Should It Come As A Surprise?

bacha29

Well-Known Member
This morning FDX made a surprise announcement that it was:
1. Raising the dividend 53%
2. Adding 3 new board members
3. Executive compensation will be tied to shareholder value.
4. New formula to be adopted relative to cap x spending.

Changes are the result of an agreement struck with hedge fund D.E. Shaw. What impact it will have on the daily work experience on FDX employees and contractors remains to be seen. For the time being about all they can hope for is that things won't get any worse.
 

It will be fine

Well-Known Member
This morning FDX made a surprise announcement that it was:
1. Raising the dividend 53%
2. Adding 3 new board members
3. Executive compensation will be tied to shareholder value.
4. New formula to be adopted relative to cap x spending.

Changes are the result of an agreement struck with hedge fund D.E. Shaw. What impact it will have on the daily work experience on FDX employees and contractors remains to be seen. For the time being about all they can hope for is that things won't get any worse.
Spoiler alert.
They’re going to get worse.
 

Jkloc420

Do you need an air compressor or tire gauge
This morning FDX made a surprise announcement that it was:
1. Raising the dividend 53%
2. Adding 3 new board members
3. Executive compensation will be tied to shareholder value.
4. New formula to be adopted relative to cap x spending.

Changes are the result of an agreement struck with hedge fund D.E. Shaw. What impact it will have on the daily work experience on FDX employees and contractors remains to be seen. For the time being about all they can hope for is that things won't get any worse.
Thanks biden
 

McFeely

Huge Member
Spoiler alert.
They’re going to get worse.

The motto of my station for the last 2 years has been “it’s going to get worse before it gets better”.

As of right now, we’re about 40% short of a full crew. The only thing the employees are getting offered is a $1000 referral bonus and forced overtime.

Result? 2 people left this week and 2 more are leaving in the next 10 days, forcing more work on less staff.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
Work harder
Among the people who used to work for D.E. Shaw.....Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and some guy I heard of once or twice before but I can't place where this guy fits in. Perhaps you could help me. The guy's name is.....I've got it here someplace....ah here it is....The guy's name is Jeff Bezos. I remember that name from somewhere.

A short time ago CNBC had a couple of analysists on the air who follow FDX. One spoke about the fact that FDX is only half as profitable relative to it's size compared to other carriers.

Now the other guy simplified the entire matter when he simply said that too many people saw too many ground and express trucks showing up too many times at too many places at the same time of the day. And naturally when too many big bats in the financial markets see nonsense like this going on they see unnecessary costs being incurred and have set out to eliminate those costs.....And what they're going to do and how far they're willing to go to eliminate what they see as unnecessary costs? Well, the question is how many of you are willing to hang around to see what they're going to do? Unfortunately, for contractors many of whom have every cent of money to their name tied up in trucks and routes there may very well be no pain free way out.
 

It will be fine

Well-Known Member
What’s gonna get worse? I’m not being a smarty pants here, I’m actually curious what you mean.
On the Ground side they’ve already squeezed every contract to the point that it’s very hard if not impossible to turn a profit. I expect them to squeeze even more until the network breaks.

The buildings are understaffed, the packages aren’t getting picked up and delivered and the stock is soaring. They are going to squeeze more because customers don’t have another option. It’s a bold move to completely ignore quality service but it seems like that’s the plan. I guess it’ll boost corporate profits for another quarter which is as far ahead as anyone is planning.
 

Mutineer

Well-Known Member
On the Ground side they’ve already squeezed every contract to the point that it’s very hard if not impossible to turn a profit. I expect them to squeeze even more until the network breaks.

The buildings are understaffed, the packages aren’t getting picked up and delivered and the stock is soaring. They are going to squeeze more because customers don’t have another option. It’s a bold move to completely ignore quality service but it seems like that’s the plan. I guess it’ll boost corporate profits for another quarter which is as far ahead as anyone is planning.
I feel sorry for current contractors. It's baffling and unsettling how it's obvious to many that so many things at FedEx, and in our current state of affairs seem to be heading towards the iceberg. Yet those in command jettison the lifeboats, stay on the current course, and flank speed ahead!

As if they know it's going to fail, and they're just soaking it for all it's worth before it does fail.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
I mean, if service doesn’t matter, I can actually turn a pretty good profit. And when push comes to shove, they’ve made it undeniable what matters and what doesn’t.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
I feel sorry for current contractors. It's baffling and unsettling how it's obvious to many that so many things at FedEx, and in our current state of affairs seem to be heading towards the iceberg. Yet those in command jettison the lifeboats, stay on the current course, and flank speed ahead!

