How should company fix peak problems?

[Catatonic]

When will Fedex fess up?

UPS should have told Amazon the same thing and then we would not have near the backlog in our system.
Amazon squeezes UPS and FedEx harder than UPS does it's drivers.
UPS and FedEx should tell Amazon to go stuff it at some point and see how well those s look then.

 

[Future]

Your business acumen appears to be better than your BC acumen.
I am a retired UPSer after 40 years of service with a full beard (albeit a gray one).

Who cares? My acumen says you are a !

 

[bbsam]

UPS should have told Amazon the same thing and then we would not have near the backlog in our system.
Amazon squeezes UPS and FedEx harder than UPS does it's drivers.
UPS and FedEx should tell Amazon to go stuff it at some point and see how well those s look then.

I talked to our Managing Director about that six months ago. I asked why we only saw Amazon volume on Saturdays (when UPS doesn't deliver Ground) and why we couldn't get that volume six days a week. His reaction amazed me. It seems Amazon is really ruthless with their negotiating discounts and what they demand in return. I had thought we would bend over every possible way for them. Apparently not.

 

[Catatonic]

I do like messing with gullible, ignorant people so I guess some would call me an .

It's my way of having fun!

Merry Christmas.

 

[Catatonic]

I talked to our Managing Director about that six months ago. I asked why we only saw Amazon volume on Saturdays (when UPS doesn't deliver Ground) and why we couldn't get that volume six days a week. His reaction amazed me. It seems Amazon is really ruthless with their negotiating discounts and what they demand in return. I had thought we would bend over every possible way for them. Apparently not.

I didn't see half of it, if that much, but I have no love for Walmart or Amazon.
Both companies are unrealistic in their demands and threaten both companies daily and play UPS and FedEx off each other.
In this instance, I personally feel FedEx is smarter than UPS.
The only advantages UPS has over FedEx is technology and stop-density and so UPS can at least break even on Amazon while FedEx is probably losing money.

 

[Feeders101]

UPS should have told Amazon the same thing and then we would not have near the backlog in our system.
Amazon squeezes UPS and FedEx harder than UPS does it's drivers.
UPS and FedEx should tell Amazon to go stuff it at some point and see how well those s look then.

That would have been the best business decision. As it stands, our reputation is damaged and we have a lot of pissed off customers. Will it all blow over? We'll see....

 

[laffter]

Any proposals to fix these issues are hindered by our limited capacity. The building I work out of is less than 10 years old and we have already outgrown it. Short of parking rentals outside and extending rollers to load them there is little more that can be done.

We are already extending rollers to the center isles between where the trucks are parked, to load up rentals and package cars.

There is an empty building and parking lot next door to us. I heard UPS owns that building, and I foresee it being a site of a not-so-distant expansion.

 

[barnyard]

This might be a blessing in disguise. Maybe people won't order stuff on the 23rd and leave me a nasty note that they had to leave at 11am on the 24th and the package was supposed to be here.

I had 2 of those, plus a misaddressed package (avenue, should have been street) that I HAD to reattempt. So I did, my very last package, would have waited till after my break, but I had my helper. Whatever. Nastygram taped to their door that was certainly not written in the spirit of Christmas. It was nasty enough that I almost left a delivery notice that they had to sign for the package and we would reattempt on Thursday.

There was no one at home and I left it anyways. Sigh.

 

[SignificantOwner]

That would have been the best business decision. As it stands, our reputation is damaged and we have a lot of pissed off customers. Will it all blow over? We'll see....

Very few individuals probably really know the promises made to Amazon. I would hope that we told Amazon what to expect if/when we agreed to take unexpected additional volume. We may have performed as promised in Amazon's eyes. That would however be little consolation for many other shippers that have packages clogged in the system but didn't have a voice in the deal.

 

[Catatonic]

That's the shame there.
I don't know what we did but Amazon should have been last.

