Are they still around? I thought Staples bought "em. At least where I'm at they're gone.
3rd resi attempt going bye bye...
- Thread starter hypo hanna
- Start date
Are they still around? I thought Staples bought "em. At least where I'm at they're gone.
SmithBarney
Well-Known Member
DOWNTRODDEN IN TEXAS
Well-Known Member
I just heard from a friend at another station about possible delivery appointments....anyone heard anything about this? His senior also confirmed for them the end of XS service and the third attempts. Interesting.
Rhoderunner
Well-Known Member
With no XS to do we'll have plenty of time for appointments !!! LOL Anything to get me to 35 hours w/o working Saturday !!!!
BrownMeetPurple
Well-Known Member
We're trying out no 2nd attempts at all... one attempt that's it.
Mr. 7
The monkey on the left.
Tonight,
My Sr. denied any knowledge of no more XS.
But, I'm in weird, small, place.
SmithBarney
Well-Known Member
our hold/problem room will have to get a lot larger... it's already full of bad addresses our CSA's can't seem to figure out..
but I can walk in and find them on google, or anywho in about 5 minutes(or just by calling the number on the packages)
Ricochet1a
Well-Known Member
I heard sometime back (before this trial run in the South and West), that Express in the Northeastern US, tried just releasing ALL packages to residential stops (even if they indicated they needed a signature). I'm not too sure on the source for this (I have some doubt), so anyone in the Northeast can better comment on this.
The supposed goal of Express (when it comes to signatures at residential stops), is to gradually follow the trend that UPS is making (Express is sooooo original....).
If test in the southern and western regions goes well, the process will be adopted nationwide.
Then after that, what is supposed to happen, is that packages that require a signature will get ONE delivery attempt. If someone isn't there to sign, the package AUTOMATICALLY goes to Office. Supposedly there will be new delivery tags made up, telling the customer that "their package is at their local Office location" (giving the address on the tag). The customer will then need to drive to the Office location to pickup their package. Supposedly, Office will get a cut of the revenue for this service (similiar to how FASC's get some change for packages that are DROPPED OFF at their location).
What hasn't been worked out, is whether Couriers will drive to the local Office location at the end of their routes - dropping off what was previously "send agains", or having Couriers return to their station, then once all "send agains" are in (send again as a term will disappear), have shuttles run from the station with the undelivered packages to the Office location that was indicated to the customer.
The whole goal of this, is to trim hours for the Couriers. The typical Courier spends about 15-20 minutes each day, working send agains (going to resi stops to make either a 2nd or 3rd attempt on a piece). Those who have routes that are primarily residential, spend even more time working send agains each day. Express wants to eliminate this practice. However, having the Couriers dropping off their undelivered pieces at the nearest Office location would most likely add 10 or 15 minutes to their total on-road time (negating any potential savings).
The other part of the "savings pie", is "transferring" custodial control over to Office (who had lower operating costs and employee compensation), all in an effort to trim....... CSA hours. There has been a push to squeeze hours out of the station CSAs, getting them away from getting packages for resi customers with door tags in hand. The larger stations are looking to cut one or two part-time CSA positons due to this (this will be on top of cuts that occur when stations consolidate into larger stations).
The cost of delivering packages to residential stops are higher than business stops (thus why the surcharges), but Express still wants to cut those costs even more.
So in the next year or two, look for the term "send agains" to disappear from Express vocabulary.
On top of the imminent ending of Express Saver service, I think most Couriers can realize the steady "crunch" that they will be put under - especially the hours they work. With Express Saver gone and send agains to disappear sometime in the future, I think most Full-Time routes will see at least an hour shaved off their day, possibly as much as 1.5 hours a day.
I can only hope that the sheep out there can realize a distinct pattern emerging (have to be absolutely blind to not realize it by now), and do something to protect themselves. I honestly don't see the Express Couriers doing anything about it - they'll still be wondering what happened when they are working for minimums and pulling a split each day.
The supposed goal of Express (when it comes to signatures at residential stops), is to gradually follow the trend that UPS is making (Express is sooooo original....).
If test in the southern and western regions goes well, the process will be adopted nationwide.
Then after that, what is supposed to happen, is that packages that require a signature will get ONE delivery attempt. If someone isn't there to sign, the package AUTOMATICALLY goes to Office. Supposedly there will be new delivery tags made up, telling the customer that "their package is at their local Office location" (giving the address on the tag). The customer will then need to drive to the Office location to pickup their package. Supposedly, Office will get a cut of the revenue for this service (similiar to how FASC's get some change for packages that are DROPPED OFF at their location).
What hasn't been worked out, is whether Couriers will drive to the local Office location at the end of their routes - dropping off what was previously "send agains", or having Couriers return to their station, then once all "send agains" are in (send again as a term will disappear), have shuttles run from the station with the undelivered packages to the Office location that was indicated to the customer.
