FedEx tries to win customers from rival United Parcel Service Inc with price cuts!

[Fred's Myth]

A hell of a lot less than I did before I left Ground. After what I and the other two Day1's went through to get that station started up and fight off closure twice in it's first 3 years it's been a welcomed change. Start loading our own trucks at 6 AM and nobody got back to the terminal before 9PM including running 6 days a week year round for a number of years. The daily work experience is one hell of a lot different with a startup than it is coming into a well established operation. It was up to just the 3 of us and a part time terminal manager to get it going and do whatever it was we had to do to keep it going. While still a small terminal by comparison it has gone from 81 boxes inbound on our first day to more than 4500 inbound and 1000+ outbound today.
And it was the hardship the three of us endured that governed our mutual decision not to take on additional routes despite being offered to us free of charge . Weren't about to send them out there for the kind of money we would have available to pay them The routes were there for whomever wanted them and they could keep everything they could get out of them . They didn't last long . A year or two . That was about it. Followed by the next lucky contestant who didn't fare much better. The multi route ISP/CSP are always short handed. Can't keep anyone on the truck for long and when someone calls off or quits without notice which is the case with most they simply take the abandoned loads and dump it on to their other drivers and do it so frequently they too up and quit from sheer exhaustion.

Three of you had to start at 6 a.m. to load 81 packages onto 3 routes, and you didn’t get in until 9 p.m.?
Sounds like Indian Reservation territory.

 

[bacha29]

Three of you had to start at 6 a.m. to load 81 packages onto 3 routes, and you didn’t get in until 9 p.m.?
Sounds like Indian Reservation territory.

We actually traveled into 2 states. These were the difficult formative years of Roadway Package System . Like the original TM said. "It will be up to the 3 of you to figure out how to make it go".

 

[59 Dano]

Words of wisdom from a guy who had to go crawling back to Fat Freddy and ask for his job back....Hahahaha! LMAO! No wait i was wrong about that . It was your MOM who went to Fat Freddy and ask him to give you your job back.

Don't know when to take the L, do ya?

 

[59 Dano]

Just curious, what have you been doing since leaving Ground?

He's been telling the same story about how he was a day one contractor who delivered heavy stuff that made the company money out in the jing weeds with occasional forays into answering questions like "Do you think we'll be busy this summer?" with answers like "Well, with the bond market as it is, you never know. The Chinese are doing something and it could go either way. All of that could drive the McDonald's stock price up or down, and depending on that, it could affect the entire economy to the point that the labor market ends up different and if it's bad, then, well, don't say I didn't warn you."

 

[59 Dano]

I wonder if Dano's mom did the same favors for Fat Freddy that Forest Gump's mom did for the school principal?

I wonder if your mom gave your dad a discount or if she charged him the same $5 she charged the other winos.

 

[bacha29]

I wonder if your mom gave your dad a discount or if she charged him the same $5 she charged the other winos.

At least I knew who my parents were and both publicly acknowledged that I was their son. More than what you can say. Tough break for you Dano but nobody holds that against you. Then again perhaps not and those who do are the ones that you've spoken to in your usual condescending and disrespectful manner. But, given your obvious insecurities we love to hit a nerve now and then and read your comments while you're writhing in agony.

 

[bacha29]

He's been telling the same story about how he was a day one contractor who delivered heavy stuff that made the company money out in the jing weeds with occasional forays into answering questions like "Do you think we'll be busy this summer?" with answers like "Well, with the bond market as it is, you never know. The Chinese are doing something and it could go either way. All of that could drive the McDonald's stock price up or down, and depending on that, it could affect the entire economy to the point that the labor market ends up different and if it's bad, then, well, don't say I didn't warn you."

Then how come they're still interesting enough for you to continue to read them? When you have to bear 100% of the cost of running your truck route, buy your own health insurance, fund your own pension 100% with no company contribution and worst of all pay both the employer and employee's share of Social Security you damn well better be paying attention to what the market's are doing and how it impacts your savings.

 

[McFeely]

Why would you pay both the employer’s and employee’s share of Social Security with your payroll?

 

[LarryBird]

Did not read thread.

But in relation to the thread title...

They've all tried to leave or divert extra volume to that crazy fun Uncle FedEx in the past, and they all come back to Poppa Big Brown, when they get a taste of life with the other half. What seemed like a good idea when they were signing the contract, often times ends badly, especially when the level of savings is taken into account - it's just not worth it.

Our service and caliber of employees, is the difference that justifies our higher cost - if that doesn't matter to you, cool. Enjoy FedEx.

But if you like your packages delivered by well-groomed and professional drivers, with a strict code of ethics, and high safety standards, who reliably pick up your outgoing packages every day at the time that works for you, instead of early because the FedEx guy is out of other work and deliveries for the day and he's about to call it quits - then UPS is the company you will choose, and you will pay the little bit extra.