 

[Maple Grove MN Driver]

I had 2 of those, plus a misaddressed package (avenue, should have been street) that I HAD to reattempt. So I did, my very last package, would have waited till after my break, but I had my helper. Whatever. Nastygram taped to their door that was certainly not written in the spirit of Christmas. It was nasty enough that I almost left a delivery notice that they had to sign for the package and we would reattempt on Thursday.

There was no one at home and I left it anyways. Sigh.

I would not have delivered that package, unsafe DR at my discretion.

 

[bbsam]

That would have been the best business decision. As it stands, our reputation is damaged and we have a lot of pissed off customers. Will it all blow over? We'll see....

You can be sure Fedex sales is salivating at the opportunity to not let it blow over.

 

[pretender]

This might be a blessing in disguise. Maybe people won't order stuff on the 23rd and leave me a nasty note that they had to leave at 11am on the 24th and the package was supposed to be here.

Even though the "old" UPS may have handled the challenge better, and a lot of good ideas have been mentioned on this and other threads, the problem of facilities/equipment being maxed out still remains. However, I don't have any sympathy for people who wait until the 23rd to ship their package.

 

[Feeders101]

Very few individuals probably really know the promises made to Amazon. I would hope that we told Amazon what to expect if/when we agreed to take unexpected additional volume. We may have performed as promised in Amazon's eyes. That would however be little consolation for many other shippers that have packages clogged in the system but didn't have a voice in the deal.

I don't know what the numbers are on the Amazon contract. But I heard it was for 5 years. Coinciding with our Union contract. They are probably 30% of our volume 11 months of the year. It probably jumps up there during peak. I heard around 40 %. I heard that 5 year contract was worth almost a billion. But I'm just a dumb feeder driver, so those are just rumors.
I really don't mean to take my frustrations out on management, I know everyone did the best they could. I've never in my 25 years seen our network get overwhelmed like this. And I was thinking about our customers.
I hope we can all learn from this experience and have a better plan next peak. And we execute it in a more effective manner. We can do better than this. I know we can....
Merry Christmas!

 

[Feeders101]

That's the shame there.
I don't know what we did but Amazon should have been last.

I don't know about last. They are our biggest shipper.
I would think first in, first out. Process the volume as it come in.
But what do I know....

 

[ups1990]

How will ups try and save face with the general public regarding this Xmas fiasco?
By going on a perfect service company wide mandate!
Be ready to get even more scrutinized by your sups for scans, air, call tags, + - 15 min pick ups...........
Drivers who are already bloodied and bruised, will pay the price in the new year for UPS's black eye.

 

[Brownslave688]

The other problem I heard here was few ptimers wanted to move up into seasonal package. Few off the street would either.

What?!?!? I thought everyone wanted our job. Lol

 

[104Feeder]

UPS is failing its customers at Christmas, and has been for awhile. They want more and more done with less and less. A few years ago my old package route would peak with 200 stops and now its 300 to 330 stops. Most days I could get done by 1900 and might have a couple of days getting in at 2100. Now its out past 1900 everyday and work til 2200 and miss anything that you can't deliver. I moved to feeders two years ago, because the demands on package drivers is to unrealistic. The driver who bid my route is getting crushed and discouraged. I can't blame him, because it was getting bad when I moved to feeders and it just keeps getting worse.

How would you fix it?

 

[104Feeder]

In the past we used to train a Christmas driver to run the business portion of your route in mid-November while you took on extra resi. My best was 416 stops all resi which apparently was a Center record although I did not know it at the time. Now that same route goes out with 150%+ of my old workload on a daily basis. I don't know how you ask the Package drivers to give a little more when they are getting overloaded the rest of the year.

We used to run fatter and absorbed the Peak crush better before we went Public. We certainly were a profitable and productive company prior to that change.

 

[MC4YOU2]

Well, I guess GOD is a top dog. I'll let you take that up with him/her.

Amazon is another top dog, Jeff Bezos is awaiting your input.

A lack of planning on the customers' part, does not constitute an emergency on UPS's part.

True, but if we pick up the customers package, we accept the responsibility Tti deliver it on time. Just like any other day of the year, except without sufficient staffing.