Owning and Operating a FedEx Ground ISP

[LastMile]

FedEx GT:
Thank you for your insight and sharing your experience. I appreciate it.

There isn't much you are going to do to limit codes. You can always call ahead or you can beat it in to the driver to pay attention to closure notes and relay them to the terminal (even with that only a 30% chance the hub won't still load it).

But if the daily inbound review took into account the business closure times for your work area, could this be emailed to FedEx flex guy indicating the "Closure" deliveries so these don't get loaded on the truck?

A combination of a well trained driver and the maps can be very beneficial but the largest problem is time constraints and business hours. Regardless of how well you optimize a route if there are businesses closed at the beginning of the day you are going to be backtracking.

I agree. This is a more difficult problem given the delivery and pickup window time constraints imposed on Ground deliveries. Not an issue with HD though.

There is tracking software but it is expensive and I would say not worth an investment. Other than that you can see on Mygroundbiz what pickups are done, how many stops are done, and where the drivers last stop was.

Yes I considered the tracking software. Pricey and not integrated.
Good to know that latest data for your work area deliveries is available on MyGroundBiz.

 

[bacha29]

Sounds to me that this is a guy who just wants to sit in his climate controlled office with surveillance cameras micro managing his drivers, guys who are expected to match what a UPS driver does in a day and do it for half the wages and no benefits and do it in all kinds of weather. All the soft ware and micro managing in the world cannot solve his greatest challenge.......turnover. With current settlement environment being what it is , all I can tell him is to grab his hat and coat and get out there and learn those routes for himself and get to know the people you will meet every day on that route.X is only going to give him just so much money to operate that PSA and if they see that he was able to do it on what they gave one year rest assured that they will be cutting the money even lower the next allowing him come to discover that while he may think of himself as an entrepreneur and X will tell him that he's an entrepreneur X has and always will maintain absolute control over everything that matters.

 

[dmac1]

Technology isn't going to help you a whole lot. It is going to come down to the people you work with and hire. If you need to email someone to get packages on the right truck, getting it done is only as good as the person reading the email, and the loaders. Until they get robot drivers and robot sorters and loaders, you can only be as good as the people around you.

In my time at fedex HD, I was very disappointed in the quality of management. The good, honest managers tended to leave- because they are good, they can find better jobs. Then they promote from within people who were satisfied in lower operations positions.

The same will go for your drivers. A good employee is going to be worth more than you can honestly pay them, and will know it. Your biggest expense is going to be related to driver quality and turnover. Ask contractors/ISPs how long their average driver stays, then assume that the better drivers stay a shorter time because a good driver can get a better job easily.

A bad driver will also cost you more in maintenance. Hard starts, stops, and cornering will tire out your trucks faster with hard drivers who are satisfied with a low wage position. You will not be finding people like yourself with your work ethic to do this job. Maybe you can find people in their 40s/50s who have a hard time getting work due to age, but their age will also slow them down some. You are going to need a lot of patience, and it will not be as easy as you think. In my opinion, there are much better investments you can make, especially long term.

 

[It will be fine]

It will be fine:
Thanks for the positive response.



So there is a window in time between when you review your projections and send the email request to the FedEx "flex guy" AND when he enters it into the system (before the final sort starts). Is there a specific time by when the ISP / contractor is expected to send in such requests to ensure these get executed?

Wouldn't reviewing the inbound projection as close in time to as when the sort starts, capture the latest snapshot of the projections. So your rebalance would be more realistic to what you (and your drivers) see the following morning?



Is the GPS system to track your trucks a separate service that you pay for?
But to determine the current status of deliveries and pickups on each truck, you log onto myGroundBiz?

It depends on the building what time you need changes in. I have one where the deadline is 8 pm and another that is 10. Bulk stops are easy to move, just give them the address and where you want it. If I'm making bigger changes like an area when the regular driver is on vacation or there's a new guy I send them a map to eliminate confusion. The report gets more accurate the later you run it, but it's not that big of a deal. It's rare that a bulk stop isn't on it and beyond that it's just a 5-10 stop difference which shouldn't matter. If you're running Ground, the routes won't vary too much, they'll stay within +/- 15 stops of average.

