The Express employee massacre continues.

[Cactus]

It doesn't matter what they desire. The board and executive management have been removed so far from reality for a very long time. This is the same management that bought Kinkos, TNT, implemented Response and Estar, among a bunch of other failed projects.

Amen. Everything FedEx touches turns to crap. Why should this be any different?

 

[yadig]

Why would I assume that? Because browncafe said so? Browncafe tells you to jump off a bridge you’ll do it? Your managers came up to you and said you’re all being let go? No. So what’s all the stress about ?

Check back with us in a year!

 

[UnionStrong]

Why would I assume that? Because browncafe said so? Browncafe tells you to jump off a bridge you’ll do it? Your managers came up to you and said you’re all being let go? No. So what’s all the stress about ?

 

[UnionStrong]

It's funny, a few years back I told the ground driver on my route that we were hiring drivers at UPS. He said it would interfere with his second job, stocking shelves at a local grocery store. I told him if he drove for us he wouldn't need a second job, he said, "nah man, I really have it good here." I couldn't even respond.

Stupid is as stupid does….

 

[bacha29]

until their not.. just assume 70-80% of the couriers around you will be gone. and whats left will be Part time. Most Seasoned couriers aren't going to stick around for PT hrs, whats left are the new hires which many are barely better than the local Ground guys. I don't care if the ground guy can balance a couch on his nose while delivering 20 Chewy boxes, and still hit 25stops an hour, as soon as they have to start making 3 loops of their area hitting time commits with no stand alones(that means commit packages delivered first) Who is going to work for $150/day and now 20% more time on road.

Spot on. No contractor employed driver out in the rural areas who has to be out by 8AM in order to clean his route and get back in time is going to be willing to wait for the air box to show up at 9:30 then have to sort it and load it himself without a corresponding reduction in the size of his route.
So what it will likely mean for the contractor will be adding on more trucks and drivers. to compensate for the reduction in operating range or he'll have to create dedicated air box routes to leave later in the morning.

Running air box in the rural areas is money losing business and will likely be the economic kill shot for a lot or rural contractors.

 

[AB831]

It's funny, a few years back I told the ground driver on my route that we were hiring drivers at UPS. He said it would interfere with his second job, stocking shelves at a local grocery store. I told him if he drove for us he wouldn't need a second job, he said, "nah man, I really have it good here." I couldn't even respond.

Stockholm Syndrome is a powerful thing.

 

[FedexCares]

Lots of rumors floating around. Local Express station telling couriers they hate guaranteed jobs with contractors. That they can “bump” lower seniority Ground drivers .

The real takeaway I’m getting is that Express is going to be absorbed. At first I thought they’d handle P1’s etc., but I’ve been in contact with contractors who have been told to and are ramping up for the entire thing.

If I thought FedEx had thought this through and wasn’t going to try to do it on the cheap, I’d think they stood a chance. As it is, I think their reputation is going to take a huge hit.

Their reputation has already taken a huge hit compared to 10 years or even 5 years ago, thanks mostly to ground and to a lesser extent express as well as it’s been going downhill too.

I think fedex is banking on the fact that there just isn’t a lot of options in this space if you want your crap shipped. You basically have UPS, Fedex and the postal service as Amazon delivers their own stuff only for the most part. Nobody can handle it all including UPS or even take large chunks of business from another company without having major issues. Essentially customers have to keep using Fedex whether they like it or not, even if their reputation is only going to get worse. If Fedex was really forced into having to compete for business they wouldn’t be looking to degrade their service even further.

 

[AB831]

Express drivers used to regularly work split-shifts, as in having an unpaid break between 12 and 2. They used to pay an extra dollar per hour to make it more palatable but the math obviously works in the favor of the company. Total scam. I'm not surprised they also do it at Ground.

There was this poor chump at my old station who they would abuse like a rented mule because he WOULD NOT stand up for himself. He was a part time courier who worked Tuesday-Saturday and then ran the Saturday shuttle in the PM. In order to do so, he would take an unpaid 3-4 hour break and sit in the breakroom on his phone. I asked him why the hell he puts up with that, and he gave some timid "I don't really have anything better to do" answer. On a SATURDAY? Ok, guy, whatever you need to tell yourself. Anyway, after 2 years of that BS, he got tired of it, and put in for a Monday-Friday full time route, which he received. About a week later, they told him that they don't have anyone else to run the Saturday PM shuttle, so they would be denying his Monday-Friday route and placing him on a Tuesday-Saturday route. He was unhappy about it but accepted it, saying "I don't think they're ever going to let me off that shuttle." The amount of abuse people are willing to put up with from that company while still defending the company is unfathomable. My heart goes out to guys like him who are probably going to lose their jobs after all they did for Fat Freddy, but I truly want to encourage them by saying it'll end up being the best professional move of your life. It's not that bad everywhere else.

