FED EX.........ARE YOU LISTENING????

[Lil'_Roadie]

Or should the title be, CAN you and ARE YOU WILLING to LISTEN to your contractors? Most of us have things to say, things that are very important to us, do these things mean anything to you? Now more than ever, we’re thinking you’ve turned your backs on us, we are the "FORGOTTEN".

We’ve struggled to understand your new concept of mixing FECC with Fed Ex Freight, and can’t come up with a single example as to how this is going to benefit US. We hope you’ll forgive us if we just can’t get our minds around why we would need an additional four hundred units added to the fleet when most of us are now sitting for days waiting on loads. It’s not too far of a stretch to see and know that ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING that you do will put a PLUS sign on your bottom line. We’re left wondering if you REALLY have any concern for ours.

These past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for many of us. We aren’t all blessed with constant positives in our lives. Some of us have SITUATIONS that we’re coping with that are not of our choosing. The rising costs of running our businesses over this past year have left many of us operating with a VERY thin margin for error. (week to week, so to speak) Do you REALLY care about that? Do you care how many of us end up losing our trucks, or more? Just as we have a problem understanding how this new program will benefit us, are you able to see that some of the decisions you make have a HUGE impact on our lives and the lives of our families? OR DO YOU JUST NOT CARE? It has been speculated by some that this is your way of weeding out some of the old-timers that expect decent pay, to replace them with “new blood” that haven’t a clue. Is THAT your game?

COME ON FED EX, WE KNOW YOU READ THESE BOARDS, WE KNOW YOU’RE HERE, CAN YOU HELP US TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS TRUTHFULLY GOING ON??

[Lil'_Roadie]

While we have your ear, we’ll open discussion on a few other things.

We know of NO other industry where business owners are expected to make INTELLIGENT and INFORMED decisions, with such a lack of facts. A good example of this would be the fuel surcharge. Why shouldn’t we expect to have a COMPLETE breakdown of the pay included with EVERY run offer? Instead, we are made to wait, like CHILDREN until we receive our settlement sheets to get a clearer understanding of the FSC. We would like to have the information at hand concerning what percentages are charged and to whom. You see, we have a PROBLEM with the discounts you’ve chosen to give, most of them going to the largest corporations, the ones who can better afford higher freight rates than the smaller businesses. Now, one could say “that’s just the way business is”, and I can accept that. The problem arises when you expect US to bear the cost of the discount that YOU chose to give. Most of us have the understanding that these discounts are necessary to retain these contracts, however, we feel that Fed Ex should bear the COMPLETE costs of these discounts and leave the contractors out of this phase of the business. It IS, you understand, out of our hands and should not have any impact on our bottom line.

While we’re on the subject of fuel, let’s talk about the problems at hand. It’s obvious to everyone that fuel prices have more impact on our businesses than any other factor. With this in mind, why does it seem that as the fuel prices raise, the pay on many of the load offers lowers? Are you REALLY that far out of tune with what is going on out here on the road? Are your minds stuck in the “good old days” when you could offer a contractor a dollar a mile and he would accept it? And you should know that we’ve been offered runs as low as 56 cents all miles, in which case we would be PAYING YOU to carry your freight! I can’t say for certain but I think it would be a good guess that we’d find NOT ONE person in your building that is expected to pay Fed Ex for the privilege of working there, nor would you have anyone there if you also expected them to accept being penalized when they refused to do such. Why would you expect this of your contractors? And then make a fuss because we won’t “help you out” on this one? Our opinion of your acceptance percentage is this: most of us only turn down offers for one reason, the pay, so if you call us to remind us that our acceptance rate is down to 30%, I’m going to HAVE to ask you why you’ve offered me unacceptable rates 70% of the time. No offense intended, after all, it’s just business.

[Lil'_Roadie]

LET'S TALK DEAD HEAD PAY

While we’re talking about rates, how about those dead head rates? I’m told from some of the old-timers that the dead head rates have not been raised since 1988!! Wow, I wonder what the price of fuel was then? Are you finding that less and less contractors are actually moving to your “first option”?? Wonder why? Who wants to move their truck for 20 cents per mile, oops I forgot, if you REALLY want us somewhere else, you’re willing to pay 50 cents, now THAT’S a deal!!! We’ve heard rumors from company people for a long time now that “they’re going to raise that dead head pay, soon”, makes me wonder just how long “soon” is in the Fed Ex book? To add insult to injury, the first 100 miles is on the contractor. Other companies have adopted policies concerning dead head that are more contractor friendly, why does Fed Ex choose to put this and “other” financial burdens on their contractors rather than to meet us half way? If the smaller companies can do this and still make money, what’s wrong with Fed Ex. You ARE supposed to be the “leader” in the expediting industry, do you REALLY want the reputation for being the least fair to your contractors??

