FedEx

[Ken Fitzgerald]

UPS and Fedex work most of the time locally. I really think it depends on the individual delivery person.

[Clint Baxter]

Have had issues with UPS, FedEx and USPS. Usually FedEx delivers at a decent hour but not so for the other two. You have no idea when they may deliver an item. I've checked at 8:00 PM and sometimes even later and found nothing, but then find an item sitting outside the door the next morning. In the rain, or in the snow. FedEx sends a text so I usually go looking for for it if I'm at home. And sometimes that means going to the neighbors house to find my item. They have the save number address, just on a different street. I guess what makes it too confusing is that they live directly across the road from me, seeing as I live on a large corner lot that the road curves around. They even came over and dropped off one of my packages just last Sunday, a large office chair, that they had to load into their van to transport.

I wish UPS would ring the bell when they do their drop-offs. I typically get an e-mail saying the package has been delivered, but I'm not in the habit of checking my e-mail before going to bed. And it is well after dark when they typically deliver now.

I guess the new nighttime routine is to put out the dogs and then go look for packages while they do their business. And if I'm lucky, get SWMBO to do so as well.

Clint

[Jim Koepke]

UPS and Fedex work most of the time locally. I really think it depends on the individual delivery person.

Our Fedex driver used to be two doors down the road from us. We were usually his last stop for the day. It seems him and his wife may no longer be owners of the route.

Another problem we have is being off the road a way. Our mailbox is in front of a neighbor's house so some drivers try to deliver to them. At times they haven't had clear numbers on their house.

Some of our USPS drivers will not come down the driveway with large packages. The Postal Service has a rule against backing up their vehicles. They don't have windows in the rear. Some drivers will back up their vehicles anyway. In my area the Postal Service has independent contractors at times. They often drive their own vehicles and don't always follow the 'no backing up' rule.

Lately our mail has been coming very late in the day. It may be due to a carrier doing two routes to cover for our regular carrier. My understanding is they like this route and have seniority to get it when the routes are up for bid. They also have a chronic medical condition that takes them off work for extended periods.

Now when the mail is picked up even after 5:00pm it tends to be yesterday's mail. If a package is delivered the USPS informed delivery lets us know about a half hour after it is delivered. We live in an area that doesn't get cell service so it takes about a half hour after delivering to us for the carrier to get into an area with cell service.

jtk

[Jeff Roltgen]

Working in my shop today, after reading this thread, when over my shoulder, noticed light from the front door swinging open. As I'm running a big bit on the shaper, I remained focused, finished what I was doing, taking a few moments, then looked towards the door. Fed Ex guy is holding a package over his head with a big grin on his face, as if to say: "got one for ya!".
Box is in perfect condition.
Why yes, in fact, it is Sunday.

Like any operation or service, things can go a little south, completely sideways, or off the rails entirely. Speaking for myself, I'm continually trying to remember; not everything everybody does works all the time, every time, every where, for every one, It's life. I do like to believe the vast majority of us are sincerely just trying to do our best. Also helps me feel a deeper gratitude when things do work out well. This was one of those moments, so I felt credit needed to be given in some way. There's still some darn good service going on, every day!

Jeff

[Brian Elfert]

Fedex Ground has been delivering on Sundays for almost two years now. A guy I know has a brother who is a Fedex Ground contractor. He runs a Fedex Ground route for his brother on Sundays because his brother can't hire enough employees.

I ordered a tool from Home Depot last week. Originally estimated to be delivered today then it said early arrival this past Friday. I was pretty sure Friday would not happen since the package shipped from Ohio on Thursday. The package finally hit Minneapolis mid morning today so too late to get delivered today. It should get delivered tomorrow along with another package. Getting the tool a day late isn't a major issue although I'll use it as soon as I get it. An much worse issue happened with Fedex Express at work Thanksgiving week. We had a major piece of networking gear with next day replacement fail on Monday. A replacement was shipped priority overnight from California. It didn't end up leaving California until Tuesday so we didn't get the replacement network gear until Wednesday.

[Kev Williams]

Any/All shipping companies have their bad days like anyone else, but it's the end customer who's the main victim. Whenever I see a shipping truck on the news totally ablaze on a freeway somewhere, I stop and think about who-all's stuff is in that truck or trailer that they won't be getting...

Last Tuesday I tried my best to get a partial shipment of parts to a customer he wanted overnighted, I just didn't have time to make it happen. So I spent the rest of the day and most of Wednesday getting together a package worth the overnight fees, customer was happy, as he could build parts on Thursday, and he was going to be out of town Friday-- Thursday he gets an email from UPS that the plane his parts were on had mechanical issues and his parts wouldn't get there till Friday... Heavy sigh... Whaddya do?

[Jim Koepke]

During my days as a field service tech the best thing about FedEx was the proliferation of their pick up/drop off counters all over the area. Parts for customers could be overnighted close to where they were needed and be there for my first or second call. Very convenient. Not sure if that still works as it used to. My biggest problem was with the crew back at the home office deciding they didn't want to ship my part via FedEx and then not being able to get the part because UPS couldn't deliver to a FedEx location.

jtk

[Brian Elfert]

I wonder if UPS and Fedex locations when they have to order parts can only have them delivered via Fedex/UPS? Some companies only ship via one shipper because they get volume discounts and their systems are set up to send data to their shipper of choice.

