Do you really believe that given the history of this company? Very few employees will stick around to even get more than 2 or 3 "steps", and the fact that they've doubled-over the veterans should give you a clue.
I would fully expect all sorts of hoops and excuses when the "steps" are implemented, all to save the company money vs. having a realistic top-out of 5 years or less and a living wage at the base level.
As the oldsters retire, you're seeing a new generation of worker that doesn't like physical labor, is almost completely dependent on electronic guidance, and lacks critical thinking and self-management skills.
In other words, Fred is going to have a bunch of losers and Third Worlders as his employment pool. You're already seeing it in most stations, and they cannot perform the job with any degree of efficiency.
New to the site, where to start! Well, first off, I want to say you may be right, but it's not the case at my station. I'm at a big station, or so they say. It's a smaller of the big ones, maybe 90 couriers or so, so I don't know everyone. But having worked 3 different routes on 3 different shifts, I have to say that the absolute laziest sob's are definitely NOT noobs, but vets, about 15-25 years. And the vets here also rely on their phones, though not all of them. It's true, though, that ALL the new guys 0-10 years rely heavily on tech, except for one swing I know. As for me, I crashed and burned so hard in my first month on a delivery route until I learned how use the map book to set up my stops. And btw, the new generation here at my station are the hardest working, period. I can't speak for their efficiency.
Off topic, the culture sucks. Absolutely sucks. I know it's a fedex thing, but it's so much worse at a big station than at the small station is used to work at. The culture is what causes me to hate this job sometimes. I choose to work at fedex. I'm not a slave, though I feel like it. Bottom line, though, there are other jobs with better benefits and comparable pay, but you sacrifice in other aspects such as being stuck in an office, or not being home at night (truck drivers), or having ZERO work/life balance (miners/oilfield). Still, I wish I could pick fedex happily vs begrudgingly. Why TF is dispatch interrogating me about a mistake I made yesterday, during my p1 cycle? It can't wait? Anyway....