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

[bbsam]

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.

I think you were shortsighted.

 

[bacha29]

I think you were shortsighted.

In what way?

 

[bbsam]

I think you were shortsighted.

Actually, I take that back. If you weren’t buying into the model, you were probably right to do what you did.

 

[bacha29]

Actually, I take that back. If you weren’t buying into the model, you were probably right to do what you did.

It's not about refusing to buy into the model. it's about the refusal to send somebody out in all kinds of weather and expect them to do a job at high standards for substandard wages while I sat at home. Being that as it may when I was given no choice but to turn over for audit and review in direct violation of US privacy and confidentiality laws my personal payroll records it was then quite clear that in the minds of X that when it came to absolute control and protection of it's interests the law didn't apply to them . Therefore if they have no respect for what the law affords you then you as a contracted supplier have nothing. It's not about "BUYING" INTO the system. It's about BOWING TO the system .

 

[bbsam]

It's not about refusing to buy into the model. it's about the refusal to send somebody out in all kinds of weather and expect them to do a job at high standards for substandard wages while I sat at home. Being that as it may when I was given no choice but to turn over for audit and review in direct violation of US privacy and confidentiality laws my personal payroll records it was then quite clear that in the minds of X that when it came to absolute control and protection of it's interests the law didn't apply to them . Therefore if they have no respect for what the law affords you then you as a contracted supplier have nothing. It's not about "BUYING" INTO the system. It's about BOWING TO the system .

Yeah. I don’t care.

 

[It will be fine]

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.)

You’re aware Ground has been steadily gaining market share for decades, right?

 

[LarryBird]

You’re aware Ground has been steadily gaining market share for decades, right?

I'm aware that I've had to a ton of customers who have tried out giving large chunks of our volume to FedEx, especially ground, that have not only come back to UPS, but in some cases, given us their total shipping account - this is not usually because of their delivery side, I'm told, but because they're unreliable and often times wildly early for the pickups in the afternoons.

An example of an account they've taken, that cannot wait to return that volume to UPS, is the Department of Defense - Defense Logistics Agency, which is a huge shipper, and a very high discount account - the shipping manager at the base I deliver on, has told me repeatedly that switching our old air/ground volumes to them, and then vice versa, has been the worst move they've ever made, and the higher ups he answers to, have told him that they will be switching back fully to Brown as soon as the shipping contract is up for renegotiating.

There's between 2 to 10 NDA and Internationals left sitting on the rollers in the DLA shipping dept every single day, and sometimes a whole roller line full of grounds - upwards of 30 to 50 parcels on occasion, some are large, expensive overweights, and range from parcels needed by another base asap to extremely urgent supplies and equipment for military operations that could be viewed as a literal life or death delivery.

Some of these packages are NDA to Special Operations Group - classified equipment that must be signed for as you pickup/touch every single package...these packages must be overnighted, and no shipping is allowed on Friday - they are not allowed to sit unattended, while not loaded on a truck in transit, outside of special security clearance government employee/military supervision - when FedEx comes too early and leaves before one of these is processed and ready for signature and pickup, it creates a huge headache for them, and they've got to call higher ups and inform some defense intelligence group, then make an inventory and lock it up somewhere.

Needless to say, they hate FedEx now. They never really paid attention to how bad they were when they were getting the crumbs - but once they were taking the bulk of the pie, DLA found out what terrible service they provided.

We've slowly taken back what appears to be slightly more than half the volume they originally took, despite DLA paying us a higher price than they used to when we had the big dawg contract, and perhaps even fighting or paying some kind of penalty to FedEx for potentially breaking the terms of their current shipping contract with them.

It pays to provide the customer with good service. Smart businesses, and even Uncle Sam, will pay a bit extra on their shipping costs to receive exponentially greater service, and insure the parcels move on the day they're ready to roll, and not at FedEx grounds leisure.

 

[bbsam]

I'm aware that I've had to a ton of customers who have tried out giving large chunks of our volume to FedEx, especially ground, that have not only come back to UPS, but in some cases, given us their total shipping account - this is not usually because of their delivery side, I'm told, but because they're unreliable and often times wildly early for the pickups in the afternoons.

An example of an account they've taken, that cannot wait to return that volume to UPS, is the Department of Defense - Defense Logistics Agency, which is a huge shipper, and a very high discount account - the shipping manager at the base I deliver on, has told me repeatedly that switching our old air/ground volumes to them, and then vice versa, has been the worst move they've ever made, and the higher ups he answers to, have told him that they will be switching back fully to Brown as soon as the shipping contract is up for renegotiating.