The whole goal of this, is to trim hours for the Couriers. The typical Courier spends about 15-20 minutes each day, working send agains (going to resi stops to make either a 2nd or 3rd attempt on a piece). Those who have routes that are primarily residential, spend even more time working send agains each day. Express wants to eliminate this practice. However, having the Couriers dropping off their undelivered pieces at the nearest Office location would most likely add 10 or 15 minutes to their total on-road time (negating any potential savings).
The other part of the "savings pie", is "transferring" custodial control over to Office (who had lower operating costs and employee compensation), all in an effort to trim....... CSA hours. There has been a push to squeeze hours out of the station CSAs, getting them away from getting packages for resi customers with door tags in hand. The larger stations are looking to cut one or two part-time CSA positons due to this (this will be on top of cuts that occur when stations consolidate into larger stations).
The cost of delivering packages to residential stops are higher than business stops (thus why the surcharges), but Express still wants to cut those costs even more.
So in the next year or two, look for the term "send agains" to disappear from Express vocabulary.
On top of the imminent ending of Express Saver service, I think most Couriers can realize the steady "crunch" that they will be put under - especially the hours they work. With Express Saver gone and send agains to disappear sometime in the future, I think most Full-Time routes will see at least an hour shaved off their day, possibly as much as 1.5 hours a day.
I can only hope that the sheep out there can realize a distinct pattern emerging (have to be absolutely blind to not realize it by now), and do something to protect themselves. I honestly don't see the Express Couriers doing anything about it - they'll still be wondering what happened when they are working for minimums and pulling a split each day.
Ricochet1a
Well-Known Member
Most CSAs hate working problem packages - it is usually the very last thing they'll do, if they have spare time in the day. They have to run all those reports afterall....
I think a big part of what is going to happen, is Express' starting to put pressure on the shippers to get correct addresses on their shipments. Any package that requires an address correction, has automatically cost Express more to fix the problem, than the potential profit was if it had a correct address in the first place.
A large part of the intended cost reductions for Express, is to cut CSA hours where ever they can. Gettting rid of send agains is one part of the solution. The other part is getting shippers to pay more attention to the address they put on the package to begin with.
With DRA coming around the corner, bad addresses can really take the potential gains out of the "system". This is one reason why CSAs are now mandated at their POS to generate FULL shipping labels for all shipments processed (info from manual ABs is typed into the POS to generate a full address label). This eliminates some of the bad address issues at the inbound end. If Express could get away with having Couriers doing it, they would (just not enough time to even hope to get Couriers to type out address label for all manual AB shipments). Just think of having to manually type in addresses like you do for FO that is on a manual AB.... there is no way you'd keep up with pickups.
Its all part of the plan.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
I had 15 packages on my car Wednesday that were "Bad PAL" due to an error by the receiver. They configured their address incorrectly--rather than listing company name, street address and dock number, they listed company name, dock number then the street address and the computer picked up the dock number and sent the packages to Dock St, which is on my area. This is a Canadian firm and it will be very difficult to get them to fix their address.
HomeDelivery
Well-Known Member
ah, good to know those programs are still creating errors...
i had a "misplot" yesterday since some towns share the same zipcode. since i only had 5 stops left, I called the phone number to verify the customer's address & they were only 3 miles off (same street name - but different towns).
I promptly told the customer for future internet orders to utilize the 2nd address line & add major landmarks, ie, next to the Shoprite & Church by XX street to avoid any more confusion/delay of deliveries.
i had a "misplot" yesterday since some towns share the same zipcode. since i only had 5 stops left, I called the phone number to verify the customer's address & they were only 3 miles off (same street name - but different towns).
I promptly told the customer for future internet orders to utilize the 2nd address line & add major landmarks, ie, next to the Shoprite & Church by XX street to avoid any more confusion/delay of deliveries.
hypo hanna
Well-Known Member
Yet another major FAIL on the horizon. The Office locations are squawking up a storm as it is because we can't keep their undersized facilities clear of outbound freight. Some in my district get 2 and 3 sweeps a day. If their staging area is taken up with send agains/holds, those sweeps will only have to increase in frequency.
At least in my district researching bad addresses is done first by dispatch then by station CSA's. (This is one of the main reasons your dispatcher doesn't answer the phone. It is being monopolized with outbound direct calls to customers.) He is judged daily by the speed in which he processes the DEX03's and by how many he is able to resolve. He is not judged by how many times you call and get a busy signal.
Is this research being passed onto the Office agents? Hope it comes with some training. Some can be easily resolved with a google search but plenty require some real detective work.
Going to be fun watching those saps, erm I mean customers trying to track down their package while it is being shuttled between facilities.