 

[UnionStrong]

There was this poor chump at my old station who they would abuse like a rented mule because he WOULD NOT stand up for himself. He was a part time courier who worked Tuesday-Saturday and then ran the Saturday shuttle in the PM. In order to do so, he would take an unpaid 3-4 hour break and sit in the breakroom on his phone. I asked him why the hell he puts up with that, and he gave some timid "I don't really have anything better to do" answer. On a SATURDAY? Ok, guy, whatever you need to tell yourself. Anyway, after 2 years of that BS, he got tired of it, and put in for a Monday-Friday full time route, which he received. About a week later, they told him that they don't have anyone else to run the Saturday PM shuttle, so they would be denying his Monday-Friday route and placing him on a Tuesday-Saturday route. He was unhappy about it but accepted it, saying "I don't think they're ever going to let me off that shuttle." The amount of abuse people are willing to put up with from that company while still defending the company is unfathomable. My heart goes out to guys like him who are probably going to lose their jobs after all they did for Fat Freddy, but I truly want to encourage them by saying it'll end up being the best professional move of your life. It's not that bad everywhere else.

Perhaps

 

[bacha29]

Their reputation has already taken a huge hit compared to 10 years or even 5 years ago, thanks mostly to ground and to a lesser extent express as well as it’s been going downhill too.

I think fedex is banking on the fact that there just isn’t a lot of options in this space if you want your crap shipped. You basically have UPS, Fedex and the postal service as Amazon delivers their own stuff only for the most part. Nobody can handle it all including UPS or even take large chunks of business from another company without having major issues. Essentially customers have to keep using Fedex whether they like it or not, even if their reputation is only going to get worse. If Fedex was really forced into having to compete for business they wouldn’t be looking to degrade their service even further.

If it gets as bad as you describe here and it most definitely could it might just open the door to a new player in the space.
Just before the pandemic hit the CEO of Maersk was talking about going into air freight. Not much more said about it since.

Now if somebody were to decide to become a small box common carrier the most likely to do it would be XPO Logistics.
I'm surprised that they haven't already.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Can you post anything official released by FedEx about this?

I do not have anything but heard the same thing from a DTC dispatcher that communicates with stations and ramps country wide.

 

[bbsam]

Their reputation has already taken a huge hit compared to 10 years or even 5 years ago, thanks mostly to ground and to a lesser extent express as well as it’s been going downhill too.

I think fedex is banking on the fact that there just isn’t a lot of options in this space if you want your crap shipped. You basically have UPS, Fedex and the postal service as Amazon delivers their own stuff only for the most part. Nobody can handle it all including UPS or even take large chunks of business from another company without having major issues. Essentially customers have to keep using Fedex whether they like it or not, even if their reputation is only going to get worse. If Fedex was really forced into having to compete for business they wouldn’t be looking to degrade their service even further.

Could be. But that’s exactly the attitude that got them here. I think their hand got forced. Between service problems and diminished returns, they’re now trying to thread the needle.

 

[Mutineer]

There was this poor chump at my old station who they would abuse like a rented mule because he WOULD NOT stand up for himself. He was a part time courier who worked Tuesday-Saturday and then ran the Saturday shuttle in the PM. In order to do so, he would take an unpaid 3-4 hour break and sit in the breakroom on his phone. I asked him why the hell he puts up with that, and he gave some timid "I don't really have anything better to do" answer. On a SATURDAY? Ok, guy, whatever you need to tell yourself. Anyway, after 2 years of that BS, he got tired of it, and put in for a Monday-Friday full time route, which he received. About a week later, they told him that they don't have anyone else to run the Saturday PM shuttle, so they would be denying his Monday-Friday route and placing him on a Tuesday-Saturday route. He was unhappy about it but accepted it, saying "I don't think they're ever going to let me off that shuttle." The amount of abuse people are willing to put up with from that company while still defending the company is unfathomable. My heart goes out to guys like him who are probably going to lose their jobs after all they did for Fat Freddy, but I truly want to encourage them by saying it'll end up being the best professional move of your life. It's not that bad everywhere else.