There's between 2 to 10 NDA and Internationals left sitting on the rollers in the DLA shipping dept every single day, and sometimes a whole roller line full of grounds - upwards of 30 to 50 parcels on occasion, some are large, expensive overweights, and range from parcels needed by another base asap to extremely urgent supplies and equipment for military operations that could be viewed as a literal life or death delivery.

Some of these packages are NDA to Special Operations Group - classified equipment that must be signed for as you pickup/touch every single package...these packages must be overnighted, and no shipping is allowed on Friday - they are not allowed to sit unattended, while not loaded on a truck in transit, outside of special security clearance government employee/military supervision - when FedEx comes too early and leaves before one of these is processed and ready for signature and pickup, it creates a huge headache for them, and they've got to call higher ups and inform some defense intelligence group, then make an inventory and lock it up somewhere.

Needless to say, they hate FedEx now. They never really paid attention to how bad they were when they were getting the crumbs - but once they were taking the bulk of the pie, DLA found out what terrible service they provided.

We've slowly taken back what appears to be slightly more than half the volume they originally took, despite DLA paying us a higher price than they used to when we had the big dawg contract, and perhaps even fighting or paying some kind of penalty to FedEx for potentially breaking the terms of their current shipping contract with them.

It pays to provide the customer with good service. Smart businesses, and even Uncle Sam, will pay a bit extra on their shipping costs to receive exponentially greater service, and insure the parcels move on the day they're ready to roll, and not at FedEx grounds leisure.

I call BS.

 

[LarryBird]

I call BS.

I counter, with I don't give a .

 

[It will be fine]

I'm aware that I've had to a ton of customers who have tried out giving large chunks of our volume to FedEx, especially ground, that have not only come back to UPS, but in some cases, given us their total shipping account - this is not usually because of their delivery side, I'm told, but because they're unreliable and often times wildly early for the pickups in the afternoons.

An example of an account they've taken, that cannot wait to return that volume to UPS, is the Department of Defense - Defense Logistics Agency, which is a huge shipper, and a very high discount account - the shipping manager at the base I deliver on, has told me repeatedly that switching our old air/ground volumes to them, and then vice versa, has been the worst move they've ever made, and the higher ups he answers to, have told him that they will be switching back fully to Brown as soon as the shipping contract is up for renegotiating.

There's between 2 to 10 NDA and Internationals left sitting on the rollers in the DLA shipping dept every single day, and sometimes a whole roller line full of grounds - upwards of 30 to 50 parcels on occasion, some are large, expensive overweights, and range from parcels needed by another base asap to extremely urgent supplies and equipment for military operations that could be viewed as a literal life or death delivery.

Some of these packages are NDA to Special Operations Group - classified equipment that must be signed for as you pickup/touch every single package...these packages must be overnighted, and no shipping is allowed on Friday - they are not allowed to sit unattended, while not loaded on a truck in transit, outside of special security clearance government employee/military supervision - when FedEx comes too early and leaves before one of these is processed and ready for signature and pickup, it creates a huge headache for them, and they've got to call higher ups and inform some defense intelligence group, then make an inventory and lock it up somewhere.

Needless to say, they hate FedEx now. They never really paid attention to how bad they were when they were getting the crumbs - but once they were taking the bulk of the pie, DLA found out what terrible service they provided.

We've slowly taken back what appears to be slightly more than half the volume they originally took, despite DLA paying us a higher price than they used to when we had the big dawg contract, and perhaps even fighting or paying some kind of penalty to FedEx for potentially breaking the terms of their current shipping contract with them.

It pays to provide the customer with good service. Smart businesses, and even Uncle Sam, will pay a bit extra on their shipping costs to receive exponentially greater service, and insure the parcels move on the day they're ready to roll, and not at FedEx grounds leisure.

You do know your personal anecdotes aren’t indicative of the actual market, right? I doubt the dude at your local shipping dock is making the call for the DOD.

 

[bbsam]

I bet that if the DOD had piles of packages not being picked up and they really wanted to go back to UPS, they would. It would be obvious that X did not fulfill their end of the deal and therefore the DOD would have cause to move on.

 

[Star B]

yea, I call "Well, our ready time is 1400 and "Can you wait another 10 minutes while we process this OMG SUPER IMPORTANT PACKAGE" for the 1000th time?

 

[bbsam]

yea, I call "Well, our ready time is 1400 and "Can you wait another 10 minutes while we process this OMG SUPER IMPORTANT PACKAGE" for the 1000th time?

