Thanks @oldfart that unprovoked personal attack really added to the discussion.
My point is after it gets to the town what difference does it make if it goes to an express sprinter van to be delivered or one of my step vans. There is no difference. It makes sense for Express to handle the air aspect, the pickups, the sort, the loading etc. I'm not convinced there's anything special with the last mile delivery that couldn't be contracted out.
It's the same old thing from Old Fart and Fred's Myth. They call the rest of us stupid and uninformed but their complete lack of intelligent discourse reduces them to personal attacks as well as continuing to cling desperately to their belief that Express is and always will be in a market so specialized that it will never have to adapt to a changing economic landscape or do battle with a formidable new competitor who can do anything they can do and do it a lower cost. Every scenario brought up during this discussion has merit. The only difference is timeline and cost As present and sidelined contractors who have seen a generation of continuous change that required us to hoard up huge hairballs of money in response to those changes being prepared for a dramatic and completely unforeseen turn of events is the clear distinction between a contractor and simple wage earners like friend&friend . These are two people who can function provided that change is subtle evolves slowly and have pay checks that are consistent reliable and increase steadily. You and I both know how long those two would last if they were to suddenly find themselves in the challenging world of route contracting where your only salvation is to be prepared for anything and I mean anything as you do doubt know from your own first hand experience.
Um, Express couriers get front row seats to watch what Express management goes through every day. Most of us have no desire to do that nor are we looking to become Ground drivers if the world took a huge change for the worst. Ground could deliver Express packages if they hired on a huge amount of people but where would those people come from? The name of the game with Express is overnight delivery so you'd still have to have a huge apparatus in place to get packages to destinations too far for Ground to truck. At best FedEx might come up with some hybrid system but to say that Ground can do anything Express can do is a bit ludicrous don't you think?
No I wasn't talking about Ground in particular. What I was referring was a new entrant into that segment of the market While it is a capital intensive, labor intensive, regulatory intensive business and the backers of a new entrant would have to wait at least a decade for the the returns to arrive there is nothing to stop them from trying if they are able and willing to accept the start up losses that most likely would be enormous. What happened to DHL is that they lost 600 million over a two year span did have the capital sources to ride it out But a better capitalized undertaking might make it.,The Fedex air fleet isn't going anywhere. It's what takes place on the ground in the years ahead is what will be subject to review and debate.At the same time however given that Trump has clearly over promised and appears likely to badly under deliver any plans for industry deregulation will likely be scrapped by the time his presidency has reached it's conclusion.
You're right, there is no difference if you just look at the physical aspect of picking up and dropping off. The difference that looms over FedEx is the regulatory and law. FedEx needs the control that they can wield over employees. They aren't sure they can wield that kind of power over contractors.
Under current FAA rules any pkg that will be placed on an aircraft will be handled exclusively by regular employees of that company, not by employees of a sub-contractor. That's why it's important to Fred to keep Express under the RLA. If Trump does come through with deregulation I'm sure FedEx will be lobbying to allow sub-contractors' employees, properly vetted, to handle all aspects of pick-up and delivery. Express could then just be the aircraft, the pilots, the ramp employees. Otherwise you might see regular Express employees doing pickups and Ground doing deliveries. Express employees might be doing all pickups including Ground's just to reduce the confusion and hassle customers experience. And it would probably involve having both services work out of the same location to further reduce costs and expedite sorting. But until FedEx is confident it can avoid unionization through deregulation don't bet on any major overhauls.
If there were to be industry deregulation legislation introduced and while it might get out of committee I doubt that Congress would get around to a vote before the midterm election But if the GOP were to lose it's majority then you might see a lot of this and similar legislation be voted on and most likely passed during a lame duck session.
The fact that you don't know the difference between ignorance and stupidity identifies which group you belong to.
It would appear that a taste of your own medicine is to your disliking. Well paly I'm pleased to inform you that there is plenty more where that can from because it is simply your own personal attacks coming right back at you. Now if you want to get into the conversation regarding what form the industry will take in the future what markets it will serve and how it serve them it will be appreciated but if you want to continue to live in the 1980's and think along those lines spewing out an endless barrage of personal attacks and nothing more they will continue to be responded to in kind.
Fella, you have called me every name in the book. Take your own advice when it comes to personal attacks.
You're the one who started it, purely for the purpose of entertaining yourself never expecting it to responded to in kind.
Give it your best shot. Your insecurities show every time you post 1 of your stat filled arguments. You throw out stats and legal terms with most post and yet your knowledge is very limited. That is very obvious when you state an opinion and not just cut and paste what you read somewhere.
Ground only exists in the US and Canada. So maybe they'll try it up there first.
Perhaps, but we seem to be building a lot of new stations up here and just invested in a brand new fleet of trucks just for ground to take over.
Good point about Fred. I could see 10 years from now with Fred retired, organic growth slowed and a new CEO trying to keep increasing profits they might try a scheme like this.