Having once spent alot of time there, I have nothing good to say about FedEx. But there's no shortage of sad stories like that in any occupation or workplace. Which leads a person to consider that if there truly is a labor shortage, no working-class citizen in the United States workforce would ever be treated like the person in your story. Plenty of employers and companies treat their blue-collar employees far worse than that poor schmuck.

And they do it all the time. Because employers like FedEx know they can always find someone else from somewhere worse to take the bait.

It's not that bad everywhere else.

I can tell you from an abundance of experience that there are far worse jobs to be had, and far worse companies than FedEx.
My worst day ever as a courier for any company does not come close to compare to the miserable jobs I've had.

 

[Mutineer]

Could be. But that’s exactly the attitude that got them here. I think their hand got forced. Between service problems and diminished returns, they’re now trying to thread the needle.

The future of this industry is a poorly paid and treated, high turnover workforce.

UPS will someday follow suit, or go the way of the dodo.

 

[AB831]

I can tell you from an abundance of experience that there are far worse jobs to be had, and far worse companies than FedEx.
My worst day ever as a courier for any company does not come close to compare to the miserable jobs I've had.

Sadly, you’re 100% right.

 

[Mutineer]

Sadly, you’re 100% right.

It's one thing to agree.

To relate is an invitation to sincere, ironic laughter.

 

[Mutineer]

Running air box in the rural areas is money losing business and will likely be the economic kill shot for a lot or rural contractors.

Somebody very cheap is going to deliver the "air box" out to the sticks. And also the dog food, trampolines, trailer hitches, and boat anchors.

Meet the sweaty, addled, neon-haired single mom in a yellow Hyundai who "can't find a good man." Next is a guy dressed like a wizard, sports an uncomfortably vapid stare, and argues with voices in his head. And it wouldn't be complete without a >40 yo ESL who enjoys spending waaay too much time with goats, and can barely see over the dashboard in a battered old Econoline.

It will be a diverse and inclusive cast of characters.

When those losers wrap it around a telephone pole, get beamed up, are shot by a jealous husband, mauled by a pack of wild dogs, or get a better job at McDonald's; I promise there's plenty more like them to be had.

 

[MrFedEx]

Stockholm Syndrome is a powerful thing.

Absolutely. It's like when they find out Father O'Malley has been molesting kids for 20 years and the church chooses not to believe it. And there are a lot of people at FedEx who still "believe" even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Even as they clutch that last check when they are pink-slipped, they still won't get it.

 

[UnionStrong]

Somebody very cheap is going to deliver the "air box" out to the sticks. And also the dog food, trampolines, trailer hitches, and boat anchors.

Meet the sweaty, addled, neon-haired single mom in a yellow Hyundai who "can't find a good man." Next is a guy dressed like a wizard, sports an uncomfortably vapid stare, and argues with voices in his head. And it wouldn't be complete without a >40 yo ESL who enjoys spending waaay too much time with goats, and can barely see over the dashboard in a battered old Econoline.

It will be a diverse and inclusive cast of characters.

When those losers wrap it around a telephone pole, get beamed up, are shot by a jealous husband, mauled by a pack of wild dogs, or get a better job at McDonald's; I promise there's plenty more like them to be had.

W T EFF

 

[bacha29]

Somebody very cheap is going to deliver the "air box" out to the sticks. And also the dog food, trampolines, trailer hitches, and boat anchors.

Meet the sweaty, addled, neon-haired single mom in a yellow Hyundai who "can't find a good man." Next is a guy dressed like a wizard, sports an uncomfortably vapid stare, and argues with voices in his head. And it wouldn't be complete without a >40 yo ESL who enjoys spending waaay too much time with goats, and can barely see over the dashboard in a battered old Econoline.

It will be a diverse and inclusive cast of characters.

When those losers wrap it around a telephone pole, get beamed up, are shot by a jealous husband, mauled by a pack of wild dogs, or get a better job at McDonald's; I promise there's plenty more like them to be had.

Naaa. We've got somebody better. We've got Charlie Redneck and Billy Joe Sixpack .AND if we can get him to put away his banjo and climb down off the railroad trestle we even got the inbred kid from Deliverance .