UPS BASIC

I had one today on my truck it was from Lane Bryant! The bad thing is this pkg was not in a "super rural" area, only about 3 miles from the center, it very easily could been with the rest of my residentials. The funny thing is I had another pkg from LB and it was in a "super rural" area but it was not a basic pkg so guess who got to deliver that one. Something to ponder I guess!

I read in WSJ a few days back about how the service will be rolled out.One company is called Chadwicks and I have had about a half dozen of them in the last couple days.Didn't really notice until I scanned barcode and the screen prompted a message format that I'd never seen before.

Guys and gals there's plenty to worry about in this bussiness at this time of year regardless of how this new service gets played out.How many drivers out there are honestly begging for more work to be put in your truck?Heck if I had any say in it I'd back my truck up to the Post Office dock and give 'em about 4 hours of my planned 12.5 day and throw the DELL stops at them too.The bottom line comes down to having to break new ground in order to grow the bussiness.Come Monday,you can all bet that the building you work out of,your truck,and your workload will still be there waiting for you.No need to deplete energy reserves making any rush to judgement.Speculation of how BASIC evolves from it's infancy is like a blind man throwing darts at a board.Even if he hits dead center,he isn't gonna know anyway.}}

Ok. THe long and short of the service is this. We had 40 or so hit the center today. Some went to the postal service, and some were for us to deliver.

If you would like you can Email me and I will send you a copy of the label that is being used.

First off lets get one thing straight. It is the CUSTOMER that is deciding who delivers what. The label on the package tells the driver where to deliver it to. Your center manager, even district manager, has nothing to do with telling you where to deliver these packages. The customer that shipped the package is the one that made that call.

It is no different than delivering packages from the sears warehouse to the sears store for the customer to pick up at the store.

Lerner, Chadwicks, Romans were some of the ones we had today. These are all related companies of Lane Bryant, who we lost to the postal service a while back. I have heard that the Wisconsin Cheeseman, Harry and David were others that had signed up to use this service.

Bottom line is from what I know first hand, this is all new volume. 80,000 new packages coming into our system. Whether we deliver all of them or not, look at all the new jobs that are created. Hubs, feeders.....management. I see this whole situation as a win win for everybody.

The only thorn in the whole deal is what the union is afraid of. That CURRENT customers will divert shipments to basic to take advantage of the lower rates, which in turn will mean the loss of some delivery jobs in some centers. But from what I have seen so far, I dont think that will happen.

For what its worth, many members of management are just as clueless as the hourly when it comes to the details.

d

I have been hit with a load of requests, so many my box went over the limmit. I responded to many, but here it is for the rest. Notice the UPS logo or letters appear no where on the label. THis is for a reason.

I took the liberty to mark out the personal info and tracking numbers, as that is privilaged info.

This particular home was accross the street from a major shopping center and within several hundred feet of several pickups that we make each day. Go figure.

AS you can see, the shipper made the decission as to who makes the actual delivery, not UPS. As long as it is actually new volume and not diverted volume, I am 100% for this new service. Give the customer what he wants and we win!

d

Very good post Danny. I agree with you but I hope UPS does not take advantage of this and start calling everthing rural. We all want to see the company successful but hope that none of our workers are affected.The true test will be when some of our larger shipper (JC Penny,Sears,HSN) start using the basic service.Move volume does mean more jobs, I just hope UPS does the right thing by its people. I also wish they would have come to an agreement with the teamsters about sub-contracting. A couple of years back our local filed a grievance for some sub-contracting work from the rail yard to the hubs and the local won.UPS agreed to have our teamsters(local level) drive the loads and inpart this created more feeder jobs.Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Interesting concept Danny and the little bit of literature I've read on it seems to jive with what your saying. The customers will pick the carrier that has the cheapest cost. Give all of them to UPS who then will deliver the USPS packages to the post office. Its a nice tidy convience for the customer. Since we are now seeing everthing that customer ships I wouldn't be surprised if we now go back to the customer to get those packages that are not truly rural.

I am sure you all know this is another revenue source for UPS. Yes, it scares us to think UPS has initiated a relationship with USPS after years of bitter war. The concept is confusing to me. Why would a shipper use UPS to deliver pkgs to USPS? How can there be some type of cost savings to the costomer ?, when they already have USPS in the door.Just a thought. I am sure UPS's lawyers have been thinking this one out for a year or two , before initiating Basic. I have the fear that they will use this service to cut cost, and divert volume, which means a loss of jobs for ( Service Providers ) like myself.

Local

you are missing the point I was making. UPS is not the one that decides what is rural or not, its the customer that makes that call. We are just the delivery guys. And it is a driver that will deliver the packages to the customer, whether post office or residential.