I read once that the Postmaster General's office won't accept any Fedex or UPS overnight letters. You have to use Priority Express overnight. Priority Express sucks because in my experience there are many places where it is a two day service and not as good of a guarantee as Fedex/UPS used to offer. I bet Priority Express overnight is even worse service now.

[Ronald Blue]

That logistics works as well as it does is a miracle. We ship a ton of things for business throughout the world. Consumers think it all happens miraculously. When the fragile system gets stressed and the real people in the process start to break, we sit here behind our keyboards and talk about how bad the company is. Yes it sucks. But it’s more complicated than particular incidents.

I know quite a lot about it actually. The vast majority of ground shipments if they are going more than 2 days travel away move by rail. At least if they are moving from the west coast to the midwest or the midwest to the west coast. My former employer moves 1000's of UPS and Fedex trailers per week. They move on guaranteed service trains across the country. I originally thought my shipment was coming that way. Who knows now? I don't consider the system to be fragile. The most common disruption is weather by far. As for the system not "delivering" as intended. That's usually human failures. Like I originally said when you choose to contract the work out to the lowest bidder you get what you pay for. The semi's running up and down the road are contracted. As I understand it most of the ground delivery people are also contracted. It just adds another layer to the process but with that layer the control of the process is diminished. It's just not that complicated. Their systems weaknesses have became glaringly exposed as the volume increased.

[Dave Fritz]

Fed Ex hung a bag on our fire number down at the end of our driveway behind a snow pile. We thought it was a piece of plastic that had blown in on the wind. Very disappointed. USPS or UPS works best for us.

[Warren Lake]

I lucked out with UPS. They lost a shipment one time and paid for it. Then ordered car polish from LA and it made it to 20 miles away from me and clearly saw they broke a gallon flinging it into the truck even left polish on the truck where they broke it. To make a claim with them is impossible I went on the fish net and saw 3 million people that tried, maybe it was more. Iwasnt going to be added to that list.

For shipping I had some regular customers that got a whole other level of cost. I put stuff on their accounts and we benefited from their cost level. My driver was older and outstanding. When injured he put stuff in the truck for me, when i wasnt there I left my shop open and he went in and loaded and then locked the shop up.

You will never know what you get as this all depends on humans and too many dont have a proper mentality. If they dont like their jobs they should quit and go find something they will put some care into instead of causing grief.

[Jim Koepke]

Surely some of the problems are caused by the bean counters with stop watches.

People pushed to their maximum abilities will make mistakes. They will also be very likely to become hateful of those for whom they work.

Years ago in a shipping department it was standard operating procedure to put tape across the ends of a box. It seems some bean counter at Amazon (or other establishment) has done a cost analysis of how much it cost to put tape on the end of boxes compared to how many boxes actually break open for lack of end tape and lose the contents. In the long run it probably costs less in time & tape to not put tape on the end of boxes than it does to replace a lost shipment or two.

Bean counters control everything.

Some figure in employee burn out as part of the cost of doing business. If you see a business that is always hiring, you may also notice none of the employees have been there long.

At one time it seemed every hardware store had an old guy working there who not only knew where everything was they also knew how to use it and what other items you might need to get through a job.

Now days you are among the fortunate if you have an independent family owned hardware store in your area.

jtk

[Brian Elfert]

UPS and USPS both use mostly full time employees to do deliveries. They are union workers with a full benefits package including a pension. Folks who make good wages and benefits tend to like their jobs better and do better at their job. It is a career for them, not just a job.

Fedex Ground uses contractors for the final delivery. The contractors often have to pay low with potentially no benefits to make a profit. Fedex Ground delivery employees are unlikely to make it a career so many could care less about job performance.

[Brian Elfert]

I'm mildly upset with Fedex right now. I have two ground packages sitting at two different local terminals that are now late. One was supposed to come Sunday and the other was supposed to come today. The silly thing is both were at the local terminals on Sunday so no reason they shouldn't have been delivered today.

It isn't the end of the world as neither one is really time sensitive. One is a tool I wanted to use this weekend while it was still somewhat warm outside. If the work waits until spring it won't hurt a thing. The other is some access points and there is no big hurry to get them installed. I wasn't going to be able to do anything with them tonight at least.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

We had a problem with Fedex last week too. Parts were ordered with Overnight shipping, sent out on Thursday and scheduled to arrive on Friday. Friday night and still no package. Tracking showed it was received on Thursday and no further updates. Saturday afternoon and still no delivery. Tracking showed it was at a hub 2 hours away as of 8am. Sunday evening and still no delivery. Tracking showed it had moved to another hub 1 hour away as of 8am. I called Fedex to see what was going on and ask about their money-back guarantee on Overnight shipping. All guarantees are suspended thru January 2022. I questioned why it has been sitting in two different hubs all weekend. The response was Saturday and Sunday Delivery options had not been selected and paid for and they only deliver Overnight packages on weekdays. Fedex delivered the package at 2pm today.

I understand everyone is working hard at trying to keep up with deliveries, but it's frustrating to have to really search all their delivery exceptions. Years ago, pre-covid, I had a customer request Overnight USPS shipping. I worked my tail off to get their rush order out the door and drove it to my local Post Office to drop off before their deadline. The customer called and was irate it didn't arrive the next day. While USPS had no problem taking my payment, apparently the destination post office treated all their overnight packages as regular mail and they didn't deliver mail on Saturdays. There was no way I could know that! I don't ship anything overnight now.