New branding!

[Exec32]

This industry as a whole for a variety or reasons is experiencing high turnover. The days of the same guy running the same route at the same time of the day are over. The problem with X jocks is that they believe for reasons I can't understand believe that they are irreplaceable . Everybody's replaceable and they're constant grabbing for straws in an attempt to reinforce their belief that they are irreplaceable and is proof positive that they are worried or at least having trouble coming to terms with the fact that their jobs are nowhere near as secure as they have long believed. As for Exec32's one man rage against the machine and the unbalanced contract terms it still comes down to the same indisputable fact. Thirty TWO. YOU SIGNED THE DAMN THING !. You have 2 choices going forward. Either sell to somebody or get ready in a hurry for higher demands, higher precision and productivity requirements , higher reporting requirements all in the face of heavy downward pressure on settlements. Twenty three years of it taught me two things. CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT AND NOTHING IS TRULY BINDING.

I agree completely. I don't mind doing what I do now under the terms I choose to adhere to. One problem though I hope I can sell, but X continues to deplete the market of buyers by the constant changes scaring away any real buyers. I did exactly as you mentioned previously, not over leveraged, Dept at a minimum. Just here pointing out the obvious.

 

[Exec32]

Purple and Orange lives matter?

And,,,,GREEN?

 

[TUT]

Another shade of this possibly happening is in the past couple years both ground and express for the first time can share the same barcode and tracking # range on labels. Looks like Fedex is playing the looooong game. It's hard to really tell exactly, because any of these things discussed can be looked at as general efficiency steps and the big one where everyone is one could not even be in the works. Regulatory is probably the single biggest factor on deciding the big one.

 

[59 Dano]

The express side requires too much control for the contractor model to work. Ground maybe the cash cow but Express is the face of the company. Always has and always will be. Even if it could be done legally and logistically, they won't. Turn Express over to the contractors and watch the whole company burn to the ground.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for being the first to state the obvious and I'm not being sarcastic. Air ops has a tremendous over head and a fairly lean margin. There is no way in hell that it can be profitable with hundreds of contractors and thousands of contractors' employees. Express needs direct involvement and control of every aspect and every person that is part of that operation.

Airborne Express tried it and started tanking once it began offering 1030 commit times. DHL bought them and transitioned many locations into contracted operations, and they failed in spectacular fashion. Ain't no way the Express side can afford to transitioned to a contractor model.

 

[59 Dano]

That could be what they are doing, but thats just to ridiculously simple.

Also where is Dano?

I'm flying the black helicopter and making a fortune --A FORTUNE, I TELL YOU-- selling foil.

 

[TUT]

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for being the first to state the obvious and I'm not being sarcastic. Air ops has a tremendous over head and a fairly lean margin. There is no way in hell that it can be profitable with hundreds of contractors and thousands of contractors' employees. Express needs direct involvement and control of every aspect and every person that is part of that operation.

Airborne Express tried it and started tanking once it began offering 1030 commit times. DHL bought them and transitioned many locations into contracted operations, and they failed in spectacular fashion. Ain't no way the Express side can afford to transitioned to a contractor model.

Could it perhaps be a partial? Where the parts that have to be employees remains employees and parts that can be handled by contractors, become contractors? Personally I rather see everyone fall under Express, it is a better more consistent model for your customers.

 

[59 Dano]

Another shade of this possibly happening is in the past couple years both ground and express for the first time can share the same barcode and tracking # range on labels. Looks like Fedex is playing the looooong game. It's hard to really tell exactly, because any of these things discussed can be looked at as general efficiency steps and the big one where everyone is one could not even be in the works. Regulatory is probably the single biggest factor on deciding the big one.

We have a winner!

 

[59 Dano]

Could it perhaps be a partial? Where the parts that have to be employees remains employees and parts that can be handled by contractors, become contractors? Personally I rather see everyone fall under Express, it is a better more consistent model for your customers.

Anything is possible to some extent, but why take that risk when the odds are against it?