YMMV with express drivers, but what I posted is pretty standard across the board with the ground drivers, or as I like to call them - The Dream Team*.

(*Not like the 1992 Olympic Basketball team, but more toward the 1989 movie where the mental patients steal the van, and bust out of the looney bin, to head out on a road trip without medical supervision - shockingly similar to how it is when the trucks are leaving a FedEx ground hub at the top of the morn.)

 

[bacha29]

Why would you pay both the employer’s and employee’s share of Social Security with your payroll?

Didn't you know that the self employed payed both the employer and employee share? Why? Because you are both.

 

[McFeely]

Didn't you know that the self employed payed both the employer and employee share? Why? Because you are both.

My bad. I was thinking you were talking about your employees that worked for you. I misread that-

 

[LarryBird]

Didn't you know that the self employed payed both the employer and employee share? Why? Because you are both.

Some people don't realize that you pay 7.65%, and the employer matches that, paying an additional 7.65%, which is shocking when you consider it. This is one of the largest deductions from your paycheck, and one of the backbones of your financial future in retirement, and you don't know how it goes down?

So if you don't have an employer, you are on the hook for 15.3%...got it? Math - how does it work?

I swear, the level of stupidity on this site knows no bottom.

 

[IVE GOTTA PACKAGE 4U]

Some people don't realize that you pay 7.65%, and the employer matches that, paying an additional 7.65%, which is shocking when you consider it. This is one of the largest deductions from your paycheck, and one of the backbones of your financial future in retirement, and you don't know how it goes down?

So if you don't have an employer, you are on the hook for 15.3%...got it? Math - how does it work?

I swear, the level of stupidity on this site knows no bottom.

Hi Dave

 

[bacha29]

Some people don't realize that you pay 7.65%, and the employer matches that, paying an additional 7.65%, which is shocking when you consider it. This is one of the largest deductions from your paycheck, and one of the backbones of your financial future in retirement, and you don't know how it goes down?

So if you don't have an employer, you are on the hook for 15.3%...got it? Math - how does it work?

I swear, the level of stupidity on this site knows no bottom.

Don't be so hard on them. Most if not all of the other contributors have been employees all their working lives and pay little attention to the many employment variables that exist outside their own employment experience. The major failing of those who tried X route contracting was a poor understanding of the impact that taxes had on their cash flow and just how hard you had to work to meet those requirements.Needless to say some didn't realize or even know about the need to send in quarterly estimates and fell behind badly And yes some at my station signed their lease and contract over to the next lucky contestant and went to work for UPS, as well as other carriers
The problem with Ground is that a poor setup to begin with is being badly over stressed. You have a parent corporation too dependent on it for earnings along with a growing number of route speculators wrenching every penny of profit it too can get out of it in an effort to flip that contract for big money .

 

[bbsam]

Didn't you know that the self employed payed both the employer and employee share? Why? Because you are both.

Didn’t you incorporate and take distributions?

 

[bbsam]

Some people don't realize that you pay 7.65%, and the employer matches that, paying an additional 7.65%, which is shocking when you consider it. This is one of the largest deductions from your paycheck, and one of the backbones of your financial future in retirement, and you don't know how it goes down?

So if you don't have an employer, you are on the hook for 15.3%...got it? Math - how does it work?

I swear, the level of stupidity on this site knows no bottom.

See above

I swear the stupidity on this site knows no bottom.

 

[bbsam]

Don't be so hard on them. Most if not all of the other contributors have been employees all their working lives and pay little attention to the many employment variables that exist outside their own employment experience. The major failing of those who tried X route contracting was a poor understanding of the impact that taxes had on their cash flow and just how hard you had to work to meet those requirements.Needless to say some didn't realize or even know about the need to send in quarterly estimates and fell behind badly And yes some at my station signed their lease and contract over to the next lucky contestant and went to work for UPS, as well as other carriers
The problem with Ground is that a poor setup to begin with is being badly over stressed. You have a parent corporation too dependent on it for earnings along with a growing number of route speculators wrenching every penny of profit it too can get out of it in an effort to flip that contract for big money .

Have you ever talked to tax experts?

 

[LarryBird]

Hi Dave

Bye Felicia.

 

[bacha29]

Didn’t you incorporate and take distributions?

Yes, after we had to incorporate. But, as you know you are still required to take a reasonable salary. I didn't take lot in the way of distributions but rather salary for the sake of higher reported SS earnings and I'm glad I did given that I knew that I was unlikely to make it to full retirement age. Knowing that I also contributed the maximum amount to my IRA in all years including those prior to incorporation. Why? There was a guy on my route that went the low salary high distribution route but lived to regret it when a degenerative spinal disease left him in agonizing back pain but had to continue to try keep working and told me in no uncertain terms not to do what he did.

 

[bacha29]

Have you ever talked to tax experts?

Didn't need to. I worked as a side job for a Block franchise and knew a bit about what to do. One of the first things I did when I signed onto RPS was send in an estimate.