Depressurizing the present/future ISP role...responses please

Talked to my nephew at length last night. He mentioned this comment by a poster here:

And I dare you to pull in some day without prior approval in a Chevy volt, and have a driver drop off a couple packages who hasn't been approved by fedex even if the driver has a Class a license and runs his own trucking business. I dare you to take packages to your local courier company and pay them to deliver the packages for you.


He has been "hammered" by the growth and with with the attendant capital and workforce pressures. He cites the Amazon "Flex" concept and a coming Walmart - Uber arrangement as alternatives that might lighten up the workload for ISP's (and consequently stabilize them).

He also doesn't share another posters glee that a UPS strike will add to his bottom line and feels it will only further erode his drivers morale making the future even more challenging.
 

It will be fine

Well-Known Member
Talked to my nephew at length last night. He mentioned this comment by a poster here:

And I dare you to pull in some day without prior approval in a Chevy volt, and have a driver drop off a couple packages who hasn't been approved by fedex even if the driver has a Class a license and runs his own trucking business. I dare you to take packages to your local courier company and pay them to deliver the packages for you.


He has been "hammered" by the growth and with with the attendant capital and workforce pressures. He cites the Amazon "Flex" concept and a coming Walmart - Uber arrangement as alternatives that might lighten up the workload for ISP's (and consequently stabilize them).

He also doesn't share another posters glee that a UPS strike will add to his bottom line and feels it will only further erode his drivers morale making the future even more challenging.
Fedex ran a pilot program last peak with personal vehicle delivery drivers. I believe it wasn’t used much but there were positive results. I don’t think the revenue is there to make it worthwhile for a driver in their own car though.

As for a strike, it would be hilarious. The entire network would be overloaded with failures everywhere. It would be peak in July with no expectation of staying caught up. The contract sets a limit of stops, it’s not the contractor’s problem if there are more than that in their area.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
Talked to my nephew at length last night. He mentioned this comment by a poster here:

And I dare you to pull in some day without prior approval in a Chevy volt, and have a driver drop off a couple packages who hasn't been approved by fedex even if the driver has a Class a license and runs his own trucking business. I dare you to take packages to your local courier company and pay them to deliver the packages for you.


He has been "hammered" by the growth and with with the attendant capital and workforce pressures. He cites the Amazon "Flex" concept and a coming Walmart - Uber arrangement as alternatives that might lighten up the workload for ISP's (and consequently stabilize them).

He also doesn't share another posters glee that a UPS strike will add to his bottom line and feels it will only further erode his drivers morale making the future even more challenging.
All you have to say to your nephew is simply this: ....." look you wanted in there badly enough now deal with it." The problem is too many people are sharing the same mindset. All you have to do is to buy up some routes then just sit back and count up the money.
As for using personal vehicles to make package delivery. Granted, it was more than a decade ago but we received word from the company loss prevention people that we were not under any circumstances to deliver using our personal vehicles. A well meaning seasonal temp took a couple boxes with them to drop off on his way home after work....He was in a very serious wreck.
In addition anybody who gets the idea of using their own vehicles to delivery boxes needs to first contact their vehicle insurer first. No matter what additional liability X claims it will cover check with your insurer first and made certain that you get what X is claiming they are willing to do in writing on company letterhead.
As for your nephew my only advice is to find out as soon as possible from X just what measures they are willing to take and fund themselves in preparation for what might be an unprecedented summer volume spike. If the answer as expected is doing nothing then he must immediately begin to prepare in terms of additional machines and manpower and be willing to spare no expense in order to do so.
It must be starting to worry some people. Yesterday, i saw a posting from a southern state driver recruiting company stating that Fedex has ordered them to immediately accelerate and expand their efforts to procure more drivers for contractors ahead of what many fear might happen including Fedex. Remember too over the past decade X has undertaken a large and expensive expansion campaign and no doubt sees the potential UPS/IBT showdown as a chance to put that expanded capacity to use and might not have a lot of tolerance for any contractor who fails to up size and be prepared despite that fact that the contractor is operating at 100% of his contracted capacity.
 

STFXG

Well-Known Member
Why not let them use personal vehicles? Just write up a rental agreement and pay them some kind of reimbursement.
 

Local 705 for life

Well-Known Member
FedEx wasn't prepared then and USPS either. The volume has grown so much since 1997 that the doors would fall off of competition. We are special breed in brown. We know the struggle is real. Local 705 for life.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
He also doesn't share another posters glee that a UPS strike will add to his bottom line and feels it will only further erode his drivers morale making the future even more challenging.