The GPS tracking is a separate service I pay for. When my current contract is up I'll be switching to in cab cameras. There are vendors that have GPS with the camera setup. I really only watch them real time when it's a new guy or if something comes up and I need to move pickups around mid day. I track all my maintenance through my GPS provider too. So you can get automatic alerts for PMs brakes etc. by mileage.

 

[OrioN]

The GPS tracking is a separate service I pay for

Hmm so our powerpad are tracking us like UPS's telematics? interesting, because I had a slightly disputed delivery and it said I close the stop a few houses down the road... DFU pointed out that their FD was really a SD and didn't find out until I got there to show the customer

What really happened was I forgot to hit close stop when I arrived at my next stop, oops!

My neighboring route driver says he'll scan a bunch of stops n hit FD, then close them out before actually driving to those proper locations... so I gotta tell him on Tuesday to accurately scan the boxes in the front of each destination now? We're not UPS, wtf?!?

 

[NYCFXG]

But if the daily inbound review took into account the business closure times for your work area, could this be emailed to FedEx flex guy indicating the "Closure" deliveries so these don't get loaded on the truck?

There are guys that have been working in my terminal for 10 years that still don't know or care about "Closures". Also, the fact that you are asking about things not getting loaded on your truck before having any direct experience with the routes smells fishy to me. Software background... tech background... entrepreneur. I don't buy it.

People who are in this business don't give a crap about efficiency of deliveries unless you are talking about turning 1 stop in 4. Want to hear about how my settlement hasn't been right a single day since ISP started? Or the fact that they have the audacity to charge me for over-payments when they owe me close to 7k since peak. Or how about how I have a contract for 24 scanners and they can only provide me with 19, yet the bill I am forced to pay says 24. How about being told I should go out and spend $200 per truck for scanner chargers because the batteries only last 6 hours and the routes take 9+ to complete. Spare batteries? Nope don't have any of those because people horde them out of fear.

Ask yourself this question. Are you getting into this business to build equity and sell or as a form of income? If so, buy the routes without the trucks, have the seller price the trucks out of the sale and buy new trucks. Pay your manager(s) very well and your drivers just enough to keep them showing up to work. Take all new work that appears and grow fast. Then sell. That is how you make money in fxg/hd.

If you are coming into this business expecting to make money on a regular basis, you will have to be ruthless and uncaring. You are in Seattle which means higher cost of living. You won't be able to pay your employees enough to pay for their most basic needs. I would sell my routes tomorrow if I could. I too came in caring only about providing the best service and being the most efficient. All that it got me was more stress and depression. I grew.. boy did I. I have 20+ employees and had only 4 two years ago. I am that "ISP Success Story". I built my business on the failures of others. This is a horrible, horrible business. (If you can call it that) Not a day goes by that I regret the decision that I made to get into this business.

 

[dmac1]

I too never got a settlement that was right. At first, I didn't even notice it. When I started paying attention, I was being shorted every single week. I had to go over every detail and document it, and hope I was paid the next week. And management wanted me to drop it because it 'wasn't that much' $5 a day here, $100 a week there, and it got to just be part of my job to every week turn in the corrections. Not bad when I had one route, but when I had three routes plus a supplemental, it was nuts, and I was labelled as a 'complainer.' From that to micromanaging my vehicles, for me too it was the worst place I ever worked. Of course I complained when they never did get a paycheck right. Maybe being an absentee manager is better, and maybe now they are better at getting your pay right the first time.

And part of the managers job is to get all the packages out of the terminal. My last manager would transfer packages from other routes to mine just to clear the dock, knowing that I couldn't deliver them. I coded them as sorted to the wrong route, and for closed businesses, and only later found that he was recoding them as DNA(did not attempt) in order to build a file against me, and to make himself look better.

Keep detailed records if you insist on doing this. It will not be what you appear to think it is.

 

[Schweddy]

@MemphisHubFedExer

You read this thread yet?

 

[LastMile]

NYCFXG:

People who are in this business don't give a crap about efficiency of deliveries unless you are talking about turning 1 stop in 4.

For my understanding, Can you please elaborate on this?