As if they know it's going to fail, and they're just soaking it for all it's worth before it does fail.
To it's credit Ground always made the most important fact crystal clear. It is not in the business of creating enterprise value for third party contractors. You would always be nothing more than both a reliable and controllable source of low cost trucking and labor.

The only thing that made the venture modestly attractive in recent years was the influx of contract flipping speculators buying up at inflated and sometimes wildly inflated prices contracts from people who in their opinion didn't know what they were doing.

They on the other hand had all the answers.....or so they thought.

So today you have this bunch of heavily leveraged contractors with routes in multiple terminals all over the country with trucks in terminals loaded end to end and floor to roof sitting there with nobody showing up and take them out on the road and willing do it for peanut and table scrap wages. This in turn has brought on the so called "contingency contractors". They're like locusts. They come in , take the gravy loads get paid huge rate premiums compared to what in house contractors get then like locusts they move on after they've gleaned off the easy stuff.

This practice is a huge drain on earnings. If Fat Freddy can't find a way to solve it whoever controls the most seats on the board of directors will find a way.....Just make sure you're not in their way when they do.
 

Aquaman

Well-Known Member
Among the people who used to work for D.E. Shaw.....Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and some guy I heard of once or twice before but I can't place where this guy fits in. Perhaps you could help me. The guy's name is.....I've got it here someplace....ah here it is....The guy's name is Jeff Bezos. I remember that name from somewhere.

A short time ago CNBC had a couple of analysists on the air who follow FDX. One spoke about the fact that FDX is only half as profitable relative to it's size compared to other carriers.

Now the other guy simplified the entire matter when he simply said that too many people saw too many ground and express trucks showing up too many times at too many places at the same time of the day. And naturally when too many big bats in the financial markets see nonsense like this going on they see unnecessary costs being incurred and have set out to eliminate those costs.....And what they're going to do and how far they're willing to go to eliminate what they see as unnecessary costs? Well, the question is how many of you are willing to hang around to see what they're going to do? Unfortunately, for contractors many of whom have every cent of money to their name tied up in trucks and routes there may very well be no pain free way out.
The Express/Ground merger may be all this company has left. UPS has proven its the more profitable model. I have no idea how they’d pull it off. But sacrificing the RLA exemption for ALL express drivers might be worth it. Odds are we aren’t organized enough to unionize anyway lol. Even if we did…. UPS has proven that a union can be survived. And they still make more profit than us. If I was a major shareholder I’d be fighting for a merge. This separation of the company can’t turn profit like UPS. It’s never going to. And that’s obviously the benchmark, as it should be.
 
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bacha29

Well-Known Member
The Express/Ground merger may be all this company has left. UPS has proven its the more profitable model. I have no idea how they’d pull it off. But sacrificing the RLA exemption for ALL express drivers might be worth it. Odds are we aren’t organized enough to unionize anyway lol. Even if we did…. UPS has proven that a union can be survived. And they still make more profit than us. If I was a major shareholder I’d be fighting for a merge. This separation of the company can’t turn profit like UPS. It’s never going to. And that’s obviously the benchmark, as it should be.
On the surface it looks like yesterday's new might mean something....Well, here are some numbers:

D.E Shaw is FDX's 35th largest shareholder. Holding 7.5% of the shares is the largest shareholder....Fat Freddy himself. In addition nobody seems to know for sure how many shares his holding company owns or if there are any old family trusts out there holding a stake.
So in reality the concessions made to Shaw seemingly are much more generous than they needed to be. Regardless however, everything still goes through Fat Freddy.
 

yadig

Well-Known Member
I’ve never seen anything like this in my 25+ years with the company. Who’s in charge? Does service matter anymore? I think this company needs a total overhaul. We’ve got to combine the two and get competitive with pay and productivity. We’re a divided company right now. Ground has been the competitor for us at express and that can’t be good. I don’t see a good future for the company until we see change. I’m talking bout BIG changes!
 

Nolimitz

Well-Known Member
I’ve never seen anything like this in my 25+ years with the company. Who’s in charge? Does service matter anymore? I think this company needs a total overhaul. We’ve got to combine the two and get competitive with pay and productivity. We’re a divided company right now. Ground has been the competitor for us at express and that can’t be good. I don’t see a good future for the company until we see change. I’m talking bout BIG changes!
And your basically blow smoke up your own Arse. implosion forthcoming. Only got 6 months left for me.... friend it all. let me load my truck and go and leave me alone. I dont want to talk to any managers unless I have too
 
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