More of the same

I haven't posted in a while because there really hasn't been all that much to add. We snuck in a long weekend and got married. I've temporarily given up my consulting business to take a full time job so that we can plan his next move and save up for his inevitable unemployment. How can you find work or plan a business when you spend most of your times focusing keeping a route running?

We will be getting rid of this nightmare, the next step is to decide what to do next. Sell the route hopefully with the truck. The problem is there is a confusing issue, where some people "buy" routes, his terminal, when someone decides to leave their route, it doesn't seem like any selling goes on. Its very vague.

Over the past year there have been some good things and mostly bad things that have gone on at FHD.

Good: They instituted the "swing" driver policy, which allows you to "buy" vacation time. A few of the drivers have taken on more temps so the "what is your supplemental driver plan for peak season" became non existent.

Bad: All the BS that always happens - nuff said, read people's comments here. The new announcement is "We are having "mandatory Mondays" during peak season this year". So far they have been light and it really hasn't solved all the problems with package overload that the terminal is having. Guys aren't getting out of there until 10:00am lately with 10 hours+ worth of stops. Ho HO Ho. Happy holidays right?

They tried to convince my husband to hire a "runner" this year to run the packages. When he pointed out that he has no desire to do W-2's they said, "Oh, no, the runner would be a contractor". HUH? As if they aren't pushing the envelope on declaring the "Owner Operators" are contractors, they are trying to define someone who "shows up when you tell them, and does everything you tell them to do all day" a contractor. Any OO that hires one of these "contractors" is seriously running the risk of having the IRS/State Labor division come after them. I imagine that FHD thinks that most "contractors" don't have a brain so they can feed them any line of BS they want.

Dear Sir or Madam. Sorry to be so negative

An Anonymous Contractor posted yesterday in the "Sound Off" section on the side bar. I thought I'd answer his/her critique and analysis of my journal entries but since he/she didn't leave a reply e-mail please bear with me if I'm being a little redundant.....

Anon: A couple of things..There's just way to much complaining going on here.

Me: I'm sorry that it bothers you that I primarily have negative things to say. Yes, there is a lot of complaining going on here in this personal BLOG but again this is my opinions and observations. Some nice customer service people from FedEx have commented that some of this info helps them understand what many go through so ( *hi! And thanks! To them* ) I'm glad that my negativity does have a potential for positive outcome for some.

I WISH I had more positive things to say and like I mention above, YOU are more than welcome to comment here. If you want to explain the good aspects of doing this rather than tell me that I'm wrong -- comment or send it as an e-mail and I'll gladly post it with a title - so you can share your experiences and contradict my complaints. I'd love to hear from anyone that is happy doing their route and are having good experiences because from what I can tell there MAY be some out there. Maybe you are one of them. Maybe you can share insight how you've made your route better or more productive. Sadly, though, I only hear from aggravated and ex-and-glad contractors through posts and e-mails.

As a matter of fact, I haven't posted much lately because ALL I would be doing right now is bitching -like a broken record- about the same things every day. It is peak season and it just plain SUCKS, more so than last year. I miss my boyfriend - the BEAR that shows up at my house each night whom I feed before he crawls into bed is a poor substitute.

And I've tried to point out the good things in posts, but like I've said - we've been finding much more bad than good in this venture. I feel he signed on to the deal without having a good opportunity to weigh the positive picture with the negative, because, well management would be fools to have a potential candidate talk to contractors that they KNOW would be less than encouraging. So if my voicing my opinion balances out that "super happy contractor people" glossy handout that he was given in the beginning - The one that touted "perfect for soccer moms and retires! " (Yeah, right!) helps anyone at all see that people DO have negative feelings, so be it. Many contractors won't openly talk about anything if they know management can get wind of it and I wish the stories of petty punishments for out of line contractors were fairytales - but local knowledge recently tells me otherwise. All I know is you need to watch what you say in jest to people you know in the terminal -- if you don't want to be threatened with the famous "jeopardized contract" speech.

Anon: I'm a contractor, it's hard work. Maybe some people should just sit behind a desk.

Me: Its not the hard work, as you imply, that aggravates him every day. He's no slacker, trust me and usually takes pride in hard work. In all the time I've known him he's had "desk" jobs and physically demanding jobs. What appealed to him about this was not being behind a desk again and the thought that it would be a start to running a business. Today, after sitting around all day yesterday nursing what looks like the onset of the flu he is out doing his job. Even IF there WERE a way he could have called in sick he wouldn't have. In the over 10 years I've been with him he's called in sick to work maybe 2 times. He's taken two days off from FHD total in over 1 1/2 years being there, gets his service bonus every month, and has only had one valid claim ever. He tries very hard to be a professional - tries to be courteous and customer oriented, keeps his truck maintained and (I think overly) clean. I tell him how proud I am of him and he says, "Yeah? You girl, have issues. How can you be proud of me getting into something that sucks so bad?" He is frustrated and disillusioned and I'm saddened to see how his enthusiasm has gone down the drain.

