Ground Folks: Reactions to Delivering Express

[MassWineGuy]

Yesterday I noticed a new CONS tag in doc sort. It was for docs we’re sending to Ground to deliver. I doubt the volume loss will improve our workload. But how’s it going on the Ground side? It’s not like you weren’t slammed to begin with.

 

[Operational needs]

Express is going to screw Ground contractors royally on this. They’ll force them to buy new trucks and hire people then give them freight from Express and take it away on a whim leaving contractors holding the bag.

 

[bbsam]

I wouldn’t mind it if we were paid a premium price for it. The cost savings for moving freight to Ground is astronomical. But that’s who they are. All about the stockholders.

 

[bacha29]

Express is going to screw Ground contractors royally on this. They’ll force them to buy new trucks and hire people then give them freight from Express and take it away on a whim leaving contractors holding the bag.

Wait until the plan to second sort around 11;30 -noon gets underway. Little chance that rural area jocks will get back in time to reload off a second sort. Chances are it will mean that instead of 1 full load dispatch going out to an area it will mean 2 trucks , 2 half loads and 2 times the mileage expended. Should be fun.

 

[bbsam]

Wait until the plan to second sort around 11;30 -noon gets underway. Little chance that rural area jocks will get back in time to reload off a second sort. Chances are it will mean that instead of 1 full load dispatch going out to an area it will mean 2 trucks , 2 half loads and 2 times the mileage expended. Should be fun.

That’s not very smart. There better ways to do that in rural areas.

 

[bacha29]

That’s not very smart. There better ways to do that in rural areas.

And what might they be? The only thing terminal management cares is that you the contractor have assets on site, in place and ready to receive additional freight when it comes down that belt when that second sort begins.

 

[Operational needs]

Wait until the plan to second sort around 11;30 -noon gets underway. Little chance that rural area jocks will get back in time to reload off a second sort. Chances are it will mean that instead of 1 full load dispatch going out to an area it will mean 2 trucks , 2 half loads and 2 times the mileage expended. Should be fun.

I have a rural route and my station is already doing the second sort. I never go back for the second sort. Sometimes they have someone to do the second route and sometimes the freight is rolled over to the next day. No rhyme, reason or plan.

 

[bbsam]

And what might they be? The only thing terminal management cares is that you the contractor have assets on site, in place and ready to receive additional freight when it comes down that belt when that second sort begins.

What we did last peak was send two rural routes out first and then send a third truck out after the end of the sort with the residual. The third overlapping route ended up being similar to what the two routes combined was about 10 years ago.

First two routes had about a three hour lead time and then depending on the routing of the third, we always had help in the area one way or another.

 

[It will be fine]

Yesterday I noticed a new CONS tag in doc sort. It was for docs we’re sending to Ground to deliver. I doubt the volume loss will improve our workload. But how’s it going on the Ground side? It’s not like you weren’t slammed to begin with.

They just announced the addition of commercial Express stops being added in. It’s not a lot of packages. I think it’s only a few hundred thousand a day. It’s a big shipper but not the biggest we have. No big deal.

 

[bacha29]

What we did last peak was send two rural routes out first and then send a third truck out after the end of the sort with the residual. The third overlapping route ended up being similar to what the two routes combined was about 10 years ago.

First two routes had about a three hour lead time and then depending on the routing of the third, we always had help in the area one way or another.

The issue in my area is will that second midday dispatch have enough on it to make it pay when you would otherwise have got the job done with 1 truck doing 1 dispatch? What you're likely to have in an area such as mine is you have the first one going out at about 8:30AM and chewing up out 2.5-3 hours out of the day just getting up to and back from his work area with the second truck going out about noon with whatever odds and ends he has on repeating the same exactly the same steps and covering the exact same area the other guy did 3 hours earlier. The only trouble is what if he only has a third of a load on but scattered all over the same high mileage area?

In your case if the first two went out loaded or near to it and the third went out with something near that and can support 2 trucks that would likely be ok but what if he's only going up with less than 50% load and can only support 1 truck due to distance and mileage?

 

[dmac1]

Wait until the plan to second sort around 11;30 -noon gets underway. Little chance that rural area jocks will get back in time to reload off a second sort. Chances are it will mean that instead of 1 full load dispatch going out to an area it will mean 2 trucks , 2 half loads and 2 times the mileage expended. Should be fun.

Amazon does something similar to that here. They will send one truck out early in the morning, and another later in the day, maybe around noon. I have had two orders delivered within a couple hours when both orders were shown as being in the warehouse the night before. One left the warehouse at 8 in the morning, one left after 11 am. both arrived between 3-4 pm.

