Amazon "Consequences"

[SmithBarney]

MFE while mostly I agree with you RE wages and treatment, but your local management must have really flubbed peak.(and should be dealt with accordingly) as our entire district was tested, but we did fine otherwise. Unfortunately(or fortunately for FedEx) UPS took the brunt of the bad publicity this season, and we are currently reaping the rewards as Amazon has shifted volume to us. BBSAM probably could speak for ground if the AZN Vol is up.

 

[59 Dano]

Amazon volume is up at our station.

As for peak, no DEX 1's came back in my workgroup on the 26th. We were all caught up.

A couple of years ago it would be 3 or 4 pieces of Amazon PM freight on each route here and most couriers were back by 1pm. Now it's 10 or more on most and 15 or more on some.

No DEX 1's here on the 26th, either despite the weather issues.

 

[MrFedEx]

A couple of years ago it would be 3 or 4 pieces of Amazon PM freight on each route here and most couriers were back by 1pm. Now it's 10 or more on most and 15 or more on some.

No DEX 1's here on the 26th, either despite the weather issues.

Funny how certain people are saying now that we didn't blow Peak, yet the evidence that we did was overwhelming. In my district, we were nearly a week behind, and there were plenty of other reports of the same thing happening system-wide...thousands of packages sitting undelivered in the warehouse.

To pretend that Peak went well overall is simply ridiculous.

 

[Operational needs]

Funny how certain people are saying now that we didn't blow Peak, yet the evidence that we did was overwhelming. In my district, we were nearly a week behind, and there were plenty of other reports of the same thing happening system-wide...thousands of packages sitting undelivered in the warehouse.

To pretend that Peak went well overall is simply ridiculous.

It was the same in my station.

 

[59 Dano]

Funny how certain people are saying now that we didn't blow Peak, yet the evidence that we did was overwhelming.

To pretend that it was as bad as you claim is to be completely detached from reality. There were problems here and there and Texas had brutal weather, but you're being a drama queen.

Let's see the overwhelming evidence. Not your personal anecdotes, but actual evidence.

In my district, we were nearly a week behind, and there were plenty of other reports of the same thing happening system-wide...thousands of packages sitting undelivered in the warehouse.

No doubt those reports were from the same sources that saw the secret documents that said Express was going to overnight-only.

 

[MrFedEx]

To pretend that it was as bad as you claim is to be completely detached from reality. There were problems here and there and Texas had brutal weather, but you're being a drama queen.

Let's see the overwhelming evidence. Not your personal anecdotes, but actual evidence.



No doubt those reports were from the same sources that saw the secret documents that said Express was going to overnight-only.

God, what a liar. Is there any doubt you have been sent here to spread the myth that Peak was a non-event? Epic cluster barely even does it justice. I'm sure there's no coincidence that your accelerated level of posts corresponds with Amazon's decision to kick FedEx to the curb.

 

[!Retired!]

Your station would be the exception to the rule.

I can't say and neither can you.

 

[barnyard]

I think it is interesting that Amazon believes that local/regional carriers will do a better job at peak.

We have a regional based out of the city where I live. This year, their HQ building was short 75 drivers. The only volume that they were delivering on time was business volume. Residential volume was delivered 1-2 weeks late. We picked up a couple of accounts that shipped stuff via the regional, then had to reship via UPS because it was sitting in a trailer at the regional and they would not say for sure when it would be delivered.

What I see happening is Amazon diverting volume to regionals, peak rolls around and UPS and FE say, "Divert regional volume back to us (by signing a new contract) and we'll help you out."

 

[bbsam]

...but without a discount.

 

[TUT]

I think it is interesting that Amazon believes that local/regional carriers will do a better job at peak.

We have a regional based out of the city where I live. This year, their HQ building was short 75 drivers. The only volume that they were delivering on time was business volume. Residential volume was delivered 1-2 weeks late. We picked up a couple of accounts that shipped stuff via the regional, then had to reship via UPS because it was sitting in a trailer at the regional and they would not say for sure when it would be delivered.

What I see happening is Amazon diverting volume to regionals, peak rolls around and UPS and FE say, "Divert regional volume back to us (by signing a new contract) and we'll help you out."

