I knew of a few small stations in Texas that used to have 2 can CTV drivers who drove a long way to San Antonio, spent the night at a motel with layover pay, then drive back in the morning. It was a job I had hoped to land eventually but they went to RTD's out of San Antonio. I'd love to see a return to that, but at this point too late for me anyways.
Is Fred Going to Give Heavyweight to FedEx Freight?
- Thread starter MrFedEx
- Start date
I knew of a few small stations in Texas that used to have 2 can CTV drivers who drove a long way to San Antonio, spent the night at a motel with layover pay, then drive back in the morning. It was a job I had hoped to land eventually but they went to RTD's out of San Antonio. I'd love to see a return to that, but at this point too late for me anyways.
Well I certainly don't wish anyone to lose their job or be displaced, already have that sickening feeling over the closing of FOP in Atlanta 
Guess I was hoping in my dream world that we would be somehow merged in with Frt and keep our seniority. I know, its laughable at best. As far as the courier/ctv driver possibility goes, one has to wonder how much Express or Frt we will lose if all the E2 goes to Ground? My point or question being, Won't alot of us be looking for something to do if that happens?
Guess I was hoping in my dream world that we would be somehow merged in with Frt and keep our seniority. I know, its laughable at best. As far as the courier/ctv driver possibility goes, one has to wonder how much Express or Frt we will lose if all the E2 goes to Ground? My point or question being, Won't alot of us be looking for something to do if that happens?
Route 66
Slapped Upside-da-Head Member
yes
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
Well I certainly don't wish anyone to lose their job or be displaced, already have that sickening feeling over the closing of FOP in Atlanta
You will never be merged with Freight because they are covered by the NLRA, not the RLA. Fred S will never do anything that threatens his magic RLA status for Express. Ground will be getting E2 at an undetermined date in the future. Someone else had made the comment that they had heard a manager say "you won't be able to recognoze Express in 18-24 months" or words to that effect. An all overnight Express is probably the plan (FO, PO, and SO only), and you would see a lot of people either out of work, or more likely, starved for hours as a part-timer.
Fred is a bastard, and will do anything it takes to make an extra penny in profit.
Well I certainly don't wish anyone to lose their job or be displaced, already have that sickening feeling over the closing of FOP in Atlanta
Are you an RT driver or a heavyweight courier. They are not one in the same. There has been talk over the years of sending heavyweight over to freight and RT back to the stations. Neither is going to happen. Have you read about the changes in the AGFS division that were posted last week? The information can be found online and breaks it down by regions of the country and districts. We are getting moved into a different district. If they were going to move us back to the stations in the near future they would not bother restructuring AGFS and the MD's like they are.
I'm an RTD in the South. Our HWT Drivers and Station Pull Drivers are both classified in one group or class, RTD's. We can thank another FedEx Hall of Fame Bozo Tracey Schmidt. Oh yeah, don't forget his reasoning for combining us all into one Group or Class. He said we all wanted more time with our families and away went the longhaul/overnight, layover runs. They are planning to close or combine a couple stations with the ramp around here.
Route 66
Slapped Upside-da-Head Member
yes, those were the BEST of times. I'm so glad Bozo Schmidt consulted with me to see if I wanted to end them. I didn't even have a family at the time and I was diggin all the food and poolside time at the hotel. Thanks, Tracey, you certainly knew what was best for all of us.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
Yes, Tracy
. I left AGFS when all of the runs were contracted out because it would save them a few pennies. I also remember the "family time" BS, just another in a long line of lies.
ours is make sure you get to the last stop.(like my family knows who in the hel I am!) What a bunch of friend NYes, Tracy
s!!!!!!
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
ours is make sure you get to the last stop.(like my family knows who in the hel I am!) What a bunch of friend N
Mr. Schidt was famous for his fabulous hairdo, spiffy suits, and penchant for executive jets. You wouldn't see his pampered butt flying commercial. I had a great day route between 2 ramps in different states, so it actually increased my "family time". It really pissed me off to see them give it to US Express, and eventually Swift, because Swift was even cheaper.
There are so many jokes out there about Swift drivers...all deserved.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
We were classified the same way. You never knew what you'd be doing that day...no assigned routes. If you were lucky, you got station runs, but if you were unlucky and could actually read a map, you got to do HWT.
Yea, once you escape being a courier and get over to Club Fed there is no way you could ever go back to DGO unless you absolutely had to.
At our building things are pretty well separate, even though we share the same space. Down at the hub, RT and heavyweight are housed in different buildings/locations. Our RT swings/floats don't cover heavyweight routes. They have their own swing/float drivers. Up until recently the RT bid their vacations separate from heavyweight. It basically back that way now because they have their own manager and we now bid our vacations by workgroup. When a heavyweight route comes open for bid it is bid within the heavyweight group first and once all the jumping around there is done the junk route that no one wants is then offered to the RT drivers looking to get into a heavyweight position.
Here ya go again. Express Freight is a specialized costly service that standard LTL carriers can't touch in terms of service. I'm not even going to ask your sales people on this one. If we came to your place would it be filled wall to wall with Bible pages covering every square inch?
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
According to my sources, they have already done it in at least one major metropolitan location. Here's what you don't get. Express Freight comes into the airport and the customer doesn't know if a Freight driver or Express driver delivers it, and they probably don't care. The trucks and uniforms are almost identical. FedEx Freight won't move the Express Freight in their LTL system...they'll just pickup and deliver it, to and from the ramp instead of their cross-dock Freight facility.
I'll go slow so you can understand, OK? The line-haul segment does not change. The pickup and delivery of the product does change.
Perhaps, where it can fit the commitment time, I don't have enough details to say they are crossing internal carriers like this, I could ask though. But a lot and I mean the vast majority of air freight will be to places LTL cannot get there on time vs Air. It's simple logistic, it is the reason the service existed to start with and LTL is still LTL for the past many decades. There will not be a mass exodus of this, because it is simply not possible and Fedex will take all the air freight you'll give/pay them (if they have the lift).
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
Again, you don't understand the internal logistics. The freight will still be line-hauled by aircraft or whichever way is cheapest. A lot of Heavyweight moves by contract carrier if it's close enough to be trucked anyway. There are far more FedEx Freight trucks on the road than Express Heavyweight trucks. The engineer in a MEM cubicle says "hey, the Freight truck is in the area anyway, let's cut one truck (and employee) out of the operation".
All of the talking heads also think it's a great idea because they can further downsize Express, and make Freight drivers more "productive" too. The problem, as you pointed-out, is the commitment time, because if it's FFO of F1, it has to go on a plane and leave on a plane if it's outbound. They may have basically created a few Freight positions that mimic the position of the Heavyweight Driver for the FFO and F1. The F2 and F3 aren't as problematic.
The one issue that may hang them up is the RLA, which they could get around by having the Freight trucks sit at the dock and not have the drivers enter the AGFS facility.
Maybe when its all said and done we will be lucky enough to keep our jobs at express to run packages/containers to the stations and Express hwt to its new home at frt. From Atlanta to Greenville and Charlotte, the topic of conversation has been the rumblings of upper mgnt saying how it makes bad buisness sense for express hwt trucks and frt trucks going to and from/passing by each other at the same customer locations.
MAKAVELI
Well-Known Member
Yea, just like how express, ground, and home del can show up to the same customer at the same time. Who's on first?
