Amazon says "ADIOS" to Express?

[Star B]

Actually, if fedex is making ANY profit off Amazon, giving it up is MORE likely to 'put yourself out of business.'

Here's my viewpoint:

I like the business, and I don't mind the density, but in my experience, which is HEAVILY based on SRA extended areas:

Amazon was busy for all types of boxes out there, smalls and large boxes. Urban areas had the large/heavy crap the post office wouldn't take because they had the Amazon semi come thru every morning.
The stops were never condensed, so there was no density. I was running 5-10 minutes between stops. Some stops took me 15+ minutes because they were so far away from civilization or just hard to get to (windy roads).

After we kicked them to the curb, the stop density went back up and the amount of dumb out of the way stops went WAY down. Do I still see them? Sure I do... but now it's back to once a month for their pills or bi-monthly Walmart stock-up order (35$ for free shipping), versus every other day for one or two items shipped free via Prime.

We're still busy, but you know what, we're busy with people who want to pay us what we're worth.... and if they aren't paying us full rate, they are not trying to become our competitor. That in and of itself means a ton to me.

 

[ReverseThrusters]

FedEx will no longer provide express shipping for Amazon in the US

 

[dezguy]

FedEx will no longer provide express shipping for Amazon in the US

Thanks for the update.

 

[JL 0513]

By dropping the service, does it not make Amazon ramp up their own delivery service even faster? There's the argument that delivering their crap helps them but not delivering it helps them.

 

[MAKAVELI]

I predict in the next 5 years Amazon will be buying FedEx. FedEx is a hot mess right now em week will be right for the taking

Here's my viewpoint:

I like the business, and I don't mind the density, but in my experience, which is HEAVILY based on SRA extended areas:

Amazon was busy for all types of boxes out there, smalls and large boxes. Urban areas had the large/heavy crap the post office wouldn't take because they had the Amazon semi come thru every morning.
The stops were never condensed, so there was no density. I was running 5-10 minutes between stops. Some stops took me 15+ minutes because they were so far away from civilization or just hard to get to (windy roads).

After we kicked them to the curb, the stop density went back up and the amount of dumb out of the way stops went WAY down. Do I still see them? Sure I do... but now it's back to once a month for their pills or bi-monthly Walmart stock-up order (35$ for free shipping), versus every other day for one or two items shipped free via Prime.

We're still busy, but you know what, we're busy with people who want to pay us what we're worth.... and if they aren't paying us full rate, they are not trying to become our competitor. That in and of itself means a ton to me.

True but we, employees get paid by the hour, not by stop density. No matter what type of route you have eliminating a high volume shipper will effect the employees more than FedEx. I find this a little concerning especially when they announced the hiring of casuals. FedEx is a hot mess right now and it seems they are throwing at the wall hoping it sticks.

 

[Gone fishin]

I predict in the next 5 years Amazon will be buying FedEx. FedEx is a hot mess right now em week will be right for the taking

True but we, employees get paid by the hour, not by stop density. No matter what type of route you have eliminating a high volume shipper will effect the employees more than FedEx. I find this a little concerning especially when they announced the hiring of casuals. FedEx is a hot mess right now and it seems they are throwing at the wall hoping it sticks.

We haven’t had Amazon in weeks and all routes built to capacity

 

[MAKAVELI]

We haven’t had Amazon in weeks and all routes built to capacity

All I'm saying is the future isn't bright bro. They are spending $ like it's going out of style on technology and vehicles yet at the same time looking to cut labor costs.

 

[Gone fishin]

All I'm saying is the future isn't bright bro. They are spending $ like it's going out of style on technology and vehicles yet at the same time looking to cut labor costs.

The bright is that every brick and mortar store has to have the ability to ship products in todays world. Those that don’t will be hard pressed to stay in business

 

[MAKAVELI]

The bright is that every brick and mortar store has to have the ability to ship products in todays world. Those that don’t will be hard pressed to stay in business

Every brick and mortar has to contend with Amazon. All of them will be hard pressed to stay in business.

 

[Star B]

We have too much legacy costs to be an attractive buyout. Now, if the company went private, then maybe I'd start being worried... but until then, I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

True but we, employees get paid by the hour, not by stop density.

