with their clean campaign, supervisors going around checking your van and telling the contractor what needs to be done. In my case the wheels of my 2004 Dodge sprinter van, used to be an Express van, needed to be painted and the sticker that said operated by FedEx Ground needed to be removed.

They also used to take money each week for uniforms from the contractor, now that has stopped as well, and he has to pay full price whenever a driver needs something. I see a growing trend of FedEx doing everything possible to separate themselves from the contractors and drivers of this company. Does it have to do with lawsuits such as accidents ? I don't know. But the only people who really count at this job are treated with total disregard. Last week an unloading supervisor missed a trailer or three that hadn't been unloaded yet as we were all in the office trying to get our paperwork We had to go back out to the floor and wait over an hour. Ground had already left and so they brought all that crap to our side. No package handlers either so Supervisors had to unload everything. They brought me one large package, I told them it wouldn't fit, tossed it on the floor and left. No action taken against the obvious overlook of the Supervisor, imagine if I had missed 30 packages in my truck that I failed to deliver.

When they screw up, it doesn't affect their going home time, but it can push us into heavier traffic and ing to getting home real late. Customers don't like it either, I just tell them next time chose UPS.

Good observation that they are trying to "separate" themselves from the contractors. Trouble is, they really can't, because that is the essence of the scam. FedEx runs the show, and the contractor puppets act like they're doing it. I would suspect they fear another lawsuit and/or legal attempts to prove the current Ground business model fraudulent.

 

[STFXG]

Good observation that they are trying to "separate" themselves from the contractors. Trouble is, they really can't, because that is the essence of the scam. FedEx runs the show, and the contractor puppets act like they're doing it. I would suspect they fear another lawsuit and/or legal attempts to prove the current Ground business model fraudulent.

That's exactly what it is. They are moving IC states to a more hybrid model between IC and ISP. Just another slow move towards ISP. Besides, why pay $12 per truck when I can spray it off with a garden hose and have it look just as good?

They stopped charging us for van wash, uniforms, scanner rental, and they no longer deduct for our vehicle insurance. They basically don't deduct anything anymore we just get invoiced or order our own uniforms. They also dumped the vacation program at the same time (or set it to end at the end of this fiscal year).

 

[It will be fine]

That's exactly what it is. They are moving IC states to a more hybrid model between IC and ISP. Just another slow move towards ISP. Besides, why pay $12 per truck when I can spray it off with a garden hose and have it look just as good?

They stopped charging us for van wash, uniforms, scanner rental, and they no longer deduct for our vehicle insurance. They basically don't deduct anything anymore we just get invoiced or order our own uniforms. They also dumped the vacation program at the same time (or set it to end at the end of this fiscal year).

All you need is the scale requirement and you're basically in ISP land. A few minor tweaks and it's done. I would guess they don't approve sales for individual routes anymore. Soon the one guy one truck operations will be gone from the system.
Deductions stop because when the courts rule against FedEx those deductions become money taken from an employee's paycheck and FedEx has to pay it all back. Stopping deductions limits their liability.

 

[STFXG]

I would guess they don't approve sales for individual routes anymore.

Part of the last contract was that you can no longer sell less than 3 routes together or you cannot make any service agreement smaller than 3. So if you have two routes you can no longer split them And sell off one. If you have 5 routes you have to sell them all, no 3 to one person and 2 to another (unless they are going to current contractors).

 

[fedex_rtd]

Ha...sounds like you "contractors" have given your soul and financial freedom to FredEx. If you want our you have to leave it all behind. Really hard to feel sorry for Ground folks, after all they are the reason Express lost pay and benefits.

 

[bbsam]

Ha...sounds like you "contractors" have given your soul and financial freedom to FredEx. If you want our you have to leave it all behind. Really hard to feel sorry for Ground folks, after all they are the reason Express lost pay and benefits.

As much as the changes suck, I'll still take them over being an Express wage slave.

 

[It will be fine]

Ha...sounds like you "contractors" have given your soul and financial freedom to FredEx. If you want our you have to leave it all behind. Really hard to feel sorry for Ground folks, after all they are the reason Express lost pay and benefits.

This is actually a good thing for contractors. For current ICs this doesn't force them to get up to an arbitrary number of routes like an ISP transition would. It may limit the market for selling, buyers need a lot more cash to buy larger companies. In the long run it will benefit us much more in almost entirely eliminating the contractor/employee lawsuits. People that run legit companies are less likely to sue claiming they were employees. Fewer if any lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of the model will raise the value of the companies.
I wouldn't feel sorry for me, most days I spend about a hour at the terminal and make more than even the boys in brown that drive through my neighborhood at 8 pm. I don't have anyone nitpicking every decision I make everyday either.
And express lost pay and benefits because the workers allowed it.

 

[Route 66]

And express lost pay and benefits because the workers allowed it.

pretty much the same way we "allow" the government to jack up our taxes.

 

[It will be fine]

pretty much the same way we "allow" the government to jack up our taxes.

It's a bit easier to find a new job than to find a new country.

 

[Cactus]

And express lost pay and benefits because the workers allowed it.

Elaborate on "how we allowed it."

 

[It will be fine]

Elaborate on "how we allowed it."

You kept showing up to work. No shame in it, I did the same thing when the ISP transition happened. I lost around 7% per route, but you won't hear me blaming the lackluster express opco as the cause. Corporate thought we would take less money in order to keep our jobs, and they were right. That's another positive for the OP going through a gradual change to ISP over a forced transition.

 

[TeamLift]

That's ridiculous. What does the mileage have to do with the safety of the truck? If it's maintained and passes safety inspections then what's the problem?

550000 miles on the motor is 550000 on the body, rusted out piece of junk. Running about 60 on a back road one day and heard a loud noise coming from the back of the van, looked out my mirror to see the full size spare tire that was under the rear bumper fly off, just broke lose and came out of there like crazy, if someone had been behind me it would have resulted in serious injury. Had to drive back a quarter of a mile to retrieve it since I was going uphill at the time and so the tire rolled downhill. Will not be surprised at all to be going down the road one day and just have the entire body fly off the frame. It wasn't good enough for Express to keep it after 250000 miles, it certainly isn't safe now, but we have to deal with contractors who try to welfare their way through the business to try and make money. Always catches up with them in the end though.