Big announcement coming in Jan

slowdriver

Well-Known Member
It will likely mean more deadline sensitive, guaranteed time specific workloads and more pressure being placed on already badly under compensated contractor employed drivers.

Contractors operate from day to day on the hope that there will always be somebody walking through that door physically able and psychologically willing to go out and deliver top of the scale performance for bottom of the scale money on a continuous daily basis for an extended period of time. Piling Smart Post and what was once Express freight on to those people and eventually they'll come a day when nobody's coming through the door.

BTW. in case you missed it Celadon packed it in yesterday. Told their consignees not to worry their loads will get there while at the same time are telling O-O's to deliver their loads with cancelled fuel cards, file claims as a secured creditor and.....maybe....they'll get paid.... someday.

Told their company drivers to take their rigs to the "nearest safe place" find their own way home and submit their claims for wages.

If i was one of them I would turn around head for home then just about the time I was running out of fuel I would drive it into the nearest swampy woods and bury it up to the bumper.

Them: "What the hell were you doing? What wrecker is going to come out here to pull it out when they already know that they're not going to get paid?

Me: " Well, you said to take it to the nearest safe place and here is the nearest safe place . Look at is this way. Who's going to steal it?
Wow, there's videos all over youtube of upset drivers for celadon, i've honestly never heard of them, but apperantly it's a pretty large company, crazy..
 

SmithBarney

Well-Known Member
I had a thought(dangerous I know) I could See 2Day going to one attempt and HAL, and Saver going directly to HAL.(HAL at ARTH locations Walgreens/Dollar Gen)

Purely on economics it would make a ton more sense then trying to transfer freight to Ground.
Sales has been selling Ground for years, they told us in person at a "meet and greet" right after they asked for sales leads..(yeah sure, go hop in your BMW and get your own) But sales has been successful in moving a ton a customers over to ground, For example ground covers all of FL in one day, so 2day/saver was an easy sell to ground.
 

Route 66

Slapped Upside-da-Head Member
Sales has been selling Ground for years, they told us in person at a "meet and greet" right after they asked for sales leads..(yeah sure, go hop in your BMW and get your own)
They still making couriers do that crap?
I used to turn in the lamest sales leads imaginable (Sadie the Seamstress who worked out of her attic, Uncle Ernie’s Used Tire Farm, Bob’s Gas ‘n Donuts, The UPS Store, etc).
Very shortly they stopped bugging me - and even urged me not to turn in any more leads. :D
 

dezguy

Well-Known Member
They still making couriers do that crap?
I used to turn in the lamest sales leads imaginable (Sadie the Seamstress who worked out of her attic, Uncle Ernie’s Used Tire Farm, Bob’s Gas ‘n Donuts, The UPS Store, etc).
Very shortly they stopped bugging me - and even urged me not to turn in any more leads. :D
Sure do!

Had a manager, a few years back complain to me that I hadn't handed in a sales lead in years. Told them when sales starts selling Express, I'll start considering getting sales leads. Their response was "if sales sells ground and the customer likes the service, that means every once in a while they'll ship Express for important items."

This is what we've come to, folks. Expecting customers will ship with us sometimes.
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
They still making couriers do that crap?
I used to turn in the lamest sales leads imaginable (Sadie the Seamstress who worked out of her attic, Uncle Ernie’s Used Tire Farm, Bob’s Gas ‘n Donuts, The UPS Store, etc).
Very shortly they stopped bugging me - and even urged me not to turn in any more leads. :D

Yep. Bars, 7-11, and anyone else who would never ship Express. Bravo Zulu!
 

59 Dano

I just want to make friends!
I had a thought(dangerous I know) I could See 2Day going to one attempt and HAL, and Saver going directly to HAL.(HAL at ARTH locations Walgreens/Dollar Gen)

They did a trial run of 2 attempts instead of 3 a couple of years ago. Despite the posturing and dramatics of a certain poster here, it didn't go poorly. The biggest concerns were in rural areas that were considered too far away from stations.

...and now we have single attempt ARTHs to drug stores and so on that are popping up in rural areas.
 

SmithBarney

Well-Known Member
They did a trial run of 2 attempts instead of 3 a couple of years ago. Despite the posturing and dramatics of a certain poster here, it didn't go poorly. The biggest concerns were in rural areas that were considered too far away from stations.

...and now we have single attempt ARTHs to drug stores and so on that are popping up in rural areas.
Yup all 4 of the Dollar Generals in my PM area have been live for about 2 months, it's been slow, but it will pick up once folks learn about it, unfortunately no one knows about it. I wish they had stickers we could put on the door tags like the little round ones we had a while back "take control of your delivery" etc.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
They were talking about that years ago. Now they’re finally doing something about it?
Margin compression will be the driver of whatever they do decide if anything come January, Trouble is there appears to be few options other than continue to try to move more volume over to Ground. If will no doubt create even greater challenges for contractors when it comes to meeting delivery deadlines and finding enough labor that's both productive enough and cheap enough to accomplish that feat.

Judging by the number of contracts coming up for sale on the broker sites the smart money seems to be not to wait around for this feces storm to hit the fan.

The fact of the matter is that you're never going to get a $40 an hour effort for a $15 an hour wage.
 

Fred's Myth

Nonhyphenated American
Margin compression will be the driver of whatever they do decide if anything come January, Trouble is there appears to be few options other than continue to try to move more volume over to Ground. If will no doubt create even greater challenges for contractors when it comes to meeting delivery deadlines and finding enough labor that's both productive enough and cheap enough to accomplish that feat.

Judging by the number of contracts coming up for sale on the broker sites the smart money seems to be not to wait around for this feces storm to hit the fan.

The fact of the matter is that you're never going to get a $40 an hour effort for a $15 an hour wage.
If what you say is accurate, then the contractors should realize that they now hold the upper hand, and should demand much more favorable terms and margins.

Perhaps they should organize.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
If what you say is accurate, then the contractors should realize that they now hold the upper hand, and should demand much more favorable terms and margins.

Perhaps they should organize.
To begin with contractors must agree to a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) whereby they are not permitted to discuss the details of their own contract with other contractors nor are they permitted to have counsel present during those so called and laughable contract "negotiations" .

Another example of just how captive and restrictive being an FXG "independent contractor " actually is in everyday life. And no matter how big of a scale you operate under in the end you simply get tired of it especially now given that the big haul many contractors believe they'll walk away with which is the only reason why many continue to put up with it becomes less of a certainty.
 

snowcat66

Active Member
Well friend from another station said a courier in Az was on the facebook blog last eve and said his Senior "slipped" and said the express saver is going to ground by mid jan.. stay tuned
 

Gone fishin

Well-Known Member
Well friend from another station said a courier in Az was on the facebook blog last eve and said his Senior "slipped" and said the express saver is going to ground by mid jan.. stay tuned
I’ve actually had two big accounts get rate adjustments to switch from ground to express because of constant failures. Express is filling Amazon capacity to keep express density and numbers
 

snowcat66

Active Member
I remember back in the day (27 years ago) we didnt have Expsvr. just p1, sos and p2 and it seemed plenty then. makes since to move 3 days to ground. I'm sure it will be a, sorry Express doesn't offer 3 days any longer but ground has a new service you may be interested in
 
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