I'm not sure why UPS and Fedex can't be considered regional carriers in a sense for what Amazon wants to do. They have no problem picking up packages and delivering them in Zone 2, doing it since they started. The two big boys also can discount pretty deep to where they can be competitive with anyone. So if the Big 2 don't take offense to what Amazon is doing, there is business to had. And yes they are just spiteful if they think Regionals are better than UPS or Fedex leaving cost out of it. That just isn't the case at all. Then they have to worry about their own fleet and high 90's percentile success rates.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Cost is the bottom line. No one is saying the regionals are better---they're not---they are certainly cheaper.


Sent using BrownCafe App

 

[TUT]

Cost is the bottom line. No one is saying the regionals are better---they're not---they are certainly cheaper.


Sent using BrownCafe App

In general, but the big boys can throw out some mega discounts to and be competitive and Amazon isn't general, they are ~5% of your total business

 

[!Retired!]

To pretend that Peak went well overall is simply ridiculous.

I never said it went well. I personally delivered packages 2-3 days late. Even on the 26th I was delivering packages due on the 23rd-24th.

 

[CJinx]

We did not "blow" peak season. My station as as well as our district consistently had on-time service of 98% or better with the exception of days with nasty storms. Late freight was delivered within a day or two of it arriving. We ended up throwing out only 4 boxes of fruit/berries and these were address issues rather than delayed service issues. Maybe if your locations didn't have people like MFE who allegedly intentionally phone it in to try and screw their employer over, maybe your service numbers would be better?

 

[fedupforsure]

I do not know where you work out of cjinx but I can tell you where I work was a major disaster. Pallets of frt left on Christmas eve and people forced to man the station on Christmas day. total bs

 

[MAKAVELI]

I do not know where you work out of cjinx but I can tell you where I work was a major disaster. Pallets of frt left on Christmas eve and people forced to man the station on Christmas day. total bs

She works at the Willy Wonka chocolate factory, aka FedEx ground.

 

[MAKAVELI]

[quote=

 

[MrFedEx]

I never said it went well. I personally delivered packages 2-3 days late. Even on the 26th I was delivering packages due on the 23rd-24th.

That's great, but there were many, many stations that had 3-4 days worth of freight sitting in piles on the floor that was already way late. I heard from management that the conference calls during Peak acknowledged a wide-spread system meltdown. We had thousands of undelivered due packages at my station on 12-25 and several local stations wouldn't even accept their inbound because the decks were full of loaded cans.

 

[HomeDelivery]

it all depends on your LOCAL management team

we were caught up by Xmas eve... because the managers started hiring temp drivers in Sept. We were near 100 temps running in cargo vans and boxvans.

i doubled my workload & since the area gets tighter during peak, i was making more per hour than being paid by the hour w/ a temp agency this season...

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regionals are mostly operating out of their own personal cars... so yea, it's going to be a hit-or-miss with their customer service ~ because it's dependent on how lazy or good that local owner-operator is... They need to hire more owner-operators though just to help service those regional areas.

a member here said amazon is trying the shotgun-approach; they'll just aim at every courier out there and see what sticks

there is no way amazon will pull out of UPS / FX/ USPS... they don't have that infrastructure yet. We'll be used for the bulk while the regionals will take the overflow if the local FX UPS USPS are over-whelmed.

still waiting on how their amazon fresh delivery is going... it's not expanding to other areas for a while now

i wouldn't mind jumping ship & going there if they or a regional carrier pay better than my contractor

 

[TUT]

The issue with your crunch time was an attack on everyone's air networks. Ground was fine and probably smooth (except weather), when you close in on the last days you have a two fold problem. The last second buyers and then shippers changing services from Ground to Air to make the 25th. That means Ground is running under threshold and Air becomes saturated. It's math. I still don't fault the carriers all that much, even though they are far from perfect. There really is a lot of blame (if there has to be blame) to go around and that includes Amazon and buyers. Everyone wanted last second sales and didn't want to say "Too late for Christmas" and it's incorrect to think anyone can in today's bottom line environment can ramp up plane operations of this magnitude for a few days crunch.