Who is running the show down in Atlanta?

[dannyboy]

"Norman Black, a spokesman for UPS, said the two sides have held informal discussions since the June recess. He said the union and the company have agreed on most of the terms of a new contract, and said that the company has not yet made its best and final offers on the outstanding issues........

Eight years ago, a strike by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters cost UPS approximately $750 million in lost revenue. The Teamsters strike was the first and only strike the company has experienced, Black said. "

This was a news release about out pilots and the company in talks.

Must not have been with UPS very long there Norman. Forget about that little blurb back in 76 that lasted 3 months or so?

GEEZ, you would think they would get things right once in a while.

Do your research before making public anouncements.

d

 

[susiedriver]

Actually, It WAS the only NATIONWIDE strike.
1976 wasn't everywhere.

 

[ups79]

97 wasn't everywhere also.

 

[dannyboy]

Susie

REad it again, it sais the first and only strike. Says nothing about a partial or nationwide or even world wide strike.

Of course in his mind, he didnt tell a lie, but the statement, preceeded by a remark stating that if the pilots go on strike, customers should be ready by diverting packages to Fdx, was very misleading.

The type of misleading that goes on many times when talking with upper management. Maybe not an out right lie, but not truthful none the less.

d

 

[aviationwiz]

Let's not forget that short (1 or 2 day) strike in Canada last year either... that totally never happened. :rolls eyes:

 

[johnny]

Wasn't there also a one or two day strike over the weight change to 150 lbs?

 

[quebec_driver]

there was a 2 week strike in Canada in 91

 

[speeddemon]

Im striking right now..........untill 9am tomorrow.

 

[wkmac]

dannyboy,
I understand what you are saying in your original post but let me ask you this. Would it make good business sense to tell the customer all our dirty laundry? Would you expect Norman Black or anyone else to come out publically and tell the customer, "hey, we do screw up packages from time to time." "Some of our drivers have been known to cop an attitude and instead of getting you your package they get lazy and bring it back." Or "we have sorters who take tube packages and smalls packages and have baseball batting practice!" Where would you have ole' Norm stop? You are absolutely correct that the whole truth about our strike history wasn't told but in running a business is that the smart thing to do?

Are you married and do you always tell your wife she looks like an angel in that new dress when in fact you don't like it at all? If you are married and have learned that most valuable lesson, just like ole Norm you lie your teeth out to keep the peace! Read the back of your International Brotherhood of Husbands union card for that rule!

I agree you are exactly right but what UPS is doing they have always done and it's absolutely no different than any other company or our own gov't for that fact. Besides, do you really want Norm and Atlanta to tell all the truth and scare away the customer so you and I don't have any pacakges to sort and deliver?

 

[dannyboy]

Your point is well taken.

But what divides the great companies from the failures is not that they never screw up, but how they handle the problem deliveries.

At one time we were allowed to take care of a customer like they were your grandmother. Now it is strictly business. And heaven forbid you spend the time to fix a UPS problem for a customer. Where would you assign that time anyway. it used to go under customer marketing, but now I guess it comes out of your lunch.

Telling people the truth is the best way to go. And if we do make a mistake, make sure the customer knows we care and will do our best to make it right. But dont sit there and tell them we dont ever screw up.

d

 

[wkmac]

<font color="ff0000">At one time we were allowed to take care of a customer like they were your grandmother. Now it is strictly business. And heaven forbid you spend the time to fix a UPS problem for a customer. Where would you assign that time anyway. it used to go under customer marketing, but now I guess it comes out of your lunch.
</font>

Man I hear ya on that! We can't really tell them the truth because we don't have the relationship we once had. For that matter business is no longer about relationships. Business is like going to a whore house, just get it and go!

 

[speeddemon]

I DO take care of my customer. I dont care what the OR says. The account execs sure as hell are doing thier job anymore. So someones got to do it.

 

[dannyboy]

Bottom line is this. We can not get new business on price. The other guys have us beat on that. Faster service? No, not really. Over all, FEDX ground is hard to beat, and the postal service aty times gives reliably faster service than we do. PAckage arive in better shape. Nope. We dont go on strike, so their service will not be interupted? UM lemme think on that one. OR then again, maybe they have this thing about the color brown?


So why do most customers stay with us long term. It is relationships with the drivers. That little two or three seconds that it takes to brighten someones day with a smile, a thankyou and maybe even a quick joke. After all, how do you think Morelock got so many.

UPS has made a mint on the relationship between the driver and the customer. And that is great. But to let the relationship fall by the wayside to improve SPORh or the bottom line for delivery a few seconds? All for the job security of a pencil pushing job justifying number cruncher, IMHO it is a disaster waiting to happen.

While other companies have drivers that are interested in growing the business, there are not that work harder than ours. But with some of the new breed drivers coming on board, I think we will see changes in the future. Drivers that could care less about anything else but getting in early every day at any cost. Drivers that will DR a stop at a business instead of walking to the front to get the signature. Drivers that place the public at risk with the driving they seem to think they need to do to get done early.

