To the idiot.....

[Catatonic]

And you're confident that the BOD has the capability to find someone who is brave and forward looking?
When a company like UPS can't find someone from within their ranks who knows this company from the ground up........... well, that sounds like a recipe for it's own demise.

I'm not confident of UPS and it's future in many areas.

"Brave and forward looking" was a need expressed by 25Plus in post 23. I simply pointed out that UPS culture does not allow or support someone of that nature to rise up through the ranks. If you want that, it has to come from outside the rank and file.

 

[rod]

The bulk of the issues seem to be centered in the DFW and NW areas of the country.

We attempted delivery on everything that came in to our center. As to whether there were packages that were supposed to be here that weren't is out of our control but there has been little to no reaction on local social media to our service issues elsewhere.

The "failure" is certainly not nation-wide.

The failure wasn't nation -wide but the publicity sure is. All 4 news shows I watched this morning (3 national and one local) had a segment on how UPS had dropped the ball this year. Bad publicity hurts--period. Targets credit snafu (even though security leaks are a bigger problem than just Target) is another example of how bad press will hurt a company. I'm sure UPS will make billions of dollars this peak even though they DID screw up. But I also bet if they have these big of problems a few years in a row people will go back to buying more stuff locally and say to hell with ordering everything off the internet (especially now that internet companies are being made to collect sales taxes) . I've always said the majority of people don't care who delivers their stuff --- as long as it is delivered on time and in good shape.

 

[ORLY!?!]

I blame corporate, that is all.

 

[bluehdmc]

Did companies like Amazon and the other internet retailers that were sending emails, "free overnite shipping" really care if you got the item on time?

They had your money, you got to kick back in your easy chair, have a cocktail and avoid the crowds, parking, etc. at the malls. You were sure you had that last minute X-box game for little Billy.
And if little Billy's present wasn't there Amazon, et al could blame UPS or FedEx.

Bezos doesn't care, he's gonna build another gigantic distribution center stocked with barely above minimum wage workers and/or robots and put a few more brick and mortar stores out of business.

The Postal Service back when it was called the "Postal Service" used to issue mailing guidelines before Christmas. Now our instant gratification, gotta have it yesterday society rushes out for "free overnite shipping".

Somethings gotta give!

What's UPS supposed to do, have a mothball fleet of package cars, feeder tractors and trailers that sit for 11 months?
That takes a large capital investment, say they do it before 2014, it works then, they repeat for 2015, then the economy goes in the red again. All that capital tied up, and no return on investment.

Maybe someone should have spoken up to Amazon, et al and said there may be service failures.

(Maybe they did around the conference table and they all agreed "Who Cares, We'll have their money.")

 

[Catatonic]

Did companies like Amazon and the other internet retailers that were sending emails, "free overnite shipping" really care if you got the item on time?

They had your money, you got to kick back in your easy chair, have a cocktail and avoid the crowds, parking, etc. at the malls. You were sure you had that last minute X-box game for little Billy.
And if little Billy's present wasn't there Amazon, et al could blame UPS or FedEx.

Bezos doesn't care, he's gonna build another gigantic distribution center stocked with barely above minimum wage workers and/or robots and put a few more brick and mortar stores out of business.

The Postal Service back when it was called the "Postal Service" used to issue mailing guidelines before Christmas. Now our instant gratification, gotta have it yesterday society rushes out for "free overnite shipping".

Somethings gotta give!

What's UPS supposed to do, have a mothball fleet of package cars, feeder tractors and trailers that sit for 11 months?
That takes a large capital investment, say they do it before 2014, it works then, they repeat for 2015, then the economy goes in the red again. All that capital tied up, and no return on investment.

Maybe someone should have spoken up to Amazon, et al and said there may be service failures.

(Maybe they did around the conference table and they all agreed "Who Cares, We'll have their money.")

A voice of reason amongst the screaming me-mes!

 

[40andOut]

What's UPS supposed to do, have a mothball fleet of package cars, feeder tractors and trailers that sit for 11 months?
That takes a large capital investment, say they do it before 2014, it works then, they repeat for 2015, then the economy goes in the red again. All that capital tied up, and no return on investment.

Maybe someone should have spoken up to Amazon, et al and said there may be service failures.

(Maybe they did around the conference table and they all agreed "Who Cares, We'll have their money.")

Except that all of us within the company know that UPS has not been under-staffed in package for some time now (please if you disagree do speak-up!); Cobbling together temp drivers and helpers and whenever we can, along with an ever-increasing forced paid day. If the size of our fleet of package cars, personnel etc. for the normal part of the year matched the growth we have experienced in volume. we would have been far better prepared to handle the spike at Christmas. You can only stretch a rubber band so far before it breaks. But I guess we are no longer a company that looks at the long term to make decisions. Whats this quarter look like...huge profits but millions of service failures...OK, so the plan was a huge success!

 

[upscat]

The bulk of the issues seem to be centered in the DFW and NW areas of the country.

We attempted delivery on everything that came in to our center. As to whether there were packages that were supposed to be here that weren't is out of our control but there has been little to no reaction on local social media to our service issues elsewhere.

