Posted on 01/30/2024 7:18:30 AM PST by NautiNurse
United Parcel Service said Tuesday that it plans to cut about 12,000 jobs this year, a move that the package-delivery giant said would result in $1 billion in savings.
Most of the cuts will be to full-time and part-time management positions and contract workers, and executives said they don’t expect these jobs to return when parcel volumes return.
UPS has around 85,000 workers in management.
[Snip]
The job cuts were unveiled after the company said its revenue declined in the last quarter of 2023 as volumes in both its domestic and international businesses dropped.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Even cartons of paper.
Sometimes even cartons of toilet paper. Check your big box stores and you'll be surprised how much still arrives on pallets. A shortage of warehouse labour is one big reason and it isn't getting any better.
Printing boxes is another story. It appeals to certain egos, but you need volume to make it work.
True story. Before retiring recently, I worked in supply chain/purchasing for a manufacturer which did OEM work for a number of famous brands. They would want their own custom printed boxes.
A year or two later, they would bid out their work again, lose the contract, and we'd be stuck with a bunch of boxes we couldn't use. My department would get the blame for over ordering.
Managers of my department would come and go and I refused offers to apply for the job because I didn't want to step into this kind of $#*+show. Finally, management got smart enough to tell sales there would be no custom printed boxes without a minimum guarantee. They even accepted my suggestion for custom printed labels on standard boxes in lieu of the custom printing since the labels could be set up for custom runs in as small of units as 1,000 each.
FedEx usually charges 20 to 30 dollars for overnight envelope delivery. But they increase the charges substantially if one marks overnight early day delivery.
I dropped Amazon because they allowed use of my account by criminals.
I now use Walmart and many of my purchases are delivered the same day. If I order the 11 oz bag of coffee it comes today. If I order the 22 oz it comes in three days.
We are in the foothills 40 miles from Seattle. Amazon delivers nearly all of their orders with their own delivery vehicles or the private cars and trucks of drivers that they hire. We typically see them two to several times a day. We see a UPS truck once a day and a FedEx truck about once a week.
I was wondering how the teamsters deal was going to work out for the FedEx and UPS drivers when they are obviously being undercut by Amazon. For whatever reason the people delivering for Amazon are typically chattier and at ease than the UPS and FEdEx drivers. A majority seem to do it as a sideline.
We encountered a similar problem. Our house numbers are in cursive, and until lately, we have never had an issue with that. However, now we have had to replace them with numerals, because even the post office returns mail to us marked as "No Such Address", simply because the postman, like many of the delivery drivers, cannot read cursive.
At my work location, I have had a problem with UPS dumping deliveries at the local post office. The local post office does not deliver mail. Everybody in this area has to have a PO Box. So if I indicate a physical address on an order, it ends up going back to the sender.
Now I put the PO Box number and the physical address on orders. That usually works, but not always.
The last time I was at the UPS Store returning some stuff from Amazon, the person ahead of me in line had an arm full of small packages and ended up paying over $150 to get them delivered. I was flabbergasted. We used to buy presents from a local candy company and send them to friends and relatives. The same candy costs more on Amazon, but you can get it delivered to your recipient for free and they can send it back if they don't like it.
I hate Amazon's politics, but there are good reasons why they are doing so well.
Agreed. And IMO UPS is far superior now. This is curious.
with so many people having shifted over to internet purchasing instead of driving all around town to brick and mortar stores
the total delivery volume should be UP UP UP
We were quoted some excessive shipping rates by UPS so that could be a part of their problem
also, their tracking and customer service on the phone are not always very friendly to patrons —difficulties filing loss/damage claims for starters....
in our experience, Amazon replaces or credits lost or damaged shipments immediately without giving the customer much hassle
USPS has introduced a new service recently. It’s called “Ground Advantage” in direct competition to UPS and FDX
I’m still seeing all three, nearly daily. There are big hubs for each of them about 15 miles away, though, so probably not very surprising here.
I don't do a lot of ordering from Amazon, but when I do the default checkout is to sign up for Prime or pay for quick shipping. If your order is $25 or more and you can wait a week or so, the shipping is mostly free. Back in the day my theory as to why Amazon used the USPS was to slow down deliveries for non Prime orders.
I live in a metro area that now has an Amazon distribution center. Sometimes I'll receive the order within a couple of days of placing an order. I still get deliveries by third party delivery services, but I suspect those items are outside of the main Amazon distribution system and it is just cheaper to use FedEx, UPS and USPS
“The Baltic Dry Index is an index that tracks the price of transporting dry bulk cargo like cement, coal, iron ore, and grain on bulk freighters. As many of these commodities are raw materials that go into production of finished goods, the BDI is often taken to be an indicator of economic growth and production. The index is maintained by the London-based Baltic Exchange.” This is quoted from Nasdaq.com.
I usually see it being discussed somewhere here when the world economy is about to drop significantly. Kind of watching for it lately. FWIW.
I recently took a friend to UPS that had to ship four boxes to Pennsylvania (from California) - cost over $500. I was really surprised Friend was in a hurry so we didn’t check the prices at FedEx and USPS.
*** Shipping has become expensive under Bidenomics but UPS rates have gone up the most.***
You can say that again. I noticed it last Christmas, and this year was even worse.
“Amazon shifted from UPS to USPS for most of their shipping.”
i use USPS for my all of my package shipping needs for several reasons:
1. Ground and Cube Advantage have the best prices of any shipper for smaller/medium packages
2. very convenient website for online shipping label making; UPS and Fedex websites are designed for giant corporate shippers and are a nightmare to use for occasional shippers like myself
3. i’ve found USPS to very reliable and fast
4. my little local USPS post office is only a half mile away, so is VERY convenient for me personally
5. also as someone who occasionally sells via ebay, all of the above holds true for ebay shipping options
The unions at UPS garnered pay raises for UPS employees last year, and now with revenue tight they loose 12,000 jobs. So much for the union helping the workers.
The prices are ridiculous but I know they have to pay for their gas. To ship a fairly small box (no dimension over 12”) from Indiana to California and Oregon was around $30 each, and they weren’t heavy, either, not even 3#. It’s going to be cheaper for me to order gifts from Amazon, and skip anything very personalized at all. I am a sentimental type person about some things, so ordering off Amazon is kind of a bummer, but it’s come to that.
Amazon will hire them.
“the Teamsters deliver a pay hike and the company delivers layoffs.”
I was in the doctor’s office waiting room the other day and a UPS person was also seated in there. He was talking on the phone and told that person that the UPS business had really dropped after the strike. So yes, the Teamsters delivered alright.
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