[Lil'_Roadie]

While we’re talking about over-burdening the contractor, here’s a couple more.

The DOT requires one truck inspection per year, you require two. Why should the contractor pay for this second inspection? If it’s above and beyond what the government requires, shouldn’t the burden be on Fed Ex, a “multi-billion dollar” corporation?

As we work our way through this business, it already seems that everyone has their hand in the contractor’s wallet, should we have to feel that Fed Ex is in there too?

Now, the drug testing. Every place that I’ve ever worked that required a drug test was paid for BY THE COMPANY! You pull our names “out of the hat”, Fed Ex should be paying the tab. And while we’re on this subject, if your drug testing is indeed random, then can you explain to me how a LARGE number of drivers are called for a drug test JUST AFTER having had a problem with someone in the company and been very vocal about their feelings? Maybe you’ll say you’re not aware of this happening, if so, then you need to BECOME aware, aware of EVERYTHING that is happening out here that can have an effect on your bottom line and ours.

This may be one you’re not aware of either. Recently my wife and I have had more than one request to make a phone call ahead to the delivery point when we are close. You poll us EVERY hour, here’s a novel idea, why not have your dispatchers make those calls and save us our cell minutes as well as the hassle of stopping to make the call, not feeling safe talking on the phone as we drive.

Speaking of phones, why is the information different on the VRU than what the C-link shows. Example, the information on the c-link is updated every three hours. If you want a more detailed picture of what is going on, you have the option of using the VRU, the problem with this is that the numbers rarely match! Seems simple enough, one in one out, etc., and yet when seeing these differences in the numbers, it leads one to think that there’s underhanded favoritism going on.

While we’re on load offers I’d like to say something about the less than 75 status. I apologize and would like someone to correct me if I’m wrong. I’ve always thought that the less than 75 was only good for the express center that you are checked in to. I understand that if you move, the less than 75 moves with you but I was not aware until recently that you can be dispatched from A NEIGHBORING express center, even if there are trucks there that have more dwell time than you. Again, if I’ve misunderstood this policy in the past, forgive me.

[Lil'_Roadie]

Now I’d like to talk about “the palace”, you know, that one that all of you work in everyday that we helped build?

Smaller companies provide at least a minimum amount of services to their contractors. Showers, laundry, TV lounges with vending machines, I’m sure you get the picture. Fed Ex gives us a room smaller than a closet, a chair, and a security guard to make sure we “behave”. We realize that there have been problems in the past with certain contractors or drivers, but wow, NOTHING for us. We can’t even visit the company store without an escort. We’re all supposed to work for the betterment of “the team”, it appears to us that the only time you want us to be a part of that team is when it is for your benefit. The TEAM built that palace, we couldn’t without you and you couldn’t without us and yet we’re now not even allowed to park in the lot overnight. What gives? Canton is an express center, wouldn’t it be a nice courtesy to allow us to spend that time on Fed Ex property rather than the nasty, unsafe truck stop down the road? We’ve had more courteous treatment from perfect strangers. We’ve been there, had the tour, and are aware of the vast space not being used. How hard would it be to give us a little space? We would expect that SOME security measures would have to be taken but why treat us ALL like the ones that have caused you trouble in the past??

[Lil'_Roadie]

After all of this “discussion” we’ve had today, I bet you’d love to ask me why I STAY with Fed Ex. That one is simple. I LIKE working “with” Fed Ex, I really do believe that in SOME ways, it’s the best company out there. I would like to be able to COMPLETE that compliment and say that NO ONE treats their contractors better than Fed Ex but as you’ve read, I and others do not believe that.

With the run offers being so scarce these days, the pay being far too low compared to today’s fuel prices, and the fact that the LONG TEAM runs have disappeared, my family may be facing more than a few life changes. We can’t continue to run team, wasting my wife’s time and only getting solo runs. I’m afraid that one of those changes will involve her leaving the truck, staying home and finding another job outside of the industry. We had hoped to be expediters for Fed Ex until it was time for our retirement. What a shame, another American dream down the toilet.

[windcatcher]

Lil'_Roadie
It's good to see you jumping right in and posting!
In a BIG way...
Actually, this is the first real clear breakdown of the difficulties that I have read. I'm glad for your posting and I hope some of the corporate leaders read this and start living up to implied promises which they've made in the past which would make this a real living for all on the road.

Drivers, and especially those running teams, and under pressures to keep running, deserve much better pay, treatment, and preference.

