According to Reddit, the guy was home at the time (made sure the fedex guy could tell this, too) and easily accessible from the callbox on the gate. Dude was just being lazy and/or stupid.
You guys must not realize those boxes are built to handle that and that they take a beatng from the chuckers in the hubs. I should know since I worked at ups for a while during school.
Yeah, I've seen a lot worse. A couple boxes crushed by a lift, a box dropped 10 feet, a box thrown like a shot put about 20 feet. This is nothing new. shippers prepare for this and if the owner isnt lying just to exacerbate the whole thing just chalk out up to the holiday rush.
What Goes Terribly Wrong? Looks like he just tossed it, I was expecting for him to get robbed or for his truck to start moving.
Of course not. He has a "right" to cheap shipping I get people getting pissed off but it's a box, not a family pet. How about talking about TSA agents rifling through you stuff and tossing it back with a note saying "get your freak on".
Of course they're not willing to pay more. Even though demand goes up 10-fold, UPS and FedEx charge the same during the holiday season, so a decrease in service levels during these times shouldn't surprise anyone.
If more people are buying stuff and paying for shipping, that wouldn't warrant a price increase. They hire the employees to keep up with demand, so the price stays flat.
False. They aren't going to buy more equipment (see expensive trucks and planes) and hire more drivers for routes they already have in place, for two months a year. They do hire more people at the sorting facilities, but the guys on routes keep their routes even though demand goes through the roof. The drivers simply work more hours, while either pulling a UHAUL trailer behind their truck or making multiple trips back to the local facility.
I fail to see how that proves my assertion false. People are shipping more things, therefore generating more money for the shipping industry. They, in turn, use that money to hire people (or to pay for overtime hours) to keep up with increased demand. Ergo, hiring more people (or using more man-hours) does not result in a defacto price increase.
This. I've worked in a similar place and it is 10 times worse when these things are getting loaded into and out of the trucks.
To decrease the workload on drivers they would have to buy more trucks and hire more drivers for two months a year. It makes zero business sense to invest in your business infrastructure (see additional equipment and resources) for easily predictable spikes in demand. They would also have to teach said drivers, new routes as the current routes would get shorter. Increasing training time for the sorters who are used to packing trucks for the longer routes, the old drivers who are used to driving the longer routes and the new drivers overall training. Then, they'd have to layoff the new drivers after the holidays and possibly retrain the staff on how to go back to the longer routes. It is a matter of simple logistics. It makes zero business sense to do so and would INCREASE costs across the board.
You realize I'm not arguing with you about whether or not they hire drivers or buy trucks, right? I could care less how they handle the additional demand. My assertion is that the increase in production (however they choose to deal with it, by either increased hours, more man-power, etc.) does not necessitate an increase in price, as ling ling suggested.
Don't worry Donny, I work with these UPS guys and they have told me that with the rise of Internet shopping during the holidays you won't see a freight increase.....just a Holiday surcharge not joking. Dead serious but now a days that's just going to get slapped on the shipper and they'll do what they have to so they can compete.
If it ever gets to the point where we have to pay a fee to not get our monitors thrown over our fences, then I'll be upset.
If you decide to ship anything to Canada, UPS will charge you an extra fee for custom clearance of like $30.... So FOCK UPS!!!
I disagree. To maintain the same standards as non-holiday package delivery I'd say you definitely need an increase in price during that time, which of course won't happen because consumers are fickle. Their profit margins per package go down drastically during the holidays due to their increased manpower costs, including massive amounts of overtime. Of course they make up some of that in sheer volume, but overall the difference in profit per package pre and post holiday season are probably pretty staggering. Either way, seeing that it is a seasonal problem it isn't something they can throw equipment at... all they can do is increase manpower. You can't return a new truck, 18-wheeler or a 737 after two months of use. They also can't just go rent equipment because they have proprietary shipping and tracking mechanisms in place that the equipment would have to adapt to. It isn't an easy problem for any business to be in. Thus the argument, that during the holiday season you're going to see a decrease in service level based on overall demand.
Not to excuse the driver, but they do have options that require a signature for drop-off or else they don't leave it and come back the next day. If I had a gated driveway, I would probably be taking advantage of that.