After spending the entire morning playing “Words with Friends”

 

[LarryBird]

yea, I call "Well, our ready time is 1400 and "Can you wait another 10 minutes while we process this OMG SUPER IMPORTANT PACKAGE" for the 1000th time?

The problem is the pickup time is scheduled for 3:30pm, with a pull time that's supposed to be at 4:00pm, and FedEx shows up at 2:00pm, loads up what they have processed by then, hangs out til 2:25pm, and leaves during DLA's afternoon break.

DLA return to spend the next 1.5 hours of their day processing orders that don't go out.

I get it - FedEx isn't very worried about servicing one of the biggest nationwide shippers. Who's gonna bend over backwards for a measly account, like the DOD, that only ships 10s of thousands of packages per day. I don't blame them - it's not like the base is it's own whole day run, and the only thing they have to do that day...oh wait - it is, and it is.

That's probably why our pile has gained so much volume back in the past year, and it's now bigger than FedEx again, despite the shipping contract not being up yet.

I'll be there today. I'll take a count and note the packages left at the DLA shipping area.

 

[MAKAVELI]

The problem is the pickup time is scheduled for 3:30pm, with a pull time that's supposed to be at 4:00pm, and FedEx shows up at 2:00pm, loads up what they have processed by then, hangs out til 2:25pm, and leaves during DLA's afternoon break.

DLA return to spend the next 1.5 hours of their day processing orders that don't go out.

I get it - FedEx isn't very worried about servicing one of the biggest nationwide shippers. Who's gonna bend over backwards for a measly account, like the DOD, that only ships 10s of thousands of packages per day. I don't blame them - it's not like the base is it's own whole day run, and the only thing they have to do that day...oh wait - it is, and it is.

That's probably why our pile has gained so much volume back in the past year, and it's now bigger than FedEx again, despite the shipping contract not being up yet.

I'll be there today. I'll take a count and note the packages left at the DLA shipping area.

Sounds like Ground not Express. We wouldn't be aloud by dispatch or management to pup early unless doing a sweep or early pull. Ground gets away with crap like that because of the contractor model not Express.

 

[Operational needs]

Sounds like Ground not Express. We wouldn't be aloud by dispatch or management to pup early unless doing a sweep or early pull. Ground gets away with crap like that because of the contractor model not Express.

Yep. Express management or dispatch would be on that like white on rice, especially if they called to complain. We get a broadcast every day now saying that anyone who picks up a stop early will get an OLCC.

 

[LarryBird]

Sounds like Ground not Express. We wouldn't be aloud by dispatch or management to pup early unless doing a sweep or early pull. Ground gets away with crap like that because of the contractor model not Express.

It's usually ground that's the worst, yes, but express consistently leaves 3 or 4 NDA or internationals per day as well. This is due to nothing more leaving before 4pm, the time when DLA is wrapped for the day, using their 15 mins of paid 'wash/clean up' time, and walking out the doors at exactly 4:15pm, or 15 mins earlier than their actual 4:30pm quit time - because it is the Gov't after all.

It's an easy remedy. But one that Express and the ground contractors are failing to enforce. So this will cost you a multi multi-million dollar contract, and we will have control of our old volume, and then some, for the foreseeable future, and probably beyond.

Welcome to the party, bitches! We back runnin' .

 

[Operational needs]

It's usually ground that's the worst, yes, but express consistently leaves 3 or 4 NDA or internationals per day as well. This is due to nothing more leaving before 4pm, the time when DLA is wrapped for the day, using their 15 mins of paid 'wash/clean up' time, and walking out the doors at exactly 4:15pm, or 15 mins earlier than their actual 4:30pm quit time - because it is the Gov't after all.

What exactly are you saying here? Do you mean the close time for the pickup is 1630 and the DLA employees leave before that time, and it’s closed when the Express driver gets there?

 

[LarryBird]

Yep. Express management or dispatch would be on that like white on rice, especially if they called to complain. We get a broadcast every day now saying that anyone who picks up a stop early will get an OLCC.

Kudos, to you and your attentive management team, and their not so very prompt problem solving on this matter.

You were too late to save the DOD account, unfortunately, but at least now there's hope you might catch some of the others, before we takes your toys for ourselves, and play with them s til we're in our teenage years...

Have all the fun.

 

[LarryBird]

What exactly are you saying here? Do you mean the close time for the pickup is 1630 and the DLA employees leave before that time, and it’s closed when the Express driver gets there?

No. But I'm busy, so I'll have to elaborate later in the day.

Sorry, mami.

I'll explain once I get a few mins.