It will add to the bottom line. All he has to do is service up to “right to refuse” number. For me that would be about an extra 70 stops over 12 routes. We can easily handle an extra 100 stops. Beyond that, it’s just not my problem. Fact is, I don’t know of any ISP who is doing anything to prepare for a strike. I’m sure that has management nervous but they’ve been nothing but hateful jerks for the past 5 years anyway. Nobody’s in any mood to help them look good.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
It will add to the bottom line. All he has to do is service up to “right to refuse” number. For me that would be about an extra 70 stops over 12 routes. We can easily handle an extra 100 stops. Beyond that, it’s just not my problem. Fact is, I don’t know of any ISP who is doing anything to prepare for a strike. I’m sure that has management nervous but they’ve been nothing but hateful jerks for the past 5 years anyway. Nobody’s in any mood to help them look good.
I commend you to the highest degree. Other contractors need to take the same approach. That company is not going to come before you contractors and in a polite and respectful manner ask you to be responsive to the new set of directives Pittsburgh has handed them.Oh no, that's not their mindset Therefore this could be a rare and possibly once in a generation opportunity for contractors to take that vague, ambiguous and aptly described " piece of fiction"........ and for once and hopefully many more times.......make em eat it.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
FedEx wasn't prepared then and USPS either. The volume has grown so much since 1997 that the doors would fall off of competition. We are special breed in brown. We know the struggle is real. Local 705 for life.
What makes you a special breed? You pick it up here, haul it over there and put it down some place. Remember, UPS hired you not the Teamsters and we'll see what a "special breed' you are after you've been manning the picket long enough to the point when the nights start getting colder and only brown that matters then will be the color of the leaves and the color of your Carhart's .
 

dmac1

Well-Known Member
Why not let them use personal vehicles? Just write up a rental agreement and pay them some kind of reimbursement.

Using a private vehicle for commercial purposes likely leaves it without insurance. Letting your drivers deliver vehicles when you should know about insurance likely would leave you with liability. That may be why fedex hasn't allowed vehicles but if you had that vehicle listed on your commercial policy, fedex should allow it.

Commercial insurance for a personal vehicle is costly. I remember that my 'supplemental' was covered only while on duty but I needed my own policy when using it off-duty Years ago when I delivered pizza in my own car, Pizza Hut covered the car while I was on duty. There are probably thousands of people using personal vehicles to deliver newspapers, as I did too. None of the newspapers required any proof of anything but regular insurance, but I am sure they would face some liability if someone caused a major loss while delivering papers. They may have had insurance, and not told anyone so drivers would file any claims under their own insurance.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
I commend you to the highest degree. Other contractors need to take the same approach. That company is not going to come before you contractors and in a polite and respectful manner ask you to be responsive to the new set of directives Pittsburgh has handed them.Oh no, that's not their mindset Therefore this could be a rare and possibly once in a generation opportunity for contractors to take that vague, ambiguous and aptly described " piece of fiction"........ and for once and hopefully many more times.......make em eat it.
Thank you for the commendation but I am pretty certain I am more the rule than the exception.
 

Cactus

Just telling it like it is
Fact is, I don’t know of any ISP who is doing anything to prepare for a strike. I’m sure that has management nervous but they’ve been nothing but hateful jerks for the past 5 years anyway. Nobody’s in any mood to help them look good.
So why have the managers been such assbags? Because they can? Or does Pittsburg prefer them that way?
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
So why have the managers been such assbags? Because they can? Or does Pittsburg prefer them that way?
Started a few years ago. An assistant SM showed up and decided to make a name
for himself. Then a regional vehicle maintenance guy showed up and started swinging his d*. Had all kinds of nit picky BS that cost a lot of guys a lot of money. Pittsburgh may have pointed the direction but these guys went overboard. We’ve got ISP’s with contracts in other buildings who say it isn’t even close to the hell in our building.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
Started a few years ago. An assistant SM showed up and decided to make a name
for himself. Then a regional vehicle maintenance guy showed up and started swinging his d*. Had all kinds of nit picky BS that cost a lot of guys a lot of money. Pittsburgh may have pointed the direction but these guys went overboard. We’ve got ISP’s with contracts in other buildings who say it isn’t even close to the hell in our building.
The kind you subscribed is getting much more numerous. It may come down to and I've seen this happen whereby the contractors of a given terminal simply had enough of their belligerent SM and together sent a message to Pittsburgh......"We are not his employees nor are we his servants. We are contractors". Either he goes or we go"........ He went.
 

FedGT

Well-Known Member
We had an assistant TM come in screaming at everyone and being a colossal :censored2: about everything. One contractor had it so called a contractor meeting with the District Manager. DM said they would try to work on some things but made sure he told all contractors at the meeting that he never wanted “one of these” called again........... they don’t handle any assembly very well that is called by them.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
We had an assistant TM come in screaming at everyone and being a colossal :censored2: about everything. One contractor had it so called a contractor meeting with the District Manager. DM said they would try to work on some things but made sure he told all contractors at the meeting that he never wanted “one of these” called again........... they don’t handle any assembly very well that is called by them.
Response that comes to mind: “one of these” won’t be necessary if you take care of your d-bag.

Aka: Don’t start none, won’t be none.
 

59 Dano

I just want to make friends!
Response that comes to mind: “one of these” won’t be necessary if you take care of your d-bag.

Aka: Don’t start none, won’t be none.

The people I've known who managed at both places (Express/Ground) have been unanimous in their opinion that Ground management is the drizzling shats on just about every level.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
The people I've known who managed at both places (Express/Ground) have been unanimous in their opinion that Ground management is the drizzling shats on just about every level.
I would agree. They were decent for a while and then just became dogmatic dicks about everything.
 

FedGT

Well-Known Member
What do you expect from package handlers that can’t read a vision labels that keep getting pushed up the ladder to management.
While checking your worthless load tomorrow take a look at Devin the loader that has been there for 5 years and never finished 5th grade.........that will be your TM in 10 years
 
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