How Long will UPS last, as the Co We Know?

[negrosangre]

UPS has progressed and changed to a degree over the years, but how much longer can it survive as, basically, the same company it is today and has been for the past 102 years?

Maybe I just had a bad day, but as I went though my day today, and answered my sups (same old) questions I have been answering for the last upteen years, I couldn't help but remember the old saying that idioticy is having the same information, taking the same action and expecting a different result.

So I ask - can the company survive with the same management style, process and philosophy in place OR is (significant) change needed?

 

[tourists24]

they changed a long time ago.... started downhill after Casey died. Yes downhill overall...

 

[outamyway]

There are few options available for people who use a delivery service. Coupled with the fact this company is just huge, will make it hard for it to disappear for a long time.

This will also allow the company to survive even when it tries so hard to ruin its own reputation, one customer at a time.

 

[rod]

There are few options available for people who use a delivery service. Coupled with the fact this company is just huge, will make it hard for it to disappear for a long time.

This will also allow the company to survive even when it tries so hard to ruin its own reputation, one customer at a time.

I would agree that it would take a lot for UPS to disappear----but don't ever think that it couldn't happen. Google Railway Express or REA Express and you will see that up until the 1970's it was the largest package delivery company in the US. According to its history it went bankrupt in 1975 due to; bad management, strikes and competition (from you know who). Speaking of competition the USPS is sure pushing their new "ship anything you can get into one of their boxes for one price and they provide the boxs for free" service. At the risk of sounding like "Debbie Downer" I think that there are even tougher times ahead for the Brown machine.

 

[Big Babooba]

I would agree that it would take a lot for UPS to disappear----but don't ever think that it couldn't happen. Google Railway Express or REA Express and you will see that up until the 1970's it was the largest package delivery company in the US. According to its history it went bankrupt in 1975 due to; bad management, strikes and competition (from you know who). Speaking of competition the USPS is sure pushing their new "ship anything you can get into one of their boxes for one price and they provide the boxs for free" service. At the risk of sounding like "Debbie Downer" I think that there are even tougher times ahead for the Brown machine.

Rod, you beat me to it. I had a former REA driver on one of my routes. The stories he would tell me. They would deliver anything!

 

[rocket man]

only the shadow knows

 

[rod]

Rod, you beat me to it. I had a former REA driver on one of my routes. The stories he would tell me. They would deliver anything!

A very good friend of mine back in 1971 worked for REA Express. In fact his father-in-law ran the local REA center. He told me many times that REA Express was too big to fold and UPS wouldn't make it 5 years in my neck of the woods. At that time UPS just delivered east of the Mississippi and the 3 western states so he would brag about REA delivering "Nation wide".

 

[Just Numbers]

I would agree that it would take a lot for UPS to disappear----but don't ever think that it couldn't happen. Google Railway Express or REA Express and you will see that up until the 1970's it was the largest package delivery company in the US. According to its history it went bankrupt in 1975 due to; bad management, strikes and competition (from you know who). Speaking of competition the USPS is sure pushing their new "ship anything you can get into one of their boxes for one price and they provide the boxs for free" service. At the risk of sounding like "Debbie Downer" I think that there are even tougher times ahead for the Brown machine.

Totally agree with you Rod. The younger breed of drivers need to know about this!

 

[Brown287]

I see it completely different from you guys. Think about it this company changes on a daily basis. Over the past 10 years we have gone from a delivery company to package service company that along with all our other options we still deliver. Ask your self why it is that giant bulk stops and for the most part 100 pound eregs. have dissapeared? Well for starters we now have UPSF and before that we had the logistics side delivering our hundred weight shipments, but even more clever is that UPS has stirred away from eregs. so that thier driverscan stay productive throgh out the day with out being bogged down with a 30 minute 7 peice bow-flex shipment. Then theres the fact that we have gone from primarily business rought witn some resi to now the vast majority of us are now resi routes with some business.

 

[klein]

Well, things can change basically overnight.
Greyhound Canada today annouced today, it will be basically moving out of Canada if it doesn't get goverment support.

DHL moved partially out of the states, but still works fully in Canada and the rest of the world.

Who knows ? UPS is large, but what stops them from moving out of a country if no money is made there, only losses ?

 

[Mr.Grey]

We are "to big to fail "... umm , wait that excuse don't work any more. Houston we have a problem.

 

[klein]

Founded when the US still had fewer than 10,000 cars in total, the carmaker was once the symbol of American prestige and its brands respected all over the world.
Yet GM has now suffered the world's biggest industrial bankruptcy.

Who's up next ?

 

[satellitedriver]

Coupled with the fact this company is just huge, will make it hard for it to disappear for a long time.

Same thing was said of the "Titanic".
One ice cube, poor engineering, and she disappeared in a short time.
UPS will survive, in some shape, form or fashion, for many decades to come.
Sadly,
UPS is rushing headlong into it's demise, by virtue of concentrating on the microeconomics of today's fiscal situation.
UPS is a reactive company, not a proactive one.
This, IMO, is the weak link in the chain.

 

[soberups]

The only way we are going to survive is to get IE under control and put the company back in the hands of the center and division managers who actually live in the real world. Let them run their operations according to logic and common sense....and stick the IE types in a closet someplace and let them audit paperclips.

 

[Black_6_Leader]

The key to long term survival will be cost control; without surrendering service quality until we can find a way to grow out of the current economic malaise. This will require moderation in the economic demands made by all classes of UPSers; from senior corporate management, front line leaders, union employees of all types (pilots, mechanics, feeder / freight drivers and our package drivers); non union employees, retirees and share owners alike.

 

[ups1990]

I ponder about this same exact question. Will we go the way of GM? The biggest, baddest most profitable automotive company in the world. No one can take us down was the sentiment of both management and union workers. Toyota, was well Toyota in their eyes, a tiny Asian car company. The world knows how this eventually played out.

I hope and pray, UPS does not turn into GM. It's said that for a buss to stay in buss, it must constanly reinvent itself. Can we say that our current UPS is reinventing itself? If so, how can UPS actually do this? Cutting routes is probably one way they're accomplishing this but this action is inventing other problems.

Members here have said that UPS, will go to the union and ask for workers to take a pay cut in order to stay in buss. A pay cut of say 2 dollars might fly, but what happens when we see profits rise?

UPS drivers have reached, in my opinion, peak output. The company must find another way to reinvent itself, because these particular workers have reinvented themselves four fold.

 

[cachsux]

It died the day we went public.

 

[sdf6hr2]

cachsux beat me to it...

 

[david cassin]

ups has been here a long time through depressions,recessions etc etc.we will go onwards and upwards.the economys will pick up and we will get back to normality.

 

[Catatonic]

ups has been here a long time through depressions,recessions etc etc.we will go onwards and upwards.the economy will pick up and we will get back to normality.

In Ireland?