 

[TUT]

Anything is possible to some extent, but why take that risk when the odds are against it?

I'm not sure what the risk would be. We have to assume if they were to do it, it would be legal, so lets take that off the table as a risk. So then what are we saying? I have 100K employees (throwing out a number) 20K need to remain employees because of X,Y,Z regulations and absolute needs. But 80K aren't any different than ground at sorting, picking up and delivering, on top of that I won't be doubling up drivers in the field, in fact I would have better coverage with overall less man power and equipment on the road.

I have to assume at this point that each contracted person is money saved, at least directly. I still feel Fedex has a lot to win being unified though either way, but I've been told I'm wrong on this one before.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Like there's such a difference between that and delivering a box???

There isn't but some of the Express boys think they are the only ones qualified to do their jobs.

 

[dmac1]

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for being the first to state the obvious and I'm not being sarcastic. Air ops has a tremendous over head and a fairly lean margin. There is no way in hell that it can be profitable with hundreds of contractors and thousands of contractors' employees. Express needs direct involvement and control of every aspect and every person that is part of that operation.

Airborne Express tried it and started tanking once it began offering 1030 commit times. DHL bought them and transitioned many locations into contracted operations, and they failed in spectacular fashion. Ain't no way the Express side can afford to transitioned to a contractor model.

Air ops has nothing to do with driving the last couple miles to or from the customer location, any driver can do that and ground will do it at lowest cost, and if the contractor in charge fails, he is risking tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars he has invested. He had a lot more at stake on getting the packages delivered on time than any current fedex driver.

 

[dmac1]

Anything is possible to some extent, but why take that risk when the odds are against it?

Ground has been using contractors for nearly 20 years and has been very successful. You'd have to be a fool to even think that contractors can't tell time.

 

[fedex_rtd]

Ground drivers already pick-up and deliver HAZmat. The average ground driver is just as smart as the average express driver, and can learn and pass all the requirements at the same rate express drivers do.

Really??? How are you doing this without breaking the law? I don't think I have ever seen a ground vehicle or trailer with placards. Sounds like you don't know what your talking about, or you don't know how to it safely. Obviously your not qualified or you would know better.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Really??? How are you doing this without breaking the law? I don't think I have ever seen a ground vehicle or trailer with placards. Sounds like you don't know what your talking about, or you don't know how to it safely. Obviously your not qualified or you would know better.

We pickup hazmats all day long and none of our pkg cars have placards.

 

[dmac1]

Really??? How are you doing this without breaking the law? I don't think I have ever seen a ground vehicle or trailer with placards. Sounds like you don't know what your talking about, or you don't know how to it safely. Obviously your not qualified or you would know better.

This post proves just how ignorant of facts some express people are. Better to keep quiet than speak up and prove it.

 

[STFXG]

Really??? How are you doing this without breaking the law? I don't think I have ever seen a ground vehicle or trailer with placards. Sounds like you don't know what your talking about, or you don't know how to it safely. Obviously your not qualified or you would know better.

We don't carry any materials requiring placards. The hazmats we do handle aren't in large enough quantities to require placards.

 

[fedex_rtd]

We pickup hazmats all day long and none of our pkg cars have placards.

So how do you handle class 4.3 or class 7 radioactive Yellow III? If you have no placard on your pkg car???

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

So how do you handle class 4.3 or class 7 radioactive Yellow III? If you have no placard on your pkg car???

We don't---those items are not on our accepted list.

 

[fedex_rtd]

We don't carry any materials requiring placards. The hazmats we do handle aren't in large enough quantities to require placards.

We do...and ALL the drivers are expected to handle the material correctly. Something I doubt a ground driver or contractor is equipped to do.

 

[STFXG]

We do...and ALL the drivers are expected to handle the material correctly. Something I doubt a ground driver or contractor is equipped to do.

Pretty sure you were only required to have a drivers license to get a job. What makes you the smart one? Your posts contradict your self-proclaimed intelligence.