dhl isnt doing too well

[Pollocknbrown]

Originally Posted by VTBrown

You ding dong....."customers know our schedule" was a point made in turn to someone saying marketing isn't worth it and more should be spent on making us seen more. FedEx and DHL have smaller work loads and can alter delivery and pick ups routes easier. That and the fact that FedEx employee's many part time couriers.

Let me explain one thing to you. If your not near an airport - FedEx isn't delivering air any quicker then us. DHL is absolutely not.

I have a family....don't you think I'd like an earlier start? Let's be realistic here though. To serve customers perfectly you'd need to run two shifts. One to deliver the packages as EARLY as possible and one to pick them up AS LATE as possible. You can't have both under UPS's current structure.

Perhaps UPS should have part-time ground employee's? Oh....wait talk to the union on that one.

Why would you want part time employees doing a full time job, the CO would just then gradually over time start to make all the delievering jobs PT. Yes i understand it is about serving the customer, however you have to find a nice balance of that, and letting this CO start using PT drivers to do normal routes (instead of just fill ins for call ins) would just spell the demise of any hope of having a real job at UPS (in terms of FT).

[VTBrown]

I was getting attacked about my perceived view of customer service. Start too early and you can't offer late pick ups.

I was only stating.....if you want to please customers perfectly you need to run two shifts or use part timers.

As FedEx does brilliantly at Express.

Originally Posted by retiredone

DHL and FedEx are both profitable and they are growning faster than UPS. Wake up to the reality. Our business (and our jobs) are eroding.

It seems as if each firm has its own strong suit.

UPS domestic ground service is the cash cow that keeps the company healthy. Last figures I saw (2-3 years ago) on this segment of the industry said that UPS was five times larger than Fedex on domestic ground service.

Fedex seems to be the domestic U.S. air express carrier leader, two times bigger than UPS in this sector.

DHL is still primarily an international courier service with the most extensive global network. Its U.S. operation will remain small.

TNT is also more of an international courier service, and currently only service about 15 major U.S. cities with overnight service, a deliberate part of their strategy.

The strategies are interesting. UPS and DHL are expanding into similar services as integrators, while TNT and Fedex are going in the direction of "freight management". the real question is which strategy will prevail.

And of course the US Postal service is bigger than all four above combined.

[upsdude]

I’m not so sure UPS would be better off if Fred and DHL didn’t exist. First of all competition keeps a company on their toes. Secondly, some federal judge would probably rule us a “monopoly” and bust up the company.

[freeloader]

Long ago, UPS didn't need to advertise. Other than USPS there really wasn't any competition, so there was no need to advertise. However, times change and competition increased. I'd say the 1980's is when UPS really started to advertise and it just snowballed from there.

As far as profitable segments, ground is no doubt UPS's biggest segment, but no way is it the most profitable. The Air and International segments don't generate nearly the volume that ground does, BUT Air and International generate MUCH more revenue and profit per piece.

It might take 20 ground packages to generate the same revenue and profit that 1 NDA package does.

For International, it might take 50 ground packages to generate the same revenue and profit that 1 International package does.

It's obvious why UPS has been focusing on the Air and International segments - they get more bang for their buck. And they have the entire ground segment to try to sell these premium services to.

Take a look at FedEx - they have annual revenues almost as high as UPS's yet their volume is way less. That's because they have a much higher percentage of premium service volume. I'm sure UPS would love to have that ratio. But there's no way UPS would ever sell off their ground segment no matter how un-profitable it is. As long as they keep the ground segment, they will have a never ending supply of shippers to push premium services on.

DHL is the same way - smaller company, way less volume than UPS, but yet they make tons off the premium packages because that is the majority of their business. They don't have the huge overhead that UPS does to run its ground segment.

Being smaller also allows them to react to market conditions quicker. Think about it this way - UPS is a big ship, it takes a lot of effort to make the slightest change of course. Smaller company, changes can be implemented quicker.

