New, Improved (?) Response Thread

[MassWineGuy]

Quite a tangled path the first thread’s taken. I learned something today about how the company views the program so far.

There was a meeting with all ops and senior managers in our district. According to two who were there, Response is reducing the total outbound Memphis volume by three million P2 pieces a month. If left together with P1’s, flights would be delayed two or three hours.

Of course, there are always lots of P1’s in the afternoon sort. These aren’t supposed to be there. Duh!

Another tidbit that I’m not sure is nationwide or just Memphis. FedEx will pay employees who recommend new hires. The longer they stay, the more you would get, up to about three months. I think the compensation is $50 for a month, $100 for two and $300 if they stay three months or more.

 

[Working4the1%]

My customers keep asking me why I forget to bring ALL the packages at once........now I can explain it to them..NOT AM del Midday DEL late Pickup oncall.. once twice three times a delivery driver

 

[MassWineGuy]

Technically, of course, customers shouldn’t get their P2’s when their P1’s are delivered. But then, who wants to go back to the same stop later?

 

[MAKAVELI]

Technically, of course, customers shouldn’t get their P2’s when their P1’s are delivered. But then, who wants to go back to the same stop later?

Technically that's not a policy.

 

[fdxsux]

Another tidbit that I’m not sure is nationwide or just Memphis. FedEx will pay employees who recommend new hires. The longer they stay, the more you would get, up to about three months. I think the compensation is $50 for a month, $100 for two and $300 if they stay three months or more.

You know you’re a crappy company to work for when you have to pay referral bonuses to get people in the door.

 

[Fred's Myth]

Technically, of course, customers shouldn’t get their P2’s when their P1’s are delivered. But then, who wants to go back to the same stop later?

Technically, it’s the most efficient system, therefore the most profitable. It’s not about courier convenience, it’s about the bottom line. And the bottom line is where your next raise comes from.

 

[Maui]

In my mind RESPONSE sucks. No one I am aware wanted it at least from VP down to couriers. It is wild to go to the same stops sometimes for FO, P1, Ground, Wave 2, and a pup. Seems highly inefficient and I can't imagine anyone would argue otherwise.

RESPONSE usually does 200-250K nightly through the Sunrise sort at INDH. Those are packages taken out of Indy and Memphis night sorts (and some, but fewer MEM day sort). Stated goals are to shift capacity and reduce flights, improve international transit to US, and provide a recovery network to reduce WDL.

The improved transit for the flight from Paris hub seems to be there to get international sooner. This allows FedEx to offer a much later window (something like +5 hours) for European shippers to get things to the US overnight. These are high yield packages and FedEx has been actively attempting to grow internationally - including the TNT lanes from Asia to Europe. This has been stated on earnings calls forever.

And more packages are being trucked to reduce flights. The recovery network part is a joke. Instead more packages are just getting rolled and while IND is mostly performing better in terms of linehaul some of it is because they are just stopping the sort and then rolling P1.

Even if RESPONSE is awful we know there is limited sorting capacity at MEM and IND. Expansion takes YEARS and costs $billions. IMO this is an attempt to utilize IND instead of it sitting idle to slow/reduce capital expenses too.

So I think LMO + RESPONSE + Combining Express/Ground locations like in Montana is an effort to slow spending for Express even more than it was. LMO takes packages off planes, RESPONSE takes packages off planes and reduces how many have to be processed at night, and Combining locations saves leasing and utility expenses and in the future allowing packages to be delivered by either OPCO in the market.

To me the whole idea is reducing capital expenses then ultimately moving as much as practical/possible to Ground using their superior sort capacity (the capacity is more dispersed and the buildings are much more automated with better use of technology than local Express stations).

Not sure if any of this made sense to you, but TLDR IMO RESPONSE is trying to reduce CAPEX by using existing hubs and more volume gets moved to FXG ultimately.

 

[falcon back]

You know you’re a crappy company to work for when you have to pay referral bonuses to get people in the door.

That is becoming the norm nationwide. Read more than the comics during the day and you might learn something.

 

[falcon back]

Technically, of course, customers shouldn’t get their P2’s when their P1’s are delivered. But then, who wants to go back to the same stop later?