[wshort]

well put Lil roadie, guess fedEx is no different from the rest
of the new american corporate culture, that is why pay a decent
rate to american workers when we have millions streaming in
to this country that will work for nothing.

[KenOVM]

I am going to try and say this gently again!

Word as always been that FDCC O/O are the highest paid and FDCC rates are higher than anyones in the business. Now that being said it just maybe FDCC and their operators are now another victim of the economy. The creation of that new Express frieght division seems to bring credit to the above statement....FDCC needs to compete and thus......I am afraid you guys are looking at a dim future.

BTW: I do know this place is loaded with FDCCers the bossman included so I know I'll take a lashing BUT this is the place where you can speak your mind and not get deleted!!! ;)

[sidecar]

BUT this is the place where you can speak your mind and not get deleted!!! ;)

Yes it is ken. :cheers:

[Harry]

well I have to change the rules :dork:

[sidecar]

well I have to change the rules :dork:


:yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes:

[KenOVM]

well I have to change the rules :dork:

Change the rules and we'll start calling YOU Elmo!!!!! :rofl:

[Harry]

I think that is a very nice name :p

[KenOVM]

Now I can see all the NO TO CHEAP FREIGHT banners waving....

BUT cheap by whose standards? FDCC? We never see a comparison to know who hauls for what on a comparitive run.

MAYBE just maybe you FDCC'ers have been OVER PAID for too long and this is FDX's answer to the competition.

[Harry]

Ken I understand the concern of FEDEX O/O.

For example my last new truck was $192 000 we have a hell of equipment, Reefer Liftgate, Tagaxl, T/Val and everything what a moving truck has , from pallet-jack to paddings and so on.

Now for that kind of money, how many sprinters could I buy?

Our Operation costs are also higher then yours, now I hope you understand that we need more money for the mile to keep this going.

Now let me say you buy 4 sprinters for that money, I guess you are making more money then we do. :wtf:

[KenOVM]

I completely understand about costs harry..thats why I don't or won't move up to C or D I can make the same money, I think, without all the regulations.

[susie]

Well, i cant speak for other fdcc's but, this team has certainly not been overpaid. What do you call "overpaid" Ken? when we run for less than 1.30 mile and fuel being 2.50 and up i dont call that being overpaid. When we started 8 yrs ago, we were getting paid a buck a mile and fuel was like 1.10 - 1.25. now, it sure is a bigger stretch from that to getting 1.30 a mile and paying 2.50 for fuel, dont ya think?

Over the years we have seen things change, and it has always been to fdcc's benefit. the only thing i can recall that benefited 0/0 or drivers is tri-pak. and even then it really doesnt do much and you have to wait two weeks now to be paid instead of the usual one.

Maybe you like to survive on road-kill and tobacco juice, but i prefer a baloney sandwich and a pepsi every now and then. Also, I prefer to get out of my truck once and a while and relax in a place i call"HOME".

Sorry to burst your bubble, Ken, but most of us have never been overpaid. :rofl: :rofl:

[KenOVM]

Now I can see all the NO TO CHEAP FREIGHT banners waving....

BUT cheap by whose standards? FDCC? We never see a comparison to know who hauls for what on a comparitive run.

MAYBE just maybe you FDCC'ers have been OVER PAID for too long and this is FDX's answer to the competition.


Ohhh susie..see above quote...I said MAYBE OVERPAID
and if your saying you get about a $1.50 a mile..that ain't overpaid.

Hell I average about a buck a mile in a van!! with the fsc rolled in.

[susie]

Touche! my expeditor friend. But i guess now you know. So now we can stop waving the banners ;)

[KenOVM]

Touche! my expeditor friend. But i guess now you know. So now we can stop waving the banners ;)


I'll wave a white flag instead..... :cheers:

[Confederate]

Only flag I wanna raise is a Confederate flag and wage war on them non pay'n pinheads.........REMEMBER Keep your gown down and your powder dry, never know when you might havta fire a shot!

[kini lu]

I went back and reread this post. Talk about "Hitting the Nail on the Head" This was even before the September 18, 2006 BS. Can you imagine how much more appropriate it is now??? We did a run for Pfizer after it went ALL WG and I looked back at last year when we did the exact same run as Express. What a joke. I did not count DH on either run, just loaded miles... Hard to believe we are going so far backwards. I don't want to hear, "Look at the Big Picture" or " It will all come out at the end of the year because there will be more runs" I am for certain that FECC is NOT losing as much $$$$ as the O/Os. Yet, who at Corporate has taken a cut in Pay????? So sad that it will prabably take losing a huge percentage of it's fleet before anything is done to turn it around. I realize our hands are tied because of the way the new contract was forced down our throats. When a company says, SIGN OR ELSE.....it will never be in your best interest.