His complaints AND the complaints of many other posters are over the utter lack of control over their own "business", and the downright underhanded way the company decides to bend and change rules, contract and modes of operations to fit their plan with total disregard of any the objectives or input of the "contractor businessmen". He and others thought it was a reasonable contract and a true business deal only find out the just how wrong they were. The only "proprietary interest" he has is on paper to make it look like it complies with the 1099/SS-8 formula. Come on, they flex around zones at will claiming its part of the contract - they can do it because their definition of core zone is as loose as the rest of the worthless contract. This is why the lawsuits like in California are beginning to roll. I don't know, perhaps they don't pull crap on you or you don't care.

So get out you might say? We are looking at options for using the truck he's now stuck with in a real business by the time the contract is up. He EXPECTES hard work but for something he can control, grow and treat as his own true business entity. Not the "job" - where you are responsible for buying and maintaining an expensive vehichle - that FHD is. People start businesses so that they can call at least some of the shots, not to be told how and what to do day in and out. The only shots it seems he gets to call is -should he do the route in a different order today -does he risk leaving that package there -should he stop in a bathroom to take a piss or will the snapple bottle do -will he get gas before going to the terminal or later -will he change the oil Sunday or Monday. And don't tell me its the nature of the model. My father ran a food delivery route which was a true Independent Contractor Delivery model with control over volume, hours, growth and potential expansion - it was a far cry different than what FedEx doing. They just look right on paper.

Anon: I do have a problem with two entries that are conflicting. If he has a tight route (178 stops - urban) how in the hell could an appointment stop take 50 miles and 1.5 hours? The total mileage for the route is probably more like 75-90 total miles daily. What gives?

Me: Here is how in the hell and what gives. First off the "tight route" you are referencing is peak season volume and pushing the DOT max for that area. Its been flexed and compressed with his and the adjacent areas normal urban areas only. His rural areas are being done by a neighboring supplemental, he thinks but, even though it is his "core zone/zipcode" managment isn't into discussing it with them. Funny, its his by contract, isn't it? His "normal" urban/rural route averages 100 low-120 high. That day, he had his entire normal area and about 1/2 of a contractor who just left's unfamiliar area.

So The truck was FULLY loaded, with some pretty big items as first stops. It was sprung it on him just as he was about to leave - a morning appointment to go to a place where he'd would be towards the end of the route. Do the route backwards I thought? Well all the end of route packages were blocked by beginning of route packages so he'd have to re arrange the truck, mainly by repacking. So he did the alternative, deliver his first ones, stop, go to the appointment 22 or so miles away, then come back and finish. Since it was his first time in the new area, he really wanted to follow the route plan to avoid running in circles all day too. The emergency road closing and subsequent traffic jam and detour was just the garnish. (PS: FHD charged $15, he got an extra $3 but the burden was basically his)

Happy Holidays - er, um yeah.

Its that time again. The Holiday season, the time for ........

The frenzied rush of shopping and people saying, "Forget the malls, I'm going online and having it delivered" aka the onset of the dreaded "Peak Season".

So far the load is topping at about 178 stops, a little over his individual threshold. They still aren't too happy about the supplemental thing but, he found out "contractor of the year" man isn't hiring as well, so he feels better that their "star pupil" agrees with him.

So, the late long days that make our Holiday's so joy filled are in full swing. Last year it was really tough to get into any sort of holiday spirit, knowing that he was out there nightly busting his ass even on Christmas Eve so that someone could get that last minute present and not have to worry about missing a beat with their family gatherings by bothering to go out an buy it. To him the holidays have become a nightmare that he no longer wants to celebrate.

It aggravates me that FedEx thinks opening Christmas Eve and the Day after Thanksgiving is such a peachy idea to begin with. Customers NEED to have gifts delievered those days? What about PLANNING AHEAD and taking ownership for your gift giving dilemas and procrastination. No, we should make sure that we mess with service people's lives so some idiot can decide 3 days or so before Christmas that he/she needs to buy things and enable this. Its sick.

SO I'm trying very hard to come up with little thing to keep his spirits up, like trying to pack warm/good things for him to take for lunch, stocking up on new thick cushy wool socks and extra warm underware, spare "big" flashlights in case the big spot breaks, and things that last year became critical on cold dark nights. I'm wondering what kinds of survival kits other contractors keep to deal with peak season.

To all you contractors that read these posts, I'm giving you all imaginary hugs because you need one right now. AND, I promise you. I haven't ordered a single Christmas present online.

And So It Begins

They started with the Peak Seaon threshold talks a while back, and, my Boyfriend just couldn't wait to hear what they were "projecting" for him. After all, he's been saying to people that he doesn't want to hire a supplemental, and I guess the spys on the floor got that info back to management (the creepy dude that my BF says is just "too happy all the time" is my suspect). Word is they are shocked or something that he doesn't want to do this, what with all the "earning