UPS/FedEx

Love the summertime rates, NOT! You would think with fuel coming down a little they wouldn’t go overboard with fuel charges.

Current Fuel Surcharge Rate for Package Services:

Ground
Through June 5, 2011: 8.50%
Effective June 6, 2011: 9.50%

Air and International
Through June 5, 2011: 15.00%
Effective June 6, 2011: 16.00%

Yeah, I hear you. That’s cold…(and Im not talking about temperature-controlled shipping either)

Every time I boot up UPS WorldShip it goes through an update and flashes a box at me telling me it’s adjusting fuel surcharges. %*$#@!!!

Old thread, I know, but I thought my comments might fit well here based on the title.
With one more shipment to go in my shipping season, here has been my experience so far.

FedEx, flawless with about 5-6 shipments. All on time and 0 damage.

UPS, sh*t show. Out of about 4-5 shipments, they rerouted on their own accord at least 3 of them. I had to intervene so the wines were not returned. The latest was my Saxum yesterday, but they also did the same for a shipment earlier in the week and my Bedrock shipment in October was also flagged to return to the fulfillment house. Only through some phone calls/emails from me and the winery, we’re we able to fix the issues.
How the reroute requests happened, no one seems to know, which is even scarier.

Around here, UPS is more reliable for some reason. Our UPS driver is personable, and offers to adjust his route to accommodate me. FedEx, not so much.

My recent experience is that neither has been either flawless or a sh*t show, but UPS has outperformed FedEx. Both have had issues, and both have had at least some shipments show up right on time. Neither has had any damage issues, so that’s good. But re-routing and tracking and timeliness have been issues for both, with FedEx performing more poorly than UPS.

My latest (pasted from the other thread, where I posted it last night, Thursday the 12th):

Here’s my latest puzzler, and this is on FedEx, not the seller, but I had a box due to arrive on Friday the 6th. The last “status update” on their tracking website was that it arrived at the local hub at 8:30 that morning and was on a truck for delivery at 9:00 that morning. All day it showed Friday as the expected delivery date, but no delivery. Then the expected delivery date changed to Monday (where it usually rolls to Saturday or Sunday for home delivery when they fall behind) but the last tracking status update never updated from “out for delivery 9am Friday.” No delivery Monday. Then the expected delivery date changed to “Pending” but still no update on the tracking status after “out for delivery 9am Friday.” It has been that way ever since, until tonight. Now it shows an expected delivery date of tomorrow with “arrived at local hub 7:55 pm” (tonight the 12th) as the first tracking status after “out for delivery 9am” on Friday the 6th. Anyone have a guess as to where the box actually was between “arrived at local hub” at 8:30 am/“out for delivery” at 9 am on the 6th and “arrived at local hub” at 7:55 pm on the 12th? Inside the distribution center the whole time, buried under other parcels? Riding around on a truck every day for a week? Sitting in a truck in the parking lot for a week, with no one realizing the truck still had package(s) in it? It never showed as “delivered” so I don’t think it was, for example, delivered to the wrong person and sat on their porch for a few days before they called and had FedEx pick it back up, but these are crazy times in the package delivery world.

Update added as I post this - The status updated this morning to “at local FedEx facility” as of 4:30 am, but not “On FedEx vehicle for delivery,” which it would normally show by now if I were going to get it today. So maybe I won’t get it today after all?

Same. It doesn’t matter what is getting shipped to me - if it’s FedEx, it’s going to be a circus. Every time I get a notification from a winery that my wine is coming FedEx, I cringe.

Similar to Dave’s story…

I have had shipments say they are scheduled for Friday. Even said it was out for delivery. So I stay home to receive them.

Once, I got an email saying an attempt was made, but no one was home. [wow.gif]

Once I got an email saying status was changed to Monday. So Saturday I go do my thing only to find out they delivered the wine. Of course it was stolen.

So back to FedEx… not wine, but a coat.

Ordered last weekend a week ago. Monday it ships for delivery on Friday. Is coming from NYC to Chicago. Wednesday it makes it to Virginia. Took 2 days to get from NYC to Virginia. No status until today. Sat in Virginia for 5 days. Obviously didn’t get it on Friday. Today I get notice it’s in Mississippi! No estimated date for delivery.

Made it to Mississippi on Monday. Today, Thursday, it’s in Kansas.

Speaking as a consumer, I much prefer UPS. notified this morning my package was loaded on a fedex truck and out for delivery. Still shows as out for delivery, but the delivery day has been changed to next Tuesday. I guess my package will be tooling around the neighborhood for 5 days…

My package next went to Milwaukee, but I finally got it here in Chicago over the weekend. Took 13 days to go from NYC to Chicago.

It’s SO annoying - they are so busy, making SO much money, and, of course, increase rates YEAR AFTER YEAR AFTER YEAR

Try working in an industry with tens of millions of FedEx, UPS and DHL shipments every year. Wine shipments are but a grain of sand on an endless beach.

So far this season FedEx flawless. UPS, not so much. My last UPS wine shipment was supposed to be held at the terminal for pick up. Tracking said it was all good. Never made it.

+1. now personally working with the volume crush. 99% successful delivery is still a lot of missed packages.

Exactly. FWIW, at least for our company, with about 17,000,000 shipments in 2020 (despite reduced COVID volume), UPS far outperforms FedEx.

To be fair. Their (FedEx) operating margin is under or right around 1%. That’s pretty thin.
Im curious how they do for 2020 given the increase in volume. And fuel prices have stayed fairly stagnant right?

Edit: just took a look at UPS. DAMN they’re at 5.4% for 2019 net profit.
what is Fedex doing wrong. LOL

No. Fuel prices dropped 30% in April, and have barely budged since then.

I would assume fuel and delivery personnel are two biggest line items for UPS & FedEx?