The "failure" is certainly not nation-wide.

Your response a bit naive. Nationally we sat on a lot of packages. They are coming your way.

 

[kingOFchester]

Your response a bit naive. Nationally we sat on a lot of packages. They are coming your way.

Louisville sat on a million plus packages. Those packages were sorted and sent out 25th/26th. One major hub sat for another day, and will be going out today. A hub that was not affected by storms and was clean on the 24th.

When we get those airs, that are days late, we will still be instructed to deliver on time by 10:30, even though they are already late.

 

[BMWMC]

Look folks the system didn't fail. It got blew out. It wasn't just UPS that got walloped by the increase volume it was FDX and USPS too. In one sense I think we all are victims of our own success. Millions of people actually think the can all stand on a bridge at the same time and still have it hold 5x more weight than its rated for. At some point even a tall glass runs out of room for water and spills over. Man, the real world can sux sometimes, ay?

 

[kingOFchester]

Look folks the system didn't fail. It got blew out. It wasn't just UPS that got walloped by the increase volume it was FDX and USPS too. In one sense I think we all are victims of our own success. Millions of people actually think the can all stand on a bridge at the same time and still have it hold 5x more weight than its rated for. At some point even a tall glass runs out of room for water and spills over. Man, the real world can sux sometimes, ay?

Agree,

However, you let a blind man poor the glass of water, sit there and watch him poor until it spills over and then yell at him and say "don't you know at some point the glass is full and ran out of room", who is at fault?

 

[kingOFchester]

Here is a better o

Millions of people actually think the can all stand on a bridge at the same time and still have it hold 5x more weight than its rated for.

Ok, lets go with the bridge. I build a bridge going over the Grand Canyon. As the builder I know it is rated to carry the weight of 2000 people. Opening day, there are 10's of thousands of people wanting to get on the bridge. I charge buck a person and allow them to all go on the bridge. Bridge fails and falls. Can I just shrug my shoulders and say "did all those people really think the bridge would hold them all?" Those people did not know the weight limits. They paid the fee and assumed that I would not allow more people then what it was rated to hold to get on the bridge.

 

[Maple Grove MN Driver]

Previous post is comparing apples to camels

 

[Catatonic]

Here is a better o


Ok, lets go with the bridge. I build a bridge going over the Grand Canyon. As the builder I know it is rated to carry the weight of 2000 people. Opening day, there are 10's of thousands of people wanting to get on the bridge. I charge buck a person and allow them to all go on the bridge. Bridge fails and falls. Can I just shrug my shoulders and say "did all those people really think the bridge would hold them all?" Those people did not know the weight limits. They paid the fee and assumed that I would not allow more people then what it was rated to hold to get on the bridge.

There have been dozens of posts on here saying that UPS needs to tell the shippers that capacity is being reached and refuse to accept anymore trailers from the big shippers that exceeded the agreed upon limit for their daily limit.
It seems this is what you are suggesting.

 

[kingOFchester]

Previous post is comparing apples to camels

How were the consumers suppose to know the system was over loaded?
They went to a website.
Website said product would be at their door by Christmas.
Product does not make it.
People blame the consumer for purchasing something that was sold under the statement "delivery by Christmas".

Can't blame the consumer.

 

[Maple Grove MN Driver]

Blame Amazon not UPS

 

[kingOFchester]

There have been dozens of posts on here saying that UPS needs to tell the shippers that capacity is being reached and refuse to accept anymore trailers from the big shippers that exceeded the agreed upon limit for their daily limit.
It seems this is what you are suggesting.

Yes, UPS should know their capacity, with in reason.
UPS should of communicated the information.

I think it is silly to blame the consumer.

 

[kingOFchester]

Blame Amazon not UPS

So Amazon was told by UPS that we were not going to be able to deliver on their promise?

And if so, then UPS should of seen that Amazon was still promising the impossible and made a public statement that even tho Amazon was promising delivery by Christmas, UPS is at or above capacity. Doing so would of made UPS look bad, but not as bad as they look now.

I assume that Amazon and UPS were communicating. UPS made a financial decision to just let it ride.

Funny, Amazon released back in October that they were hiring many more seasonls this year then they did last year. They were able to have product, pull purchased product, package product and have it ready for shipment.

 

[Squint]

There have been dozens of posts on here saying that UPS needs to tell the shippers that capacity is being reached and refuse to accept anymore trailers from the big shippers that exceeded the agreed upon limit for their daily limit.
It seems this is what you are suggesting.

FedEx and USPS actually turned down some of these (Amazon) large retailers knowing full well their systems wouldn't be able to handle the volume. UPS will never turn down a package.

 

[Maple Grove MN Driver]

Amazon should not have been guaranteeing anything on the 23rd.

They knew it would never happen.

Amazon is at fault not UPS.

 

[Catatonic]

FedEx and USPS actually turned down some of these (Amazon) large retailers knowing full well their systems wouldn't be able to handle the volume. UPS will never turn down a package.

Hopefully UPS learned their lesson this time.