Category: Industry News

US defends FedEx in dispute over pilot quarantines

UPS pilots disembarking for rest in Hong Kong report they are being forced to wait in government facilities for COVID-19 test results rather than proceed to their hotel, a situation that could escalate tensions with the U.S. over restrictive COVID-19 health measures on aircrews arriving in the semiautonomous city.

The U.S. Department of Transportation earlier this week retaliated against Hong Kong’s aggressive quarantine measures for pilots that are impacting cargo flights by FedEx Express (NYSE: FDX), but give a pass to certain flights by local carrier Cathay Pacific.

“Crews laying over in Hong Kong are now subject to new rules requiring that crewmembers tested for COVID-19 upon arrival must wait for test results prior to being allowed to proceed to the crew hotel,” the union representing UPS (NYSE: UPS) pilots said in a communication to members obtained by American Shipper.

The measure is seen clearing a cloud hanging over unionized trucking companies and others in multiemployer plans

Unionized trucking companies could get a lift from a provision of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package that throws a fiscal lifeline to struggling multiemployer pension plans.

Analysts say the measure President Biden signed into law this month should help clear a cloud that investors see hanging over truckers ArcBest Corp. and Yellow Corp. The unionized carriers are the top two active employers in the largest of the plans likely eligible for relief, the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund, which is projected to become insolvent in 2025.

“There was always the lingering risk that if there was severe risk of underfunding you’d have to pay extra into the Central States,” said Citigroup Inc. transportation analyst Christian Wetherbee.

The support also could benefit delivery giant United Parcel Service Inc., which withdrew from the fund in 2007 but as of the end of last year potentially retained some liability if Central States became insolvent, according to securities filings.

At UPS Inc., a project aimed at cutting one day from transit times for all its U.S. ground parcel deliveries has been dubbed “Our Fastest Ground Ever.” It is indeed an ambitious endeavor to merge UPS’ network infrastructure and technology to shrink the time between pickup and delivery of 15 million or so daily shipments.

The program, which kicked in solidly late last year, has made good progress. Today, 90% of UPS’ ground-parcel shipments move in one- to three-day transit times. More than half of the improvements under the initiative have come from shrinking two- to four-day transit times to one to three days. To speed deliveries, UPS has diverted millions of parcels from the railroads — it is a huge intermodal customer — to two-person, over-the-road sleeper teams.

But there’s a hole in Big Brown’s delivery net: Its weekend operations lag behind those of arch-rival FedEx Corp. which possesses an internally controlled seven-day-a-week delivery network. Until UPS can raise its weekend game to match its rival, it may not gain the traction it needs in the time-in-transit battle that will likely determine supremacy in e-commerce delivery.

FedEx said on Monday that it will cut up to 6,300 jobs in Europe as the final step of integrating acquisition target TNT Express into the transport giant’s global delivery network.

The company bought TNT Express in 2016 for $4.4 billion, beating out rival United Parcel Service for its European operations. The deal has failed to live up to expectations, with FedEx twice replacing the executive leading the integration efforts and the company taking multiple charges due to weak European sales.

A local delivery driver has gone viral in a TikTok dance video featuring essential workers.

The TikTok features 23-year-old Jamie Hernandez, a South High School graduate. Hernandez works as a delivery driver for UPS in Bakersfield.

The video shows four delivery drivers from different companies doing a choreographed dance. The TikTok was posted on Tuesday, Jan. 12 by Abiud Sando, a FedEx delivery driver from Washington, and has now surpassed more than 3 million views. The video has been shared by Complex and US Weekly and now has been seen more than 10 million times.

Hernandez said Sando created the dance and people requested he dance with other delivery drivers, so they made it happen.