Yes, we're paid by the hour, but it doesn't mean that I can't want to work smarter and get home to what's more important, my personal life. I don't know about you but I'm sick of being clocked in for ~12 hours a day 5 days a week.

 

[cosis]

No amazon packages in a week and we are slammed. Didn’t even notice they were gone.

 

[BakerMayfield2018]

No amazon packages in a week and we are slammed. Didn’t even notice they were gone.

 

[MAKAVELI]

We have too much legacy costs to be an attractive buyout. Now, if the company went private, then maybe I'd start being worried... but until then, I'm not going to lose sleep over it.


Yes, we're paid by the hour, but it doesn't mean that I can't want to work smarter and get home to what's more important, my personal life. I don't know about you but I'm sick of being clocked in for ~12 hours a day 5 days a week.

I'll save this post when it comes to raise time.

 

[Brown287]

Ironically about two months ago Amazon in my area stopped using OnTrack.

Before they started using the USPS OnTrack was their go to delivery company in my area.

 

[vantexan]

My last station was a small station with a lot of small towns and rural area covered. Most days at least 25% of my deliveries were Amazon and often I struggled to get a full 40 hrs. Volunteered Saturdays and much of that was Amazon. If you're in a busy metro area you might actually welcome no Amazon. But a lot of small stations are probably going to be impacted with quite a few couriers getting only the guarantee and some route consolidation as couriers leave.

 

[McFeely]

By dropping the service, does it not make Amazon ramp up their own delivery service even faster? There's the argument that delivering their crap helps them but not delivering it helps them.

In theory, yes. It will also make Bezos realize just how expensive and complicated (not to mention the infrastructure required) it is to get into the ship-by-air business.

I'm guessing the rate structure we gave Amazon in the past was just enough to help fill the plane to capacity and pay for the jet fuel, not much more. Amazon gets to try to do it cheaper than that now. Not saying they won't be able to, but it's not going to be easy.

I'm a DRA route in town, so I don't really care if we keep Amazon or whatever. All last week my route has had full stop counts and I got all the hours I need.

 

[bacha29]

With all shipping companies obsessed with driving down "final mile" costs by trying to grab up as much of that easy in town stuff they can get while trying to sucker the other guy into taking their bankrupting rural boxes as a so called "partner" this is going to be a real cluster expletive deleted going forward. Bezos will take his easy stuff while wanting Fat Freddy or one of the other Big 3 to get " jiggy" with it. As in taking his jing weed boxes and lose a fortune on it.

This could get so bad that an industry that once was one of the most regulated in the nation could find itself back in the good old days .
Caught in the middle of all this some unfortunate contractors could discover the hard way that they stayed too long hoping for that big cash out but instead have to settle for a "take it off your hands" kind of deal.

 

[SmithBarney]

I'm guessing the rate structure we gave Amazon in the past was just enough to help fill the plane to capacity and pay for the jet fuel, not much more. Amazon gets to try to do it cheaper than that now. Not saying they won't be able to, but it's not going to be easy.

Exactly, the profit margin on Amazon "Express" packages, was almost zero, we gave them Saturday as well. Ground on the other hand has decent margins with Amazon. Amazon Volume affected Express operations hindering our ability to deliver other customers on time. Want to know why Freight is late every day? Now for a consumer standpoint, watch for a huge rate jump this peak.

 

[fedx]

Exactly, the profit margin on Amazon "Express" packages, was almost zero, we gave them Saturday as well. Ground on the other hand has decent margins with Amazon. Amazon Volume affected Express operations hindering our ability to deliver other customers on time. Want to know why Freight is late every day? Now for a consumer standpoint, watch for a huge rate jump this peak.

Filling a plane to capacity with boxes with virtually no profit margin isn't worth doing. Think about the extra cost of labor handling all those extra packages for no gain. Think about the wear and tear on vehicles delivering all that volume for no real gain. I've heard fellow employees say "all these packages (volume) makes us look good to Wall Street." But Wall Street needs to consider the average revenue per box and not just volume. If you're handling an extra million boxes at no real profit, you're actually hurting yourself with labor cost and wear and tear on vehicles.

 

[ReverseThrusters]

The Morning After: FedEx Express kicks Amazon to the curb