On the other hand, I had two orders with one scheduled for a Monday, and the other for Tuesday, and they held the Monday package, even though it was in the local warehouse the day before. So they do have the ability to combine shipments if they choose to, even if not requested. I don't think most ground facilities have the space to do that. With fedex, and them saving money, they need to have packages move through the terminals as fast as possible or they may need larger terminals. I am sure they don't want to spend any money 'warehousing' packages even if it might mean saving drivers time. If they have to handle the package more than once out of the trailer before it goes into the driver's truck, it costs fedex money instead of the 'contractors.' Using contractors and having mutiple sorts during the day is ideal for fedex. The contractor has agreed to service an area, and fedex can use much smaller terminals if they can have multiple sorts throughout the day. Making full use of a facility you are paying for 24 hours a day has to be the goal. Just like fast food places added breakfast menus and late night/24 hour service after years in business to make more use of a building that was going unused for 10 hours per day. They had people there cleaning anyway- just let them sell food at the same time.

For fedex ground, multiple sorts makes more sense than larger terminals with all trucks dispatched at the same time because fedex isn't paying for the trucks. Shifting as much as possible to ground save fedex express from needing more trucks and drivers, while ground just pays basically per delivery, whether the contractor needs 1 or 2 trucks per day to service any given area.

 

[Gone fishin]

Amazon does something similar to that here. They will send one truck out early in the morning, and another later in the day, maybe around noon. I have had two orders delivered within a couple hours when both orders were shown as being in the warehouse the night before. One left the warehouse at 8 in the morning, one left after 11 am. both arrived between 3-4 pm.

On the other hand, I had two orders with one scheduled for a Monday, and the other for Tuesday, and they held the Monday package, even though it was in the local warehouse the day before. So they do have the ability to combine shipments if they choose to, even if not requested. I don't think most ground facilities have the space to do that. With fedex, and them saving money, they need to have packages move through the terminals as fast as possible or they may need larger terminals. I am sure they don't want to spend any money 'warehousing' packages even if it might mean saving drivers time. If they have to handle the package more than once out of the trailer before it goes into the driver's truck, it costs fedex money instead of the 'contractors.' Using contractors and having mutiple sorts during the day is ideal for fedex. The contractor has agreed to service an area, and fedex can use much smaller terminals if they can have multiple sorts throughout the day. Making full use of a facility you are paying for 24 hours a day has to be the goal. Just like fast food places added breakfast menus and late night/24 hour service after years in business to make more use of a building that was going unused for 10 hours per day. They had people there cleaning anyway- just let them sell food at the same time.

For fedex ground, multiple sorts makes more sense than larger terminals with all trucks dispatched at the same time because fedex isn't paying for the trucks. Shifting as much as possible to ground save fedex express from needing more trucks and drivers, while ground just pays basically per delivery, whether the contractor needs 1 or 2 trucks per day to service any given area.

That’s as inefficient of a strategy as I’ve heard. They’re paying a ridiculous amount of overtime along with the worst service I’ve ever seen. There’s people that deserved to be fired and just give into the fact this was a failure.

 

[Cactus]

The cost savings for moving freight to Ground is astronomical. But that’s who they are. All about the stockholders.

So?

What do the stockholders think about the astronomical cost of constant having to recruit, hire and train new help on continuous basis?

 

[bbsam]

So?

What do the stockholders think about the astronomical cost of constant having to recruit, hire and train new help on continuous basis?

They think nothing of it. That’s why I don’t waste a lot of time bitching about it.

 

[Gone fishin]

They think nothing of it. That’s why I don’t waste a lot of time bitching about it.

They’ll think something when we lose profits because of this idiotic plan

 

[MassWineGuy]

As long as the stock price keeps rising, all is well with them.

 

[Mindthegap]

The genie is out of the bottle. They will only ever give ground more, not less, eventually phasing out express couriers. Maybe not tomorrow, but eventually. Welcome to being the boiling frog.

 

[Gone fishin]

The genie is out of the bottle. They will only ever give ground more, not less, eventually phasing out express couriers. Maybe not tomorrow, but eventually. Welcome to being the boiling frog.

Then why is express freight going up , Xmas never left at our station. Ground in my area continues to be a disaster. The genie is out here , ground hub works you hard for money you can make flipping burgers.
Ground drivers are constantly replaced and the contractor usually runs the rt. I sure don’t trust any decisions from the fedex executives , but let’s hope they’re not dumb enough to make any more problems by giving ground more freight they can’t handle

 

[It will be fine]

Then why is express freight going up , Xmas never left at our station. Ground in my area continues to be a disaster. The genie is out here , ground hub works you hard for money you can make flipping burgers.
Ground drivers are constantly replaced and the contractor usually runs the rt. I sure don’t trust any decisions from the fedex executives , but let’s hope they’re not dumb enough to make any more problems by giving ground more freight they can’t handle

I hardly know any contractors that drive regularly anymore. There might be 1 or 2 out of the 15ish in my main terminal. The Ground network could handle pretty much all Express volume, the only issue would be time commits that I expect will always remain for Express PT couriers.

 

[Gone fishin]

I hardly know any contractors that drive regularly anymore. There might be 1 or 2 out of the 15ish in my main terminal. The Ground network could handle pretty much all Express volume, the only issue would be time commits that I expect will always remain for Express PT couriers.

I live in an area where there are plenty of jobs and a lot of middle class. Kids today around this area won’t sling boxes. There’s plenty of easier jobs and a lot of kids go to college. It’s a generational thing