Customers are now getting what they pay for. The days of customers getting a large number of P2 pieces delivered at 0915 because they have 2 P1 pieces are over. That same process was done years ago but faded as volume grew and getting freight off the truck as soon as possible became necessary.

 

[NC man]

It would be nice for the company to say in beginning why something is being done,MEM hub is stressed so here is what we are doing.
The major problem is local stations like mine where the mid day routes have too much territory to cover and bring back stops so WDL is definite issue. We had 8 drivers quit,new hires for midday. I don’t blame them,little training and here is 40 stops covering five routes and get pups later. Maybe it gets better idk,when peak comes I have no problem bring stuff back if run out of time and I won’t be out at 2100 etc.

 

[Operational needs]

In my mind RESPONSE sucks. No one I am aware wanted it at least from VP down to couriers. It is wild to go to the same stops sometimes for FO, P1, Ground, Wave 2, and a pup. Seems highly inefficient and I can't imagine anyone would argue otherwise.

RESPONSE usually does 200-250K nightly through the Sunrise sort at INDH. Those are packages taken out of Indy and Memphis night sorts (and some, but fewer MEM day sort). Stated goals are to shift capacity and reduce flights, improve international transit to US, and provide a recovery network to reduce WDL.

The improved transit for the flight from Paris hub seems to be there to get international sooner. This allows FedEx to offer a much later window (something like +5 hours) for European shippers to get things to the US overnight. These are high yield packages and FedEx has been actively attempting to grow internationally - including the TNT lanes from Asia to Europe. This has been stated on earnings calls forever.

And more packages are being trucked to reduce flights. The recovery network part is a joke. Instead more packages are just getting rolled and while IND is mostly performing better in terms of linehaul some of it is because they are just stopping the sort and then rolling P1.

Even if RESPONSE is awful we know there is limited sorting capacity at MEM and IND. Expansion takes YEARS and costs $billions. IMO this is an attempt to utilize IND instead of it sitting idle to slow/reduce capital expenses too.

So I think LMO + RESPONSE + Combining Express/Ground locations like in Montana is an effort to slow spending for Express even more than it was. LMO takes packages off planes, RESPONSE takes packages off planes and reduces how many have to be processed at night, and Combining locations saves leasing and utility expenses and in the future allowing packages to be delivered by either OPCO in the market.

To me the whole idea is reducing capital expenses then ultimately moving as much as practical/possible to Ground using their superior sort capacity (the capacity is more dispersed and the buildings are much more automated with better use of technology than local Express stations).

Not sure if any of this made sense to you, but TLDR IMO RESPONSE is trying to reduce CAPEX by using existing hubs and more volume gets moved to FXG ultimately.

Thanks for that. Very informative.

 

[MassWineGuy]

Technically that's not a policy.

In my 2 1/2 day DVD courier training we were told to do this. If a customer asked if we had anything else for them we should advise them to upgrade to P1. I never do this.

 

[MassWineGuy]

Technically, it’s the most efficient system, therefore the most profitable. It’s not about courier convenience, it’s about the bottom line. And the bottom line is where your next raise comes from.

Someone’s next raise. Not ours.

 

[Nolimitz]

Another tidbit that I’m not sure is nationwide or just Memphis. FedEx will pay employees who recommend new hires. The longer they stay, the more you would get, up to about three months. I think the compensation is $50 for a month, $100 for two and $300 if they stay three months or more.

Our Sr told us that any referral had to stay at least 3 months and the reward would be some trinket from the FedEx store. there was no mention of a cash payout

 

[Fred's Myth]

Our Sr told us that any referral had to stay at least 3 months and the reward would be some trinket from the FedEx store. there was no mention of a cash payout

Sr. Manager is a synonym for Liar.

 

[falcon back]

In my 2 1/2 day DVD courier training we were told to do this. If a customer asked if we had anything else for them we should advise them to upgrade to P1. I never do this.

You are a credit to the uniform

 

[Working4the1%]

You are a credit to the uniform

Less credit .. more raise

 

[MassWineGuy]

And remember, thank you for all you do.

 

[Nolimitz]

Sr. Manager is a synonym for Liar.

So you have a better story? Is there cash or trinkets?

 

[MassWineGuy]

Just tell them you know two very good people but you need cash before providing their names.