Ricochet1a
Well-Known Member
Supposedly, Office locations are going to increase the area they have dedicated to both inbound and outbound package holding. The real issue for Office is the sheer volume of outbound GROUND volume they have (over the counter sales to both commercial and non-commercial customers). Ground is going to have to eventually adopt a sweep system, to keep Office locations from being swamped in packages. FedEx knows the growth is happening, so they are trying to stay ahead of the tidal wave of packages.
In the next few years, you will see an increasing use of Office by FedEx, to accept and hold packages for both Ground and Express. They are already able to shift printing jobs around between different locations (customers come into one location for a print job, the job goes into the "system", and the actual work is performed by an Office location that has staff not being utilized.). This way, underutilized staff in one location can be put to work - increasing profitability. When the work is done, the completed printing is merely run to the location where the customer originally placed the request, then they are called when it arrives.
Supposedly, again.... Office will only get the DEX 8's from Express. Any DEX 3's will still go back to the stations for research.
Like all things with Express, this all has to do with reducing hours paid to employees of Express, and shift as much "work" to employees of opco's that are compensated at lower rates than Express employees.
The typical entry level Office employee makes in the $9-10 range (depending on market). The typical entry level Express CSA makes $14-15 (again, depending on market). Express wants to eliminate as many CSA hours as possible (having them run back and forth between the counter and the station cage, grabbing packages). By shifting of work to another opco (a common theme I've wrote extensively about), FedEx can reduce labor costs and therefore increase its profitability. Think of it as "outsourcing", but instead of being done on an international level, it is merely done on a FedEx opco level (Express would be equivalent to the US in this analogy, and Office would be the equivalent to India).
whenIgetthere
Well-Known Member
Sounds like your SM is in a weird, small, place of his/her own!
hypo hanna
Well-Known Member
An excellent analogy. I suspect service should take a corresponding hit further eroding customer confidence.
Sad to watch something you gave so much to over the years being driven into the ditch.
Sad to watch something you gave so much to over the years being driven into the ditch.
whenIgetthere
Well-Known Member
whenIgetthere
Well-Known Member
Does UPS charge for address correction? I think it's $12.50 per package at Fedex.
Ricochet1a
Well-Known Member
Regarding DEX3's...
All of this must be put under the context of DRA - that is the future of Express, whether you think it will work or not at this point in time.
If a piece comes in with a bad address, it will supposedly be flagged before it even goes down the belt (the ROADS label won't "assign" a route to the package, it will get a "0" and immediately go to the Office). Even before that, there will be employees coming in before the sorts doing address corrections (should be going on now in most stations). The address corrections will automatically update in ROADS, then when the sort starts, a correct routing label is applied to the package (and supposedly the Courier running the route will get a sheet informing them of the correct address to use for package). The whole goal is to ensure that NO packages are taken out by Couriers with bad addresses - none whatsoever.
I know you may be thinking this is fantasy, but Express has already cooked up a way to solve the potential issues which may arise by NOT having Couriers take out packages with bad addresses in the AM (waiting to get corrected info as they are on road...).
What they envision, are the PM routes taking out pieces which couldn't be corrected before the AM routes left the building, for delivery. With all the extra time the CSAs are going to have (since they won't be running back and forth to the cages retreiving packages for customers with door tags), they will spend that time getting corrections to bad addresses in the AM. The PM routes will have packages assigned to them, to get off presumably before they start their pickups. If need be, PM routes can be started a few minutes earlier than needed (compared to if they were just doing pickups), in order to get out address corrections and any potential missorts that arrived in the stations.
So the end goal, is to have DRA do all route balancing and routing, reduce Courier on-road time by eliminating "send-agains", reduce CSA hours by having customers go to Office to pick up their packages which couldn't be released and therefore boost Express' profitability by cutting hours and shifting work over to Office when possible.
Express has lost close to 10% of its volume compared to 4 years ago. It is about to shed another 10-15% of its volume with the ending of Express Saver service. It is going to trim Courier on-road time, by eventually ending the game of send-agains and merely "shifting of that volume" (term I've used before), to Office to hold and have customers go there instead of to the Express stations. Express is aiming to NOT send out packages with known bad addresses in the AM (getting out good info as the AM Couriers are on the road), but rather have the CSAs do research in the AM (holding the piece in the station), then having the PM routes take those pieces out for delivery at the beginning of their route.
I think you can see a pattern developing here.... Between the overall reduction in volume and gradual (and deliberate) shifting of "work" over to Office, hours for wage employees will gradually be reduced. Compared to 4 years ago, an AM route that took maybe 9 hours on average to run, will only take 7.5 hours to run after all of this is implemented (bye bye to overtime expense for Express). Then when the final bomb is dropped (shifting of delivery of 2nd day volume to Ground), the AM routes will only requre about 1 hours of sort time in the morning (no 2nd day to sort), and just over 4 hours of on-road time (PO and SO) - sounds like a part-time job to me.