Its much like some of my customers right now are using bulk mailings. They contract a company out west to to the layout and printing. They send these mailings to the business here in 50-60 pound boxes and then the business here takes them to the post office. It saves them a ton of money and a great deal of time in transit. This process is called zone skip and is used by many very large shippers.

Take fingerhut in our area. If they have a whole trailer load going to the northeast, they send it to the baltimore hub, NY hub, where ever, and save themselves 2 or more zones from here. We still get the packages, but it costs them less.

THat is the name of the game now and in the future, meeting all the customers needs. I wanna be part of that company that grows and moves with the new economy.

I heard that that was one of the selling points for us to get the packages was the time in transit. We were able to shave3-7 days in transit off the best the postal service was giving them (notice I said that they were actually getting, not promised by the USPS).

And yes volume DOES mean more jobs. I hope we start cutting into their book rate next. I wanna see us whip them at their own game!

d

(Message edited by dannyboy on November 22, 2003)

There is new volume for the delivery drivers. Just a small part is delivered to the USPS.

Like I said before, what we deliver to the post office are postal service packages. We get paid to deliver them to the post office much faster than the post office can get it here, and save the customer money in the long term. And all these packages are new volume that was 100% postal service. We are cutting into that. And as for me, I will take 30% of the pie when we had zero before.

But as I also said before, we need to document. If UPS starts to divert other large shippers that currently use us, and they switch to basic, then there is a very large problem with that.

d

"Why would a shipper use UPS to deliver pkgs to USPS?"

Its easier for them. They load it all on one truck and it gets split out from there. Its a lot easier than sorting and arranging two seperate pickups. My guess , don't know for sure.

I had 4 “Basic” packages yesterday, 3 stops. None of them were addressed to the USPS.

i had 4 basic pkgs yesterday and it was 3 stops too and they were all addressed to the post office and the bummer of it was the stop that had the 2 pkgs was a stop i had to go to anyway and none of them were really rural.

Im just glad I dont have a post office on my route, to drop any off at.

You guys are getting all "hot and bothered" over nothing. These pkgs are pkgs that we would not be seeing AT ALL, if someone hadn't been smart enough to figure out another way to get more volume. I don't care if I have 100 pkgs a day to carry in to the post office. The way I see it, it is a good way of busting knuckles with them, and the look on that postmasters face when he has to sign for them. PRICELESS!

I delivered one "basic" yesterday. It said to driver release it as we do with the omaha steaks.

Guys-what are the shippers of these pkgs you're seeing? Are they new to the best of your knowledge or regular shippers?

they are pkgs that i have not been having so i am not really griping about it too bad

Talked to one of the postmasters on my area today and she says that if the "basic" goes over, there's a lot of other things coming down the pike.The post office does not actually deliver all the packages.The mail carrier will put a notice in the mail box on his route and the customer will come to the po and pick it up.In other words the only thing they have to do is furnish a spot to pile them until the customer arrives....pretty good deal if you ask me.

wily old vet...........

Romans and Lane Bryant

I love it! I had 2 today that would have been send agains, outta here baby!

Well since all the hoopla is over and the packages are here, any one else seeing 18-25 a day from these shippers now? Have had close to a hundred so far this week on my route alone.

Gotta love the volume!

d

Where do you guys take these "basics" when you go to the post office. When I've had pkgs and supplies in the past addressed to the post office, the post office on my route doesn't want anything brought to the front desk and nobody ever answers the freight door bell so I'm stuck there for 10 minutes. And there is always a line six or seven people long waiting out front, nomatter what time of year. I hope they intend to make a little better effort for basic package shipments.

gman.............

We were told to take them to the rear door. If the postal employee refuses to sign for the packages, leave and call the center. The center manager then calls our district office that in turn calls the postmaster. We are making darn good money on these packages.

I have seen about a extra 10 stops due to the basic service, lets see if thatr leads to more full-time jobs because of the volume jump, doubt it!

This is just the first month of this service. Imagine what could be coming. Ups is predicting a volume increase of nearly 20% in 2004. Some will be from expiring agreements with shippers who had to sign two year contracts with FedEx before the threatened strike last contract and some will be from "Basic". I have a son who has a long wait to go driving. I hope this cuts that wait a few years. Unfortunately, the Central States Pension fiasco will keep a lot of drivers a few years longer and make his wait that much longer too.

Just an idea for a new service. Seeing that deliveries to the Post Office will become increasingly routine, why not deliver packages to the Post Office that come through the system with a post office box number on them? It would save the company time and the expense of performing address corrections. Furthermore, some customers may prefer this delivery method, especially if they are not home during the day.