 

[LastMile]

dmac1:

I too never got a settlement that was right. At first, I didn't even notice it. When I started paying attention, I was being shorted every single week. I had to go over every detail and document it, and hope I was paid the next week. And management wanted me to drop it because it 'wasn't that much' $5 a day here, $100 a week there, and it got to just be part of my job to every week turn in the corrections. Not bad when I had one route, but when I had three routes plus a supplemental, it was nuts, and I was labelled as a 'complainer.'

Are you suggesting that your settlement did not include payments for the stops and deliveries & pickups that you made? Because these are logged. Or are you suggesting that the computations on your settlement were incorrect? Not sure FXG can get away with the latter either without being called out.

My last manager would transfer packages from other routes to mine just to clear the dock, knowing that I couldn't deliver them. I coded them as sorted to the wrong route, and for closed businesses, and only later found that he was recoding them as DNA(did not attempt) in order to build a file against me, and to make himself look better.

This is just a bad manager. Personnel problem.

 

[dmac1]

dmac1:


Are you suggesting that your settlement did not include payments for the stops and deliveries & pickups that you made? Because these are logged. Or are you suggesting that the computations on your settlement were incorrect? Not sure FXG can get away with the latter either without being called out.


This is just a bad manager. Personnel problem.

I had every kind of issue- payments were calculated a little different back then though. There was a fuel supplement based on miles driven- almost never right, would miss days of miles, extra pay for multiple pieces, or oversized packages, bonuses,

Every week I had to go through three settlement checks with a fine tooth comb, then keep track of whether or not corrections were made properly.

And saying "That's just a bad manager" shows that you miss the point. Fedex specializes in bad managers, and promotes them to the point where their incompetence finally shows up. What you call "your" business is 100% totally dependent on someone else's competence, and all the 'technology you think you can bring to the table are more than negated by your dependence on people you have no control over. It wasn't just one manager I had that was in way over his ability, it was time after time, as fedex tries to hire the lowest cost personnel they can find that appear competent in their prior position. The last three managers I had were a former package handler, a QA clerk whose main experience was in making phone calls to correct bad addresses on packages, and the woman who couldn't read a map, and had never loaded a package or made a delivery, or had even basic ideas about how many miles it was to the nearby delivery areas.

 

[LastMile]

Fedex specializes in bad managers, and promotes them to the point where their incompetence finally shows up. What you call "your" business is 100% totally dependent on someone else's competence

You have a point. Good to know. One more thing for me to worry about :-<

 

[NYCFXG]

dmac1:


Are you suggesting that your settlement did not include payments for the stops and deliveries & pickups that you made? Because these are logged. Or are you suggesting that the computations on your settlement were incorrect? Not sure FXG can get away with the latter either without being called out.

That's where you are wrong. They will drag their feet for months. You will give them information and they will say, not my department. You need to email or call this person. My settlements don't match my worksheets. There are huge differences. There is absolutely nothing that X won't try to get away with. Example.. My total package count was 10000 they paid me for 7899. If I did 1000 stops they paid me for 875. Then they charged me at the end of the month for over-payment. The higher the volume the larger the difference. My business only has 1 customer. That customer is X. What reason do they have to do the right thing? If they "make mistakes" they can make me jump through hoops just to get compensated properly. If they do it to every contractor and 50% say something, they save money on the 50% of the contractors without having to do a thing besides feign ignorance. This is the company you are planning on getting into bed with.

I honestly think you work for X. But, it really doesn't matter. There are managers that work in my terminal that are truly good people that have a terrible time coming to terms with the things they are forced to say and do on a regular basis.

 

[It will be fine]

Fedex screws up settlement all the time. I've never had big issues getting what they owe me back though. It's best to put it in writing. Create an invoice for what they owe you and they'll pay it. When they send me the overpayment invoices I just ask in writing for a clear explanation for the overpayment. I've only gotten one that was explained that I paid. The rest went unpaid and just disappear. Putting everything in writing goes a long way with them, they don't want lawsuits.