[david cassin]

ups are still way ahead of fedex and dhl in the ground market,but still need to keep their eye on the ball.
with most of the courts ruling in the contractors being employees this will eat into freds pockets/profits
dhl are bankrolled by the old deutsche post (german owned)
but not for too long as the european post offices have to open their markets up to competition in the next couple of years so dhl won't have the big bucks behind them.the have to be losing money as they undercut us for the sake of the business and are making sweet nothing in each pkg.
intl business is growing whcih is great but we need to buy tnt and move us up the ladder in europe.we are getting there slowly but surely but this would.we should have bough exel worldwide but dhl paid telephone numbers for this company and are only now getting them altogether.

[RGAman]

Ok, let's straighten out some things about Fed X/RPS and Airborne/DHL.

I worked for the old RPS, ran a 350 mile route through the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. Would see several UPS trucks during my jaunt, after inquiring, found that I was running an area that was serviced by different drivers from 3 different terminals.

Fed Ex was around, but was mostly running very small pickup trucks in the rural areas, biggest I ever saw was a cargo van, one time the driver had to bring the line haul truck because of a huge delivery, it was a cube van.

During a contractor roundtable, we were told by a RM that Roadway Services had plans to merge Roadway Global Air and RPS. That never came to fruition as RGA got shuttered and what was left of it was supposedly sold to BAX Global or whatever they were called during that time.

According to "Thinking Outside the Box", the story of RPS; Fred had called Ivan about a merger before the UPS strike actually happened. Nothing ever came of it. My personal opinion was if UPS had not gone out on strike, Fed X would have never bought Caliber Systems (Roadway Services less Roadway Express).

Now moving on to DHL and Airborne. After leaving RPS in 99, I went to work for an Airborne Express contracted cartage company. I have never seen such a badly run operation in the time I have been in the delivery business. Even when I ran with the small freight line out of St. Louis, we were better organized and more professional than those cartage companies.

The drivers did not have much professionalism, I could easily run circles around any driver they had. I used to deliver my first and most heavy town, and take flexes for other drivers on my way out the door, and I was still at my house by 11 am, for lunch and a 2 hour break; before I moved on to the second town, and into another state for pickups.

DHL was around then, mostly in the larger cities. They ran white vans and trucks with red lettering. I think they used local air freight companies to pick up their shipments in towns that they did not service regularly.

In conclusion, it looks like the "Three Musketeers" now, but don't let that fool you. There could very well be plans in the works for another company, as there are regional parcel companies covering the population centers. Sure, APX Logistics (American Package Express-a DSD shipper-like Fed EX Smart Post) bit the dust, but every time someone goes down, someone else comes along.

[VTBrown]

"Take a look at FedEx - they have annual revenues almost as high as UPS's yet their volume is way less. That's because they have a much higher percentage of premium service volume. I'm sure UPS would love to have that ratio. But there's no way UPS would ever sell off their ground segment no matter how un-profitable it is. As long as they keep the ground segment, they will have a never ending supply of shippers to push premium services on."

Err.....business 101. What is the highest cost associated with running a business?

Payroll.

Second in our industry?

Fuel.

Guess who has lower cost's associated with those two items?

FedEx

[Pollocknbrown]

Originally Posted by VTBrown

"Take a look at FedEx - they have annual revenues almost as high as UPS's yet their volume is way less. That's because they have a much higher percentage of premium service volume. I'm sure UPS would love to have that ratio. But there's no way UPS would ever sell off their ground segment no matter how un-profitable it is. As long as they keep the ground segment, they will have a never ending supply of shippers to push premium services on."

Err.....business 101. What is the highest cost associated with running a business?

Payroll.

Second in our industry?

Fuel.

Guess who has lower cost's associated with those two items?

FedEx

Even with the fact of UPS having greater costs..... fedex in proportion to their overall revenue to ours, its less profitable by nearly 50%. If you look at the 2006 numbers, Fedex would have needed to create over 80 billion in revenue (assuming the ratio of revenue and profits (income) remains same.) to the 47 billion UPS took to produce over 4 billion in profits. (for those who dont want to look at the charts Fedex made about 1.8 bil off of 37 bil and UPS made about 4.2bil off of 47 bil).

Sources:

http://www.wysiwicked.com/encyclopedia/?title=FedEx

http://www.wysiwicked.com/encycloped...Parcel_Service