Friday after Thanksgiving = FAIL!

hypo hanna

Well-Known Member
This is something UPS, USPS etc have figured out long ago but eludes the big brains in Memphis. There is not and never will be enough profit on this day to make it worth opening the doors, fueling the trucks and flying the planes.
Every year its the same thing. Massive planning (that mostly falls to the dispatchers), to adjust operations to projected workloads. Then when the company fails to make a dime like all the previous years, they will be blamed for that failure.
They are instructed to close a percentage of the drop boxes but the company insist on keeping the rest open at the regular pickup times so drivers have to stay out waiting for the scheduled pickup time with nothing else to do.
Close list are turned but not vetted by the managers for accuracy or legibility, so after wading through that mess, the dispatchers still have to phone most customers for their holiday schedule. After all that the station managers are supposed to look at what's left to determine how to staff for the day. Few of them are capable of getting it right. They don't cut enough and stops per hour suffer. Cut too many and you have a handfull of drivers trying to cover areas far too large for the commitment times we advertised. If we're are lucky there will be a weather event where access time is added but that creates plenty of other ways to fail.
Being open is a marketing thing. Something our sales can claim we are doing for the customers benefit when very few customers want it. The part that makes me the most angry if the people that decide we should do this every year, the ones who point fingers at the workforce when it inevetibly fails are at home with their families on Friday. They are able to travel to see distant relatives over the long weekend. Sitting by a warm fire while you are out in a cold van waiting to close out an empty Dropbox.
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
This is something UPS, USPS etc have figured out long ago but eludes the big brains in Memphis. There is not and never will be enough profit on this day to make it worth opening the doors, fueling the trucks and flying the planes.
Every year its the same thing. Massive planning (that mostly falls to the dispatchers), to adjust operations to projected workloads. Then when the company fails to make a dime like all the previous years, they will be blamed for that failure.
They are instructed to close a percentage of the drop boxes but the company insist on keeping the rest open at the regular pickup times so drivers have to stay out waiting for the scheduled pickup time with nothing else to do.
Close list are turned but not vetted by the managers for accuracy or legibility, so after wading through that mess, the dispatchers still have to phone most customers for their holiday schedule. After all that the station managers are supposed to look at what's left to determine how to staff for the day. Few of them are capable of getting it right. They don't cut enough and stops per hour suffer. Cut too many and you have a handfull of drivers trying to cover areas far too large for the commitment times we advertised. If we're are lucky there will be a weather event where access time is added but that creates plenty of other ways to fail.
Being open is a marketing thing. Something our sales can claim we are doing for the customers benefit when very few customers want it. The part that makes me the most angry if the people that decide we should do this every year, the ones who point fingers at the workforce when it inevetibly fails are at home with their families on Friday. They are able to travel to see distant relatives over the long weekend. Sitting by a warm fire while you are out in a cold van waiting to close out an empty Dropbox.

The day after a holiday at Express is always "interesting". And yes, they try and cheap-out, combine routes, and otherwise scrimp. Invariably, they understaff and freight exceeds projections, with predictable chaos. They never get it.
 

SmithBarney

Well-Known Member
FRI is everyone report for duty... even though MEMH must have pushed all the FRI and some MON Freight through
because we were slammed with FRI stuff today.. It will be very light on FRI.
 

Manager Wants Buyout

Well-Known Member
Okay, we can all agree that the company fails quite often. However, in the spirit of fairness we must recognize that the biggest failure of all is FedEx Office. Sales have declined every year since the acquisition despite a massive increase in the number of stores. Now, we sit around in empty stores with no employees and no customers. When the one part timer and one full timer showed up yesterday, I did stop reading my magazine to engage in a serious game of envelope Frisbee. I lost but with some effort, I'll get better. These are retail stores and unlike the rest of retail managers, I'll be in the back leisurely reading a magazine, surfing the internet and talking on the phone to other managers about the failure tomorrow. Package volume is declining in November like every month but it's worse this month. It almost declined as much as the typical month after month, year after year, revenue guaranteed declines that FXO can be counted on as reliably as the sunrise. With FedEx evaporating and the desperation for share price, FedEx will no longer float this failure for image purposes.

The so called leadership is harassing any manager making a living wage and we are all refusing to back down regardless of our dwindling numbers. Even if they get us, that's okay. The failure won't stop and one day we will dust off the poster printer and finally print a sign on the unused machine and that sign will say, "Everything Must Go!"
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
Okay, we can all agree that the company fails quite often. However, in the spirit of fairness we must recognize that the biggest failure of all is FedEx Office. Sales have declined every year since the acquisition despite a massive increase in the number of stores. Now, we sit around in empty stores with no employees and no customers. When the one part timer and one full timer showed up yesterday, I did stop reading my magazine to engage in a serious game of envelope Frisbee. I lost but with some effort, I'll get better. These are retail stores and unlike the rest of retail managers, I'll be in the back leisurely reading a magazine, surfing the internet and talking on the phone to other managers about the failure tomorrow. Package volume is declining in November like every month but it's worse this month. It almost declined as much as the typical month after month, year after year, revenue guaranteed declines that FXO can be counted on as reliably as the sunrise. With FedEx evaporating and the desperation for share price, FedEx will no longer float this failure for image purposes.

The so called leadership is harassing any manager making a living wage and we are all refusing to back down regardless of our dwindling numbers. Even if they get us, that's okay. The failure won't stop and one day we will dust off the poster printer and finally print a sign on the unused machine and that sign will say, "Everything Must Go!"

Hey, get it right. It's KINKO'S!!!Nobody calls it Office, and nobody ever has,not even the people who work there. FedEx is one big FAIL. The biggest FAIL of them all is FWS. He's rich, he's powerful, and he's hated everywhere except the halls of Congress.
 

DontThrowPackages

Well-Known Member
FRI is everyone report for duty... even though MEMH must have pushed all the FRI and some MON Freight through
because we were slammed with FRI stuff today.. It will be very light on FRI.
Light on Friday but they expect everyone to show. And as usually some of the senior most drivers will be on vacation and, usually they turn in the most("I don't give a *%$$$") crappy close list. Couple that with the fact they release most drivers after the sort leaving the rest of us to do their and others couriers work. Almost every year, I get a message to take a lunch until the dropbox is ready. And every year, I go to the car wash and clean all the trash out of my truck until that dropbox is really....on the clock.
 

whenIgetthere

Well-Known Member
We were very busy today, all the PUP routes were in the building before all but a few of the delivery routes due to the early drop box ready times. They told us to take all the Monday packages onroad, so Monday will be very light.
 

Nolimitz

Well-Known Member
Our pup rtes were also in early. however we took out 0 Monday pkgs. the station looked like a war zone when I got in at 1645. Stuff was jammed under the belt and stacked on several pallets waiting for Monday sort... We are to start 30 mins. early. Ain't gonna help with understaffed Monday's. :panicsmiley:
 

STFXG

Well-Known Member
Easy peasey here. More worried about next weekend. Barely enough volume to make it worth going out today. Monday will be gravy.
 

SmithBarney

Well-Known Member
Our Fri was slammed, SAT slammed again, I think we are giving Amazon free Sat service, so that FedEx can get the majority of the weekday freight.
 

Doc Sorting Dude

Well-Known Member
Yeah, couple the closures from Friday and the usual Monday stuff we too have to start 30 minutes early. All I ask is that we get a decent building leave time. One thing is good is that they're not breaking our balls because we can't take a full lunch. Many of us are going right to P2 even though we get get done early on P1. If we don't do that (we aren't getting any kind of baseline help) we're going to end up delivering till' the cows come home.
 
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