UPS Rate Hike…Again

[ardgedee]

Shipping company experiences vary wildly based on location. Where I used to live UPS was really good and Fedex Ground got the job done, nothing more. Where I live now, UPS is still better than Fedex Ground -- both are worse than before but not as bad as the stories I hear from people in other parts of the country.

Fedex Air/Overnight is always great, but that's an entirely different operation than Fedex Ground (Ground depends almost entirely on "contractors", workers for Air are full-time employees).

 

[Plain Old Barry]

They deliver 22 million packages per day safely and on time. Assuming that is anything less than spectacular is just plain short sighted and ignorant.

My company ships hundreds of parts nationally with UPS every day with nearly perfect reliability. Some of these parts can be worth $80-$100k in a pizza box sized package. The process often includes a defective part going back to the source, which also has to be delivered in prefect condition.

They also do more than normal everyday shipping. We contract UPS to maintain a last resort critical parts warehouse that's physically located on a major airport. They can reliably have any part in that building anywhere in the US 48 in 4-5 hours.

 

[Plain Old Barry]

Fedex Air/Overnight is always great, but that's an entirely different operation than Fedex Ground (Ground depends almost entirely on "contractors", workers for Air are full-time employees).

Agreed.

A lot of FedEx Ground is what was formerly RPS, mostly franchised routes. The last mile quality can vary greatly regionally. Most of the DC to DC trucking is also contracted based on the many different names I've seen on FedEx Ground tractors around a DC near my office. The inside the DC people are FedEx employees. This particular DC is all midpoint sorting, often tandems, no last mile delivery.

Air / Overnight is definitely more reliable than Ground FedEx. A Ground hi-cube van driver even managed to back into a garden in my front yard as he missed the driveway. FedEx Ground contractors are the only package carriers I've ever seen that doesn't stop in the street. My Ring cameras even managed to record another driver SHOVING my Mark Bass Traveler 2x10's out of the back of the truck, letting them fall to the pavement.

 

[Thumpin6string]

I didn’t say they’d lower them but with the cost of gas going down and the economy improving combined with their service declining they should keep them the same.
Last week I shipped a 6x4x4 box weighing 1lb from Baltimore to NYC via UPS ground and it cost $17.59!

I just shipped a 20"x9" 40 pound aluminum rim (box was 21x21x10) via UPS through Pirateship.com for $24. I gave up shipping through Reverb and Ebay, too expensive. I now only use Pirateship.com for all my shipping.

 

[klejst]

Rate hikes? Not even surprised anymore.

 

[Plain Old Barry]

I just shipped a 20"x9" 40 pound aluminum rim (box was 21x21x10) via UPS through Pirateship.com for $24. I gave up shipping through Reverb and Ebay, too expensive. I now only use Pirateship.com for all my shipping.

Seeing the difference between what I pay as a corporate shipper vs. retail, I'm often surprised Pirateship doesn't have more competition. The spread leaves enough room to provide a great deal and still leave a likely decent profit.