[Aurornis]

FedEx has been the source of the majority of my delivery problems, too.

I remember one time I sat outside our office and waited for the FedEx truck to come up because the driver had a habit of skipping deliveries and marking them as delivered. I watched the driver go through our office complex but just not stop at the back row of buildings.

Trying to call FedEx customer support was its own frustration. The person on the phone told me some story about how they couldn’t actually get any info about the drivers or their deliveries at the end of the delivery chain. There was no interest at all in the driver who was skipping deliveries, but the person on the phone didn’t seem surprised.

[vikrantrathore]

One reason the quality of service at UPS has traditionally been stronger than at FedEx is that most UPS drivers are full-time employees rather than contractors or temporary staff. Many UPS drivers are able to earn a good living, often better than their peers at other companies including FedEx [0][1]. By contrast, some logistics companies pursue cost savings by classifying drivers as self-employed contractors, thereby avoiding social security contributions and other employee benefits. UPS’s approach reflects the vision of its founders, who believed a company cannot thrive unless it takes care of its employees.

However, the financial markets, which tend to reward short-term returns and a “winner-takes-all” mindset, have often penalized UPS for this philosophy. In recent years, to satisfy investor demands, UPS management has also turned toward cost-cutting measures. This shift coincided with leadership changes, as the current CEO came from outside the company. External leaders often emphasize sales and marketing over operations, and UPS has followed this trend. As a result, UPS, FedEx, and Amazon are now competing in a cost-reduction race, prioritizing sales growth while reducing operational staff—changes that inevitably affect service quality.

One critical element still missing from the broader logistics landscape is a truly integrated, multi-modal framework that seamlessly combines air, road, rail, and water transport to meet diverse customer needs. While rail may be less applicable in the U.S., it plays a vital role in Europe, China, Japan, and India and could be leveraged more effectively. Perhaps modern logistics theory should evolve to reflect this more holistic, global perspective.

[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/18/ups-drivers-can-earn-as-much...

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ups-drivers-170000-pay-benefits...

[nradov]

Rail is more applicable in the U.S. than in any of those other countries. We are the world leader in freight rail volume. Obviously it's not generally used for overnight delivery.

https://railroads.dot.gov/rail-network-development/freight-r...

As for financial markets, your blame is misplaced. This industry is tremendously price sensitive and it seems many customers are willing to accept somewhat worse reliability and service quality in exchange for lower prices. It's similar to passenger airlines in that regard.

[nkrisc]

Our UPS driver lives in our neighborhood. It’s a middle class suburban neighborhood, a nice, quiet place to live. That he can afford to live here is great. Needless to say, we get excellent UPS service. Very nice guy, too.

[Spooky23]

UPS is pretty close to this. UPS Ground will usually load stuff onto multi-modal containers and ship via rail where practical. Fedex does for east->west coast, but they seem to do alot of relayed truck shipping.

Rail is almost always cheaper, and has mostly displaced long haul trucking.

The missing link is water, and the Jones Act, which was specifically intended to destroy intra-US shipping in favor of trucking, has been incredibly successful in doing just that.

[FuriouslyAdrift]

UPS is also the largest Teamsters Union employer in the country (300k members)

https://about.ups.com/us/en/newsroom/negotiations/negotiatio...

[hhh]

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