[wshort]

amazing all those posts back in april still apply today, same complaints
we are all having, obviously FedEX has paid little heed to the wailings of
the minions.
Would be interesting if all the O/O's and drivers could make a collective
decision to take action along the lines of "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" (actually a quote from the movie NETWORK)
Maybe Custom Critical as a whole is too small of a portion of the overall
FedEx conglomorate to worry about individual O/O's barely scraping by
in the current climate. As it was stated earlier old blood get's replaced by
the unwitting newcomers whose heads are filled with fantasies by recruitment (like all the trucking companies do) and the profit squeeze continues for the O/O's......
It would take massive co-operation by all O/O's from ALL the expediting
companies out there to make a dent in this mess we are forced to compete in. Really don't think the grass is any greener elsewhere.
For the most part we are kept in the dark given the minium of information and even that is suspect as to accuracy, VRU counts vs
c-link counts, dispatched counts making no sense at all etc, the dispatchers having no access to load boards etc etc, me thinks it's all
by design to keep us thinking we NEED to take anything to get out of
there (which seems to be everywhere lately) and with the number of
trucks competing for runs it's dog eat dog, (hell someone took all those
runs I turned down).
Well I guess I really don't have much to add that hasn't already been
brought up here many times before

[Mare]

and with the number of
trucks competing for runs it's dog eat dog, (hell someone took all those
runs I turned down).

That reminds me, a few weeks back while in the Chicago area, we took a run that is typically "cheap". We took it because it was a Friday, didn't deliver until Monday and the delivery was about 25 miles from our house. We had been needing to get past the house long enough to "regroup" with the dog's laundry and such. (I'm sure you get the picture) Anyway, there were several other Fed Exers there and the thing that really suprised us was the amount of W/G units that were in there to get the freight that "we" thought was cheap!

As offended as I am with all of the cheap load offers lately, if I were white glove equiped with an investment hovering around the 180 thousand and up I would REALLY be irked!

There's always been debate about the pay off for the investment of a reefer or lift gate, if you have reefer, they encourage you to go tval with even MORE of YOUR money invested and you end up in the same lot with all of us surface folks picking up cheap freight. Something's not right about this picture!

[wshort]

Hell even the good paying runs end up becoming cheap if they only send
you out a couple of hundred miles and you sit and rot and then end up
driving back home cutting the pay in half.

[DANMELISSA]

As I posted in the expediter forum, we are leaving for all those reasons. The wife doesnt want to be on the truck, and I'm going solo to another company. FDCC is taking a nosedive, at least the surface side is, I dont know if White Glove will survive after they lose the phizer account to SWIFT or EARL HENDERSON TRUCKING...........

[mrpooh]

I think WG is going down the tubes as well. Either sit or do dollar loads. Last three offers have been at a buck or less. Im finding out that reefers are a total waste. I love to deadhead several hundred miles to pickup a .90 cent load. I think we are packing it in as well. Noticed several carriers at Phizer as well, including a Panther reefer. We started out refusing these cheap loads but only averaged 1000 miles a week. Hard to hang on at these rates and low miles. Some ole thing when you call, nobody knows anything. Like I said, total idiots and ripoff artists.

[Harry]

What I don't understand...even they are cheaper runs and I refused a ton of them............ I had my best month ever in Oct.

Today the (9th of Nov.) I went home to do all the paperwork but we have already over $ 10 000 on the truck.

OK we were very lucky with a CA run and right away a run back to Chicago, but still all together it was very good.

Now my drivers didn't so well and one quit. :wtf:

[mrgoodtude]

We drive for an owner and have reached the end of our rope too...
Our dilemma is different in that he isn't strapped for cash and it makes it easier for us,
The 1st aggravation is that we are letting the owner down, we do our best to do a good job but struggle with accepting low pay runs in a T-val truck, we turned down 15 offers in Chicago the other day alone.
We feel we have stuck it out all year though and the best part of the revnue year is upon us so we stay.
I think alot of people feel the way we do and predict a "mass exodus" come the 1st of the year.
I do submit to everyone that cheaper rates are here to stay and to the Fed's
credit they have at least been aggressive in retaining market share.
We would all benefit from the wisdom of the "Old hands" circa 2000 when everything fell apart, the ones that are still around anyway.
The only way to survive going forward is to not be cash strapped and be savy in the way of micro finance.
If nothing else I take solice in the fact "we are not alone" and I commend everyone that puts themselves out here in the forums with honesty. :cheers: