I think that if Fred were to hand me and other contractors like me, say 70-75% of the premium used to shrink delivery areas to make commit times on the Express side, then yes I could train everyone of my drivers to do so. It's all profit driven.
I thought I worked for Ground
- Thread starter FedExer267
- Start date
In my case, modesty has no place in this discussion.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
At $12/hour why would they want to?
because with the added revenues from express along with the added volume they would make substantially more. profit motive at every level.
Yeah let's run ourselves into the ground(pun not intended) for $12hr, no benefits, no future! Why would anyone want a union when they've got all this?
Because it's better than Walmart?
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
Shifting over Express would be problematic. I've always said that, but I'm just playing to bbsam's dream that P1 might get shifted in addition to the E2 and SOS products. Here's a true story. A few weeks ago I was working in my front yard and an unmarked Sprinter comes tearing down the street. He drives back and forth down the street several times, then dives nose-first into a residential driveway. Truck running, the driver jumps out of the cab swearing to himself in Spanish, then throws the box from about 10 feet away onto the front porch. He then leaps back into the truck, backs up without honking or even looking into a street full of kids, and then screeches off in search of his next stop. By the way, he's wearing an untucked Ground shirt and old blue jeans. Just for kicks, I go over and look at the pkg, which has been delivered to the wrong address. It's also a day late. I ran it over to the right address and left it on the porch. I rest my case.
Brown287
Im not the Mail Man!
Its obvious that FDX is not as happy with Ground as they once were. With the new approach on their "professional driver" program, and the announcement that domestic volumes are FLAT, I don't see how FDX really believes that the Ground unit could come close to the level of service that express prices provide. At UPS we have time committed deliveries all over regardless of the package service level, and even with our much tighter loops they at times are difficult to service. It is well documented that UPS drivers level of "professionalism" is much higher then the FDX Ground drivers, so I don't see how the Ground network as a whole can really be counted on with deliveries of importance. This is by no means a knock on the hard work that they do but lets be honest, there not a whole lot of loyalty to the brand over there. They go to work deliver some stops and collect their 12 bucks an hour. Bbsam you say that you can walk on water and cure the sick, thats great but unfortunately you are the minority not the majority. And yes UPS does use this to our advantage when it comes to getting new business.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
...and it also works the other way. Our price points put us at a distinct disadvantage to FedEx Ground. It is our service that we sell.
And in this way the customer gets choice.
They can be trained.
I'd rather work for Walmart than you, and before you doubt my work ethic I've been tops in productivity in most of the places I've worked. That's the frustration, FedEx doesn't reward hard work. You have the swing contract in your area? I've been a swing twice, last time in Florida, the onroad portion of my last review as a swing was 6.9somethingsomething out of 7. Nearly perfect, and that's based on performance, not what the mgr gives you. You guys that scoff and are snide just don't seem to have a sense of what hard working people at Express have been through. We care, or at least cared, about the company, were proud of it. They've pretty much beat that out of us and you Johnny-come-latelys who think you know everything want to sneer at us for just wanting something better than we've gotten. One thing's for certain, sooner or later FedEx will do to you what they've done to Express. But hey, it's better than Walmart!
FedExer267
Well-Known Member
Is it really better than Walmart atleast there you get paid by the hour... I have said it before if FedEx thinks for one minute they can shift packages to ground and make our days longer for twelve dollars a hour think again it wont happen.. No one will do a gound/express route for that. They get crappy service now because they are getting what they pay for. There are a few that go above and beyond but why its not like we are getting raises and benefits. We are not their employees they dont give a crap about us so why should we care. Those of us that do are jobs do it for the customers that we know and have devolped friendships with because we do not want to let them down. But really should we care... Not really
Well aren't you clever!
Well yes I am, but that's beside the point. So you answer the question. Why do drivers do it for $12/hr? I thought maybe it was because it's better than Walmart, but perhaps that's not the case. I will defer to you who know the answer to enlighten the rest of us.
Brown287
Im not the Mail Man!
I work for UPS and have neither worked for Wal-Mart or FedEx Ground so I cant speak on which is best. However I can comment on the obvious, Wal-Mart may pay you $12 an hour as well but the physical expectation there is a lot less. Anyone who has worked in a delivery capacity can agree on one thing, that the toll on you is both physical and mental. The average Joe off the street can never comprehend this until they sit behind the wheel. Now another point is that like Wal-Mart, FedEx has enjoyed nice profits thanks to its hard working employees, unfortunately those at the Ground and H.D. don't get to enjoy in the monetary perks due to this.
As a contractor you see first hand Bbsam what FedEx pays you, now there are only two options. First they do pay you enough to compensate your driver at the industry average, or second they do not. At this point I am willing to say that the biggest threat to FedEx Ground is not UPS but a rebounding economy. Once the economy is providing jobs like it should then all of Ground's "professional" drivers are going else where. This situation puts the contractors between a rock and a hard place. Pay your drivers more to retain them, which would drive your profit down. Or hire what ever is available, which will be those at the bottom of the food chain. I believe that you Bbsam can see the predicament that this will put contractors in.
Yeah, what he said! But seriously, that logo on the side of the truck has people believing that they'll have a solid future if they can get hired on. I wonder how much turnover the average contractor has to deal with? The bigger sucker theory is that about the time people have figured out it's not a good deal a bigger sucker will come along to take their place. But eventually you run out of suckers. Of course in a bad economy people take what they can get.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
Great point about the physicality of the job. At Wallyworld, you can sit on your butt relatively-speaking, and also not be subjected to items like DOT drug screens and randoms. I wonder how many WalMart employees would flunk the pee test or not be able to pass the DOT physical? Remember that Ground drivers are even more disposable than Express employees, so when you tear that ACL or something else bad, you're gone, with no benefits to help pay for it either. What a deal!!! Express will try to get rid of you if injured too, but at least they have to pay initial medical expenses. As always, all of the cards are in the FedEx hand.
It always amazes me how clueless bbsam (and others) are about the way FedEx works and the ethics (very poor) of this corporation.
