I don't think we need to worry about that.
Professionalism
- Thread starter MrFedEx
- Start date
I don't think we need to worry about that.
overflowed
Well-Known Member
+1 I can think of a few medium shippers that would be game but sadly they don't pay me enough to do my own job so I'm not gonna go do someone else's.
SmithBarney
Well-Known Member
Sales prime directive is to sell GROUND, we had sales execs(NOT REPS) state this in a STA meeting.
basically said they focus purely on ground service, and anything that spills over to the other OP COS is nice, but they
aren't interested in selling it.
I understand from a business perspective, sell your profit maker... makes sense. Ford Sells a TON of F150s, they are priced to sell
and there is more profit in the "BULK" sale of F150's vs the more limited market for say F350's and up
Here is some "truth and justice" back at ya. The FMCSA numbers say fedex ground was involved in 30 fatalities "without any determination as to responsibility." Some of the 30 are ground drivers, some are for sure the other party involved. We have almost double the amount of miles driven than express, our numbers will always be higher. It's like comparing the overall accidents in new york city and podunk city, Ohio.
Our number may always be higher, but it can definitely be improved. We have had a real push going on. We were averaging violations every single month. We started doing thorough pre and post trips, reinforcing that speeding is simply unacceptable and we stopped being pulled over. My drivers were the worst in the building. Once the message was made crystal clear and I became actively involved in making sure the inspections were done, things cleared right up. Only one driver had to lose his job and that was because I couldn't trust him to slow down.
Always room to improve, you got that right. I inspect my vans once a week myself and my drivers are to do pre/post every day and sign off on it on my own weekly safety handout on top of the input in the scanners during log-out. My rural guys can end up 120 or more miles from the terminal in below freezing temps, sometimes even below zero temps, most are not willing to risk being that far away in a truck they haven't deemed road worthy. Another contractor has a 0 tolerance policy on speeding, one speeding violation costs you a job. It's pretty simple, fedex has implemented a "safety first" policy, I'm doing the same with my drivers. It's only boxes, they can wait. Safety first. You have to be directly involved in it in order to get the drivers to buy into your ways. And you have to be willing to let someone go if they dont comply. It's never fun hiring and training new people but keeping an unsafe driver on is just asking for a bigger problem down the road.
MAKAVELI
Well-Known Member
Express has more trucks and drivers on the road so your explanation doesn't justify the higher number of accidents and fatalities. I guarantee you with Express time commits and pu our pu/ del drivers cover more miles than ground.
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DontThrowPackages
Well-Known Member
Have you forgotten who you work for? There is no such thing as an "Un-preventable". Fault always falls to the driver, unless he was lucky enough to have been out of his truck when the accident occurred. 37 killed in one year is too much death for a company to own. Looks like you'd have to start counting from 1979 til present day nascar to equal the 37 dead this company had in just one year. Shameful!
No it's really not. It's just easier to sell for them.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
Most Ground fatalities are OTR drivers, but I've seen plenty of local Ground fatality accidents too. As someone else said, the standard for professional drivers is that they are always at-fault unless proven otherwise because they are held to a higher standard. Of course, being a Ground apologist, you wouldn't mention that. Ground is not a safe operation. Your numbers prove that.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
How do you "improve", when the underlying structure is one of unprofessionalism? Ground is all about one thing...low cost labor. And your parolee box monkeys are never going to have enough invested in their jobs to care that much about safety. Plus, Borat (the typical ISP) has an incentive to push both his drivers and equipment to the max, or even beyond, in order to save more money. This would include both OTR and local operations.
I think we must have far different definitions of "professional".
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
Yes, we do. For you, and your fellow ISPs and contractors, "professionalism" means getting it done at the lowest possible cost. The average Ground driver is far from professional.
So the professional level is not at the driver level as it is for UPS (and used to be at Express) but at the ISP/contractor level. I agree. But we have already established that I am not looking for "career drivers". My drivers and I are in a symbiotic relationship. They are not necessarily heavily invested in me nor I in them. If they can't or won't do the job expected for the pay agreed upon, we can go out separate ways. But to say an "unprofessional" system is simply wrong. They have move the professional level away from the driver with a "diploma and a drivers license".
