Fed EX packages found in ravine in AL.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Dr. Spivey

There is little to no accountability and they don't care. FedEx ground is the worst. I have no problems with UPS or USPS but FedEx has about an 80% failure rate in my experience.

Wow that's a shame, must depend on location .. Our Fed Ex drivers (we have two different ones) are probably the best most conscientious delivery drivers we have ...

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by Dr. Spivey

There is little to no accountability and they don't care. FedEx ground is the worst. I have no problems with UPS or USPS but FedEx has about an 80% failure rate in my experience.

I'm glad you said "in my experience". We'd be out of business vs at it 100+ years if much anecdotal stuff was true because we get a constant stream of packages at 4 locations 24x7x365.

The you get what you pay for cliche is true with shipping. A lot of times complaints come from items shipped at the lowest possible rates. Also, mistakes do happen and I think it's only human when we have a priority delivery that goes wrong and we are upset.

Even with the lowest rate, when something is lost they usually have an idea of when and where.

It would be no surprise if someone in shipping had a breakdown/meltdown or gave up. It's an area with long-term increased business, increased stress, risk, and with lots of staff who face the increasing numbers of people who behave poorly.

[Dr. Spivey]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Wow that's a shame, must depend on location .. Our Fed Ex drivers (we have two different ones) are probably the best most conscientious delivery drivers we have ...

My drivers are fine as well. The problems I speak of all occur en route, once it goes out for delivery, no problem. I have a package right now that left Reno Wednesday. That's the last the tracking shows, it was supposed to be here yesterday. Not a big deal, I'll contact the shipper if it doesn't show up or update in a couple days.

This happens often, the package usually shows up eventually, but the tracking won't show "delivered" for a few days to a week, if ever. If I contact FedEx they will make excuses or lie. If I contact the shipper it all gets straightened out within hours. FedEx=Fail.

[Dr. Spivey]

Originally Posted by imwjl

I'm glad you said "in my experience". We'd be out of business vs at it 100+ years if much anecdotal stuff was true because we get a constant stream of packages at 4 locations 24x7x365.

The you get what you pay for cliche is true with shipping. A lot of times complaints come from items shipped at the lowest possible rates. Also, mistakes do happen and I think it's only human when we have a priority delivery that goes wrong and we are upset.

Even with the lowest rate, when something is lost they usually have an idea of when and where.

It would be no surprise if someone in shipping had a breakdown/meltdown or gave up. It's an area with long-term increased business, increased stress, risk, and with lots of staff who face the increasing numbers of people who behave poorly.

We don't have problems at work either. It's their ground/home delivery service that sucks. I'm allowing for pandemic related issues in my comments.

[woodbox]

In post #5, I wrote:

“ It will be interesting to find out if these were FedEx Express or FedEx Ground packages.
I’m betting it’s the latter. “

My point of that was to remind us that FedEx is a divided company.
FedEx EXPRESS drivers are company employees.
FedEx GROUND drivers are private contractors.

Now, here’s another factor regarding the Ground Service, sometimes referred to as Home Delivery -

Most contractors own and drive their route.
And yet some contractors own multiple routes and hire a driver to do the work.
Turn-over with these hired drivers can be very common.

I did 28 years in the brown package business.
The FedEx Express drivers I’ve known have been dedicated and competent.
The FedEx Ground owner-operators I have known work hard to build their business.
The only time I’ve had a problem with any FedEx shipment, it was when a driver was hired to drive a contractors route.
Perhaps it’s a matter of accountability.

I’d lay odds the matter this thread refers to happened with a Ground Service hired driver.. not an EXPRESS driver, and not a CONTRACT driver.

Please post updates anyone finds.

[RP]

I wonder if the packages had been marked "Delivered."

[Dr. Spivey]

Originally Posted by woodbox

My point of that was to remind us that FedEx is a divided company.
FedEx EXPRESS drivers are company employees.
FedEx GROUND drivers are private contractors.

There is also FedEx Freight. I've had excellent service from them.

[Dr. Spivey]

Originally Posted by RP

I wonder if the packages had been marked "Delivered."

The tracking usually shows "Pending" when they don't have a clue, which is entirely too often.

[RP]

Originally Posted by Dr. Spivey

The tracking usually shows "Pending" when they don't have a clue, which is entirely too often.

I thought that "No tracking available" and "We don't have a clue" were synonymous....

[Dr. Spivey]

Originally Posted by RP

I thought that "No tracking available" and "We don't have a clue" were synonymous....

It can mean a lot of things, sometimes it simply didn't get scanned (human error). Some packages make a long haul in the same trailer. It may stop and take on more packages, change drivers, etc. It won't get scanned until it gets to a hub and the trailer is unloaded. I get this all the time with all the shippers, especially from the west coast and Texas. So, no tracking for 2-3 days and then it appears in Minneapolis, Chicago or Oak Creek Wisconsin. That's understandable.

I shop online a lot and have a small internet business. Looking at my accounts I've sent and received almost 300 items this year. Amazon's shipping, UPS, USPS and FedEx. FedEx is just under 10% of that total but accounts for more problems than the others combined. This is why I have a low opinion of FedEx.

[rllink]

With all these problems and inefficiency plaguing FedEx I wonder why a company like Sweetwater continues to use them. I have had no problems with any of them myself. I just must be lucky I guess.

[woodbox]

Edited from rlink above-
“ With .. these problems .. plaguing FedEx I wonder why a company .. continues to use them. “

Simple- lower rates.

1) Large volume shippers can put a package on a scale with a destination zip code plugged in,
and the computer will display the cheapest rate of the shipping companies available.
Sometimes it’s only pennies, but they add up.

2) Large volume shippers get what I’ll call loyalty incentives.. lower rates.. IF they agree to use a particular carrier for the majority of their outgoing shipments.
Signing a contract with a carrier for a minimum number of packages..usually a percentage of total volume.. can result in tremendous savings.

So when a company offers “free shipping”, they go with the lowest rate, until claims costs overtake initial savings.
That is when they switch to another carrier.

HOWEVER-
these last 20 months have been EXTREMELY difficult for all the carriers.
Unprecedented volume!
And hiring and training qualified personnel has been the proverbial nightmare.
I have friends on the inside still, as well as two retirees who have gone back as Christmas drivers (the big rigs) and its chaos.
Standards have been compromised.
I cut them all a lot of slack.

[rllink]

Lower rates, I'm sure that has something to do with it. But a company like Sweetwater, who stakes their reputation on customer service and fast delivery, isn't going to just go with low bid if they can't deliver.

[Mr. Jelly]

Remember this when you start picking on the post office with the same type of stories. It has nothing to do with the government.

[Photojeep]

While the comments concerning why one shipping company may be used over another are interesting, I'd like to go back to the original story for a moment.

It seems to me that each one of those 300-400 packages can be traced back to the truck it was placed on for delivery, so FedEx surely has their answer right now.

Granted we're talking about a larege number of packages, but we're also talking about a computer system that has the ability to track millions of packages daily.

Why is it we're just being told, and re-told, the same story about the packages being "found in a ravine" but nothing about the investigation? (I just read the exact same story for the third time in a different newspaper)

I hope it's because law enforcement officials are on the case and don't want to jeopardize the investigation and are rounding up those involved.

Seriously, FedEx HAS to have this information. Surely they don't just fling the packages onto trucks with no record of which one got which package.

Best,
PJ