 

[bacha29]

You have a point. Good to know. One more thing for me to worry about :-<

Pal, if you want those routes just buy the damn things and stop the hand wringing. I can just see you now walking into the terminal with your laptop in your Gucci shoes and Armani suit looking like a Morman or an IBMer who is about to have a head on collision with the "in your face" world of trucking. Why do I say this? Because I've seen it before. Might as well take that laptop and dump it in the trash because in trucking you have to be able to use your own brain and think for yourself and have on the spot solutions to the myriad of headaches that will confront you every morning and throughout the day and night .And yes, X will try to beat you anyway they can because they can. And again you're only as good as the guy behind the wheel and those who are the best at performing the task ( and you'll never have anywhere near enough of those) are not going to put up with being micro managed by a bean counter who pays nothing and considers getting his hands dirty or working the job himself in adverse weather conditions beneath him. You no pay, they no stay. So if you think your up for it then knock yourself out..........Which you might have to do to yourself quite often just to escape the headaches for a little while.

 

[NYCFXG]

Pal, if you want those routes just buy the damn things and stop the hand wringing. I can just see you now walking into the terminal with your laptop in your Gucci shoes and Armani suit looking like a Morman or an IBMer who is about to have a head on collision with the "in your face" world of trucking. Why do I say this? Because I've seen it before. Might as well take that laptop and dump it in the trash because in trucking you have to be able to use your own brain and think for yourself and have on the spot solutions to the myriad of headaches that will confront you every morning and throughout the day and night .And yes, X will try to beat you anyway they can because they can. And again you're only as good as the guy behind the wheel and those who are the best at performing the task ( and you'll never have anywhere near enough of those) are not going to put up with being micro managed by a bean counter who pays nothing and considers getting his hands dirty or working the job himself in adverse weather conditions beneath him. You no pay, they no stay. So if you think your up for it then knock yourself out..........Which you might have to do to yourself quite often just to escape the headaches for a little while.

I go to the terminal with a laptop every morning and my managers have tablets to move pick ups and track trucks. But, that's not the point. Bacha is right. You very quickly become an expert at thinking on your toes and problem solving. What can happen will happen. Lost keys, flat tires, dead starters, etc. The best months I have ever had financially were the worst months of my life personally. The more thin you are forced to run your business the more money you will make. But, during those times things are going to happen that make you want to give up.

 

[Southwest]

I too never got a settlement that was right. At first, I didn't even notice it. When I started paying attention, I was being shorted every single week. I had to go over every detail and document it, and hope I was paid the next week. And management wanted me to drop it because it 'wasn't that much' $5 a day here, $100 a week there, and it got to just be part of my job to every week turn in the corrections. Not bad when I had one route, but when I had three routes plus a supplemental, it was nuts, and I was labelled as a 'complainer.' From that to micromanaging my vehicles, for me too it was the worst place I ever worked. Of course I complained when they never did get a paycheck right. Maybe being an absentee manager is better, and maybe now they are better at getting your pay right the first time.

And part of the managers job is to get all the packages out of the terminal. My last manager would transfer packages from other routes to mine just to clear the dock, knowing that I couldn't deliver them. I coded them as sorted to the wrong route, and for closed businesses, and only later found that he was recoding them as DNA(did not attempt) in order to build a file against me, and to make himself look better.

Keep detailed records if you insist on doing this. It will not be what you appear to think it is.

Were you enrolled in the Flex program?

 

[dmac1]

HD had forced flex. It wasn't in the contract, but they did it because the contract didn't prohibit it.

 

[12yearsaslave]

Road Warrior might help you with the route planning.

 

[Logistics_lifer]

I agree with alot of guys in here fedex plays a shell game with all of its contractors when it comes to compensation. I cannot emphasize this enough treat your drivers well and they well forsee issues and be able to save you in complaints and misdeliveries because they are going to become tenured drivers that know the routes and customers. Treat the drivers like sh1t and hire sh1tty managers and see your efficiency go out the window because drivers will not care about misplots, bagging packages, or taking bulk for other drivers. Biggest shame is making a company driver into non caring driver. Thats why I am on this forum and have 8 yrs with fedex 400k deliveries and miles and I know im worth a hell of alot more! I did over 5000 deliveries last peak alone I have an interview with ups coming up. O and we use a company called fleetmatics and they charge a monthly bill for gps services.