It may be bad biz in your eyes. change from one set of standards to another often irritate
a group that may have been negatively affected.
bad biz, maybe.
I think that it is bad business in a lot of peoples eyes. It is not changing standards but undermining the efforts of people trying to maintain them who are the ones being effected by these policy changes.
If the quality of the product has diminished certain things in the natural course of biz will occur. Someone sees a weakness or crack in the armour and attacks it ( maybe Elite srvcs)
the company sets new standards which may confuse old timers, maybe. the company
loses to much in the market and shuts down, hope not, a thinning of the herd to help strenghten work ethics and performance, maybe. more accountability, probably some of
all the above.
Well the thing is it is not a product, it is a service which has a different meaning altogether. The natural course of business in this environment is not to cheapen your services but strengthen it and to show the customer there is a maintained standard for these services. The standards which made the company attractive to the customer are not the ones we are talking about here, it is the policy and the performance of individuals who are inexperienced and pretty much useless when it comes to being the elite of the fleet. Work ethics and performance suffers when you have people who have worked hard become discouraged with a company by changing policies which lowers the qualifications of entry into the elite part of the fleet.
This is actually the opposite of "thinning of the herd" through attrition, by allowing trucks to be placed in front of others waiting because of a sale, ahead of people who by the way are proving themselves to the company to do this job, it is actually expanding the fleet - adding more pigs to the feed trough.
one thing is for certain, change. This environment of expediting ( 24 months ) is all I have
ever known of the biz. The way it use to be means nothing to me as it had zero impact on me.
I am dealing with what was placed on my plate April 14th 2007 and going foreward with it.
This is not expediting, it is trucking. For most who are defensive it is showmanship for FedEx. Expediting is really lost as far as I can see, it has changed and will continue to change but if you are only thinking from your inception into this business going forward in this niche market, you may be surprised at what changes are being made.
clearly business savy isnt a fav topic of gregg. while he readily intermixed the term to
vent his irritation, my comment on the fleet owners ability to negotiate and get concessions for his fleet was and is , clearly, business savy.
That's funny Dave, the problem is you don't see the connection between customer service and repeat business. On top of that, you missed the point that putting people who just got their license in a truck in a top position is a very bad thing to do for both the company and the customer. I already worked with FedEx CC long before I did this work, when I was working at the Pharma company and if I knew that the driver of that truck just got his license even a year before, I would not use him or FedEx. WG is supposed to be the elite, it is a marketing scheme that was created to capture an untapped market and has to be backed up by the performance of the division with higher standards being maintained.
It is not that I am irritated, I know the game they are playing and can't blame them in the least, but what floors me is the defense of things you don't know about or take for granted at the company. Remember that you are a tool or resource for them and that is it.
your idealism is better suited for late night sobbing into beers than in the real business world where wheeling and dealing take place everyday, different price lists exist for different customers, different terms are available, tiered rebates to those strong enough to out perform the competition.
clearly while you talk a good game, to a degree, you are very naive in real business dealings.
Dude, your naive. Read carefully what I have been saying and think for a minute. I have to tell you that they can out perform Panther, LEAM, Express-1 without hessitation - they can wipe them out if they want to but they will not. CC is an after thought in the bigger picture, if you don't beleive me, go to memphis and poke your head into their operations center and ask questions.
and i mean this is common place, the very crux of american enterptise in action.
clearly the small business owner is at a disadvantage most times.
but yet small businesses continue to pop up and people succeed.
cleary showing business savy themselves.
Who are we talking about? The owner of the truck or FedEx?
I can tell you right now why FedEx is doing this, money. It has zero to do with anything else but their money. They have to deal with an large amount of paper work and data and keeping the truck in the fleet actually saves them money. The other side of the coin is the relationship they have with the large owners, there is something more than what you see. Unless you are an fleet owner, don't think you know what I am talking about.
"grasshopper, be one with the wind and bend do not stiffen as you will be broken" blind kungfu master to cane.
clearly savage savy.
yet a lesson to learn to be flexable and survive and prosper.
I agree with that but want to add that this is a buisiness, not an RVing club and many people are too defensive over company issues like this one. FedEx looks at you, the contractor as just that, nothing more and by fooling yourself that you are something more than that puts you in a bad position when things go wrong.
the playing field IS NOT level or equal for all players. fact not opinion.
yet success can be achieved if you play within your set of rules ( go ahead ask me how i know).
clearly a difference of opinion.
Actually Dave, it is not my opinion, it is what I have been told by FedEx. A lot of what I have said in the past comes right from them, I won't name names because you don't work for them and I am not contracted with them anymore.