If you are working as a full-time Courier, your "career" is squarely in the crosshairs of Memphis business planning and I don't see the Couriers doing anything about it.
All of this must be put under the context of DRA - that is the future of Express, whether you think it will work or not at this point in time.
If a piece comes in with a bad address, it will supposedly be flagged before it even goes down the belt (the ROADS label won't "assign" a route to the package, it will get a "0" and immediately go to the Office). Even before that, there will be employees coming in before the sorts doing address corrections (should be going on now in most stations). The address corrections will automatically update in ROADS, then when the sort starts, a correct routing label is applied to the package (and supposedly the Courier running the route will get a sheet informing them of the correct address to use for package). The whole goal is to ensure that NO packages are taken out by Couriers with bad addresses - none whatsoever.
I know you may be thinking this is fantasy, but Express has already cooked up a way to solve the potential issues which may arise by NOT having Couriers take out packages with bad addresses in the AM (waiting to get corrected info as they are on road...).
What they envision, are the PM routes taking out pieces which couldn't be corrected before the AM routes left the building, for delivery. With all the extra time the CSAs are going to have (since they won't be running back and forth to the cages retreiving packages for customers with door tags), they will spend that time getting corrections to bad addresses in the AM. The PM routes will have packages assigned to them, to get off presumably before they start their pickups. If need be, PM routes can be started a few minutes earlier than needed (compared to if they were just doing pickups), in order to get out address corrections and any potential missorts that arrived in the stations.
So the end goal, is to have DRA do all route balancing and routing, reduce Courier on-road time by eliminating "send-agains", reduce CSA hours by having customers go to Office to pick up their packages which couldn't be released and therefore boost Express' profitability by cutting hours and shifting work over to Office when possible.
Express has lost close to 10% of its volume compared to 4 years ago. It is about to shed another 10-15% of its volume with the ending of Express Saver service. It is going to trim Courier on-road time, by eventually ending the game of send-agains and merely "shifting of that volume" (term I've used before), to Office to hold and have customers go there instead of to the Express stations. Express is aiming to NOT send out packages with known bad addresses in the AM (getting out good info as the AM Couriers are on the road), but rather have the CSAs do research in the AM (holding the piece in the station), then having the PM routes take those pieces out for delivery at the beginning of their route.
I think you can see a pattern developing here.... Between the overall reduction in volume and gradual (and deliberate) shifting of "work" over to Office, hours for wage employees will gradually be reduced. Compared to 4 years ago, an AM route that took maybe 9 hours on average to run, will only take 7.5 hours to run after all of this is implemented (bye bye to overtime expense for Express). Then when the final bomb is dropped (shifting of delivery of 2nd day volume to Ground), the AM routes will only requre about 1 hours of sort time in the morning (no 2nd day to sort), and just over 4 hours of on-road time (PO and SO) - sounds like a part-time job to me.
If you are working as a full-time Courier, your "career" is squarely in the crosshairs of Memphis business planning and I don't see the Couriers doing anything about it.
Ricochet1a
Well-Known Member
This makes more sense from what I was told. I was told that ALL packages (including those requiring signatures - which I HIGHLY doubted), were to be released in this "test" in the Northeast US. Knowing the "test" was merely any packages that DIDN'T require a signature, were to be released by the Courier (no exceptions), makes much more sense. Since not many Couriers decide to not release resi packages to locations which are not apartments, the "test" makes much more sense now to me.
Ricochet1a
Well-Known Member
As with all things in business, quality has a cost. The issue becomes one of how the business is to manage the cost of providing quality - and one of how much are customers willing to pay for quality received.
FedEx has made the decision that the cost of quality that is associated with its non-overnight product is too high for the market to bear (the difference between the PRICE the market will support and the COST Express incurrs in providing the service is too narrow), so the "quality" of that product will be dropped, to reduce its costs to Express and therefore increase its margins.
By shifting all of that "troublesome" freight (send-agains and non-overnight volume) over to lower cost FedEx opcos, the company can boost its margins, while still providing what it believes is a service level which will be acceptable to the "market". The process of implementing that change has been slow, but at this point it is undeniable.
The only real issue is how are the wage employees (in particular the full-time Couriers) going to react to this change. I believe that the pace of change has been DELIBERATELY kept slow enough, as not to create "undue alarm" among the career Couriers and have them start organizing in response (turn up the heat on that frog in the kettle real slow like).
So far, it appears that FedEx's strategy is working as planned and the sheep aren't getting too nervous..... yet.
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