I can remember years ago where you were stating you had a measure of control in your dealings with FedEx. Things were negotiable. Everything was spelled out in your contract. We were pointing out then that they may eventually start doing to you what they were doing to Express employees. You seemed confident they wouldn't. You don't sound as confident now. And I do not want to gloat, wouldn't wish what they did to us on anyone. But the time came when they had to address their Express turnover issue, and the only remedy was more money for employees. And that means someone else was going to have to take a hit somewhere because they put profit above all else. The day may come when they walk away from their Ground business because Amazon is too efficient at delivering goods cheaply. Maybe not, but to compete and pull profit out they'll do whatever it takes and they have the clout in Washington to get what they want.
It will be fine
Well-Known Member
Brass is seeing the effects on service that under paying the contractors is causing. They know they've cut too deep. National service is around 95% which is awful. ISPs can't keep drivers for what we can afford to pay.
The problem is the overall growth in the industry still has us growing 10%ish per year so the service drop isn't noticeably slowing growth yet. Everyone knows bad service will catch up to us eventually, but it hasn't yet so they won't make any changes.
The scenario is called " desperation management " When the situation gets desperate enough they'll do something about it. I believe what can be said with reasonable confidence borrowing a line from Rumsfeld here....."we don't know what we don't know" in the sense as to what peak will be like.Terminal management has been inquiring about my ability to help this season. My response? "Right now I've got enough titanium in me to make yourself a set of golf clubs but I'll go out if ( you guessed it ) the situation gets desperate enough".
Did you read what I wrote before replying????? You cannot decide to walk away and break even in one day. Try finding a buyer to take over tomorrow if you decide to leave(or forced to) today, and try to get fedex approval for an overnight sale.
If recipients of packages were the customer, fedex would already be losing. But it is the shipper, not the recipient who is the customer of fedex. And as long as the shipper can blame fedex, as saves money, and the shipper isn't yet losing customers due to shipping, service doesn't matter.
But if recipients had a say in the delivery company, I would bet that by a large amount, for parcels that ground/HD deliver, the recipients would choose UPS or USPS if given a choice. You never know from day to day if your ground package is going to be delivered or not if fedex is delivering it. For example, simply because a shipper decided to use fedex HD instead of UPS, USPS, or even Fedex Ground, I have to wait 2-3 more days to get my package. It would have been delivered Saturday if it was USPS, but I won't get it until Tuesday at the earliest IF the HD driver decides to stop in my city. He appears to be on an 'alternate' day delivery, with service to half the county each day. With tracking, I can see 'package on vehicle' or 'out for delivery' and then coded as not delivered for customer not home, or some other bogus reason, sometimes scanned as not delivered as early as 2 pm.
I have actually begun to look at the carrier if the item I need is available from multiple sources, and the seller using fedex offers NO advantage.
Oldfart
Well-Known Member
I have had USPS packages have 1 scan at the origin, disappear for many days with no scans, then get delivered several days after the original estimate.
I have had UPS packages get scanned at the origin, then go thru 4 or 5 sorts on the way to my city, only to get missorted and go back a city, then make it to my door. Several days after the original estimate.
I have usually had excellent luck with Home and Ground. A few hiccups but the price is excellent, even if I don't use my discount when selling on Ebay.
Bad service is not isolated to any 1 company. The post office is losing BILLIONS per year and for good reason. They should stop being in the box business and concentrate on letters. Why raise the price of stamps while delivering boxes at a loss?
Oldfart
Well-Known Member
That is true. But they have said for years their Express business and box business are both money losers and the letter revenue is used to cover their shortfall. At one time UPS and Fdx were suing the USPS because they were using taxpayer funding to cover a money losing venture. The letter business is drying up so the USPS needs to downsize as a result. Expanding their money losing box business is costing everyone when they buy a stamp.
It will be fine
Well-Known Member
Are package rates for usps controlled by congress like letter postage is? Seems like they could increase their prices and still be the cheapest option. Packages are where the growth is, so it makes sense to focus there.
Oldfart
Well-Known Member
Not sure how their rates are set. No idea if the infrastructure is in place for the USPS to grow their box business.
They seem glad to take all the RD boxes X and UPS will give them. RD work is money losing business but if you're going to be a nationwide carrier you've got to service all zips. In fact the entire zip code format was created by the post office. However in the rural area where I live they have closed numerous little one man PO's set up lock box stands filled up by the RD carrier coming out from a larger neighboring PO. High mileage low volume depressed rural areas with diminishing population will always be a thorn in the side of every nationwide carrier and the way it looks now the USPS will continue to be the carrier of the last resort with X & UPS continuing to dump as much RD junk off onto it as it can handle.
Interesting national service figure. Shocked that it would be that low. Where did you get that number from?
