New Video! Amazon drivers VS. UPS drivers

BigUnionGuy

Got the T-Shirt
I'd like to offer some encouragement to the Amazon workers also.


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Its_a_me

Well-Known Member
UPS Drivers need to wake up. So the smiles and smugness of older UPS drivers of how much more they make now is all fun and games (esp for guys in their 40's and 50's that may be the case for the rest of their careers)...but down the line it is going to cost UPS drivers big time (and even drivers in their 40's need to wake-up and realize their pension at present levels could be at huge risk).

UPS drivers might think they have this specialty skill set that is protected by a union and justifies their wages, but the reality is that wage was formed as a result of barriers of protection that UPS had in the past that don't exist today. Put simply: 10 years ago how many Amazon trucks did you see? How many yesterday? How many 10 years from now?

Amazon tore down the economy of scale barrier. It's larger than UPS (Amazon is worth $1.184T while UPS is worth $160.16B. Or about 1/10 of Amazon's market cap). So the all the cost of establishing the network is nothing to the control Amazon gained over the entire ecosystem/brand.

UPS made perhaps the strategic blunder of all-time (okay maybe 2nd to Borders Books) and allowed a competitor to start a rival company at a scalable pace while welcoming their business as a customer VS cutting them off completely and watching the idea die at once. UPS is Borders and Amazon used their business capacity to start its own service doing the same thing they did to Borders.

Amazon was like a threat UPS never faced before because they were a large enough a competitor it couldn't be swallow up on the cheap during this time plus the artificial or strategic barriers were limited. In other words, UPS lowering their costs temporarily (through predatory pricing) to drive Amazon out wouldn't have worked. Neither would have cost pricing (as Amazon is not unionized while UPS is). Amazon brand loyalty also added to the disadvantage. And the switching cost of going from one delivery company to another wasn't a strong enough protection either.

The only way to stop them was cutting them off from the UPS network completely (and doing so during peak) and forcing failure of delivery onto Amazon. So consumers remembered and went shopping elsewhere. But each day even this threat grows smaller as Amazon builds its own network. In reality: it's probably already too late.

In plain speak: UPS has a large competitive disadvantage to Amazon. Even non-unionized Fedex realized this years ago and stopped pretending they were a customer--not a direct threat. Unionized UPS is even more vulnerable. Drivers need take the treat seriously or be willing to have a race to the bottom in their compensation and conditions--such as now working Saturdays (and soon Sundays), accepting a 22.4 wage, etc. etc. Organizing a company as large as Amazon is an insurmountable task in today's age--esp given the political climate.

....and don't even get me started on autonomous deliveries and how it will further exacerbate driver wages.

So keep laughing and smiling smugly...about how much more than those employees--that are mainly Gen Z's--you make...it won't be for too much longer.
 

nWo

Well-Known Member
Don't be one of those guys that talks down to an Amazon driver. He's not them enemy. He's just doing what he has to do to get by. The union busting, tax evading suits are the enemy.
 

I have been lurking

Tired hubrat
UPS Drivers need to wake up. So the smiles and smugness of older UPS drivers of how much more they make now is all fun and games (esp for guys in their 40's and 50's that may be the case for the rest of their careers)...but down the line it is going to cost UPS drivers big time (and even drivers in their 40's need to wake-up and realize their pension at present levels could be at huge risk).

UPS drivers might think they have this specialty skill set that is protected by a union and justifies their wages, but the reality is that wage was formed as a result of barriers of protection that UPS had in the past that don't exist today. Put simply: 10 years ago how many Amazon trucks did you see? How many yesterday? How many 10 years from now?

Amazon tore down the economy of scale barrier. It's larger than UPS (Amazon is worth $1.184T while UPS is worth $160.16B. Or about 1/10 of Amazon's market cap). So the all the cost of establishing the network is nothing to the control Amazon gained over the entire ecosystem/brand.

UPS made perhaps the strategic blunder of all-time (okay maybe 2nd to Borders Books) and allowed a competitor to start a rival company at a scalable pace while welcoming their business as a customer VS cutting them off completely and watching the idea die at once. UPS is Borders and Amazon used their business capacity to start its own service doing the same thing they did to Borders.

Amazon was like a threat UPS never faced before because they were a large enough a competitor it couldn't be swallow up on the cheap during this time plus the artificial or strategic barriers were limited. In other words, UPS lowering their costs temporarily (through predatory pricing) to drive Amazon out wouldn't have worked. Neither would have cost pricing (as Amazon is not unionized while UPS is). Amazon brand loyalty also added to the disadvantage. And the switching cost of going from one delivery company to another wasn't a strong enough protection either.

The only way to stop them was cutting them off from the UPS network completely (and doing so during peak) and forcing failure of delivery onto Amazon. So consumers remembered and went shopping elsewhere. But each day even this threat grows smaller as Amazon builds its own network. In reality: it's probably already too late.

In plain speak: UPS has a large competitive disadvantage to Amazon. Even non-unionized Fedex realized this years ago and stopped pretending they were a customer--not a direct threat. Unionized UPS is even more vulnerable. Drivers need take the treat seriously or be willing to have a race to the bottom in their compensation and conditions--such as now working Saturdays (and soon Sundays), accepting a 22.4 wage, etc. etc. Organizing a company as large as Amazon is an insurmountable task in today's age--esp given the political climate.

....and don't even get me started on autonomous deliveries and how it will further exacerbate driver wages.

So keep laughing and smiling smugly...about how much more than those employees--that are mainly Gen Z's--you make...it won't be for too much longer.
We screwed up but Amazon is burning through workers in the US AND Mexican migrants
 
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