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FedEx Ground - Insider's View

FedEx Ground • Lost • Insurance • Wrong address • Insider's view • FedEx --- • FedEx Buys Kinko's

Jack of Texas (11/30/03):
I'm writing in response to the consumers that have complained about the services of FedEx Ground. I am a package handler that works at the Houston terminal and have worked at another FedEx Ground terminal that I wish not to name to try to keep my identity unknown.

There are several reasons why consumers packages are being damaged; I'll try to cover all them. First of all, wherever the customer might be sending or receiving their package(s) most likely would be considered outbound because it is going out of the local delivery area. Take it from me, outbound packages are treated like second-class citizens because no one in that terminal makes money off of those packages. No one except the one manager that is in charge of that truck that gets the outbound packages loaded into them.

Trust me when I say, the way that truck is loaded is extremely substandard and no person in charge seems to care. Why? Because it is the outbound trailer. That terminal doesn't take a financial loss if the package is returned because it is not in their delivery area.

Next, when the package does finally get to the area in which it is to be delivered, that is when it can take even more damage. When the packages are unloaded out of the trailers, they are sent down a conveyor belt to be loaded into the right delivery truck. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, it should be if FedEx Ground wasn't so money conscious.

You see, we package handlers are only part-time workers who are limited to less than 25 hours a week within a 5 day work week. With that in mind, the people in charge (who by the way get bonuses as long as they keep us under 25 hours) try very hard to make sure that we do not exceed 25 hours. So, packages come down the conveyor belt at an unbelievable and probably unsafe rate. On several occasions, every day, we have many packages just falling off of the conveyor. Many times, the packages are already damaged and open when they get to the package loader.

There are package handlers that toss packages as well. I will not make excuses for them, but I do understand why it happens and I'll try to make you understand too. Many package handlers are overworked. We do a conceivably 8-hour job in a 4-5 hour span. We don't get enough hours and are offered no benefits. We are often mistreated verbally and fired for personal reasons. I've seen people, including myself, have to load as many as 4-5 trucks while handling over 1,000 packages in that 4-5 hour span. We are often shorthanded and forced to do more work without any incentives at all.

Then there are the delivery drivers. You see, they are not FedEx Ground employees; they are contractors. The only incentive they have concerning a package is to deliver it. It doesn't matter if it gets signed for as long as it's dropped off. Once that happens, good luck to the customer if something is wrong. The tracking system is flawed because of all the places the package travels. The people in charge, bottom line, do not really care about anything but the delivery of the package. FedEx Ground deals with so much volume that if a few packages get damaged then they won't lose that much.

From my personal experience, FedEx Ground is a huge corporation built upon a system that only benefits the management, not the package handlers, contractors, or more importantly the customer.

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