So How’s Peak Going, So Far?

[It will be fine]

Do you see how these two statements possibly are linked in a way that is not great for FedEx?

The infrastructure held up because volume was way, way down. We have a guy in our building who tracks the numbers religiously every day year over year. At the last peak planning meeting with the engineer and MD (both of whom were fretting about whether we we’re ready) everyone basically ignored them and looked to J to get his insight. His numbers held up throughout peak. He consistently said we’d be down 15 to 20% and he was exactly right. Easiest peak ever.

That easy peak bailed out the company. The uncertainty in the contractor ranks continues and further cutting those rates in order to pander to investors will bring another example of how broken it is.

The one thing they might have going for them is continued weak demand. Between a slowing economy and shippers fleeing, they would be foolish to think everything simply turned out fine.

None of that even begins to touch how much they paid out and are paying out in contingencies.

Last week I was down 26% in stop count from the same week last year. Dano thinks that’s a sign of strength in the network. My complete lack of hiring for peak and ability to handle the volume is a good thing in his mind. Whistling past the graveyard comes to mind.

 

[vantexan]

Last week I was down 26% in stop count from the same week last year. Dano thinks that’s a sign of strength in the network. My complete lack of hiring for peak and ability to handle the volume is a good thing in his mind. Whistling past the graveyard comes to mind.

Amazon?

 

[It will be fine]

Amazon?

What about it? We didn’t have their volume last year either. Walmart volume is down for sure. I don’t think our customers are losing that much business to Amazon, but it’s possible. I think FedEx did a bad job all year and shippers found other carriers for their volume on top of weak demand overall.

 

[Thebrownblob]

What about it? We didn’t have their volume last year either. Walmart volume is down for sure. I don’t think our customers are losing that much business to Amazon, but it’s possible. I think FedEx did a bad job all year and shippers found other carriers for their volume on top of weak demand overall.

Amazon is atrocious now, the whole point of prime was to get your goods shipped second day for free now it takes however long they want and I’ve had a package that was supposed to be delivered three days in a row not get delivered.

 

[Serf]

I got slammed this past Wednesday and the Wednesday after “loser cyber Monday.” Other than that I’ve been pretty consistent. I hope things continue to erode at express.

 

[It will be fine]

Amazon is atrocious now, the whole point of prime was to get your goods shipped second day for free now it takes however long they want and I’ve had a package that was supposed to be delivered three days in a row not get delivered.

Ya, they moved the entire industry when they pushed the 2 day prime idea. Then after they got enough lazy subscribers they said it, you’ll get it when you get it.

 

[Thebrownblob]

Ya, they moved the entire industry when they pushed the 2 day prime idea. Then after they got enough lazy subscribers they said it, you’ll get it when you get it.

Lol this is the third day they’ve said this and it gets rescheduled for the next day

 

[UncleRico]

all of their amazon Flex guys called in so theres nobody to deliver it i guess

 

[MassWineGuy]

Most of our a.m. drivers have been slammed for days. This prevents my day route drivers from helping me with any excessive Response volume, which means I roll freight into their next morning load. It’s a wonderful life.

 

[Fred's Myth]

Some things never change. Once again FedEx takes on too much freight expecting couriers to bail them out. Perhaps sales and engineering should be required to go out on the road for a couple of weeks during peak and help out with the mess they’ve created.

Didn’t you ever have Sales help on the sort when you were still working? Always made things harder, the harder they tried.

Can’t imagine how effed up it would be if they went on road!

 

[whenIgetthere]

Most of our a.m. drivers have been slammed for days. This prevents my day route drivers from helping me with any excessive Response volume, which means I roll freight into their next morning load. It’s a wonderful life.

I am sure that is because there isn't a whole lot of industry in your area, retail, yes, industry, no. Same thing happened in the city of 90,000 I worked in. Easy to deal with all year, week before Christmas would explode because we had very little industry, plenty of retail, but Ground delivers most of that now.

 

[fatboy33]

We were told not to come in today. first time ever not having work on Christmas eve.

 

[MassWineGuy]

Two flights that couldn’t take off from Memphis the other day didn’t arrive today, either. Very light stop count. Tuesday should be interesting, though.

 

[Cactus]

Didn’t you ever have Sales help on the sort when you were still working? Always made things harder, the harder they tried.

Yeah, they’d come by and walk the sort trying to look important. Oh yeah, then they’d go get coffee.

 

[McFeely]

Xmas Eve: I did 10 stops and then went to the bar. Manifest showed 50+ stops. Gotta laugh at the poor fools who wait until the last minute only to be hosed by cancelled flights

 

[DriveInDriveOut]

Xmas Eve: I did 10 stops and then went to the bar. Manifest showed 50+ stops. Gotta laugh at the poor fools who wait until the last minute only to be hosed by cancelled flights

I had something shipped fedex 2 day on the 21st. Got delivered today.

 

[Guitarman01]

Amazon is atrocious now, the whole point of prime was to get your goods shipped second day for free now it takes however long they want and I’ve had a package that was supposed to be delivered three days in a row not get delivered.

Probably all depends where you live, Amazon and UPS fly right into my city and have pretty accurate service. Fedex has to shuttle their freight which leads to more spontaneous service at times. I wouldn't want to be a postman tho with those Amazon accounts. I have no idea how they fit all that crap in their tiny trucks.

 

[cosis]

Those tiny trucks actually fit a lot. But I could only fit half my route this year and dropped the rest go a helper. Of course it would have been nice to have a truck with heat today.

 

[MassWineGuy]

I had something shipped fedex 2 day on the 21st. Got delivered today.

Seriously, that’s extremely good this time of year.

 

[59 Dano]

Do you see how these two statements possibly are linked in a way that is not great for FedEx?

The infrastructure held up because volume was way, way down. We have a guy in our building who tracks the numbers religiously every day year over year. At the last peak planning meeting with the engineer and MD (both of whom were fretting about whether we we’re ready) everyone basically ignored them and looked to J to get his insight. His numbers held up throughout peak. He consistently said we’d be down 15 to 20% and he was exactly right. Easiest peak ever.

FedEx was predicting a lighter peak as Boy Wonder was feeding you his nonsense about the infrastructure being on the brink of collapse. It wasn't a surprise.