That is what has me worried, along with some of the retarded policy coming from atlanta.

d

 

[ironylife]

ups drivers care about growing their share of the business more than any of the competition...period. We are not given the time or tools to grow our company...period. Drivers relate growing business with more stops and pickups that they absolutely have no time for. I have had drivers tell me that they have customers that ship most or all of their volume with others and that if they would ask for ALL of that businesses volume, ups would be able to get it...but they have no time for it. That is absolutely crazy. Heres volume, that could be so easily won, but management wont put another driver on or run another car....so stupid.
Its like danny said, a few extra seconds mean alot to many shippers, but ups wont allow it.Its not hard to understand why drivers who work 12 hour days in 100 degree weather who dont even get a lunch would not want to get extra volume. Heres something ups could do, work everybody 9.5 hours, have everyone get a 30 min lunch and their breaks, and give them time in the day to recruit new volume. I bet that we could grow the volume double digits...AND MAKE A VERY HEALTHY PROFIT. But that wouldnt work because ups would find something else to bitch about. THE SAD THING ABOUT THIS COMPANY IS THAT EVEN IF IT WAS NOT UNION THINGS WOULD BE THE EXACT SAME....PROBABLY WORSE.

 

[trickpony1]

Ironylife,
There are 5-6 feeder jobs at my hub whose job partially consists of making pick-ups that are clearly too large/heavy/volumious to fit into a package car. These packages are palletized and usually wrapped in shrink wrap. Perhaps in different hubs, package and feeder don't, or won't, work together to service the customer. Perhaps if pkg drivers would approach the center manager in large numbers in an appeal to generate more volume (which translates into dollars)then more feeder runs might be created or incorporated to make local pickups. It's a win-win situation.

I agree with your last statement. Without the union management would be absolutely out of control.

 

[ironylife]

the problem with this company is that most all of the managers and supervisors are people who have clawed their way up the ranks....and they all have the same bulls@#% ups old school mentality. They have no business degrees and most have no idea how to work with other people. They have never worked at other large companies to see that employee relations are important, and being proactive with your labor can reap excellent results for both mgt and rank and file. most mgt is like this and blamming their attitude on the union is a cop-out. employee relations at ups are a joke.

 

[ironylife]

trick....they push and push. Everybody knows that this is a production type company, and that if we dont make money there is no ups and most drivers, hub agree with this statement, but ups takes it above and beyond overboard. All im saying is that volume is there for ups, but mgt does make it sometimes hard to grow the busines. I also think that many dont know the actual amount that ups does have and the reach and scope that ups has on this industry, and other businessesin this world.

 

[ironylife]

danny, do you think that ups would go out of business if we meet or beat fedex or dhl prices....I dont think so.we beat their prices on many accounts....I know there is a formula that ups uses on pricing, and they have so many tier pricing formulas for different customers. It just isnt true.

 

[dannyboy]

-*I dindt say that UPS couldnt, I said they wouldnt. We are not going into get new business away from them on pricing. Ask your Customer account specialist. He will tell you the same thing.

Take for instance. AFG is a very large glass maker here and abroad. They ship thousands of overnight letters each month, and probably that many packages too, and a lot of them are international. We had a small percentage of the pie. Now maybe 1-3 letters a day.

There was one of the plants in Mexico where Fedex didnt deliver. We were going to get the whole account because of that one stop.

Fedex not only went in and told them they would service that area of Mexico, but gave them a flat price on the international letters.

Bottom line is that "they can ship a next day air to that plant in Mexico cheaper than we could send a one pound package there ground." That quote was from the district sales manager, who got involved in the negotiations.

So sorry, when it comes to pricing, other companies can cut our prices way below what we can do it for, and UPS is not going to take packages and lose money on them. I am not saying they are making money by undercuting our prices, but some of them dont need to make any money.

As far as tiers of pricing goes, yes I know there are at least 10 and maybe more tiers. It all depends on how much and what kind of shipping you do as to what kind of price breaks you get from us. In our building alone there are at least 5 different pricing tiers that I know of.

d

 

[ironylife]

d, Im not disagreeing with you...k. I just think ups gets too selective when it comes to business. As you probably know, sometimes what happens is that fedex takes an account and looses money on them for awhile, sure thats a gamble. Then they start asking for other business from that shipper...ie, other plants, or buildings in other states, other branches worldwide....etc. Now they have the whole companies business, worldwide, and are making good profits. This is what we need to start doing, not thinking of the small picture, but the whole pie....which I think is ironic since ups likes to look into the future 5-10 years ahead on other matters.I have been told that we can usually meet or beat fedex prices, depending on the customer. I also think we need to start servicing our small to medium customer base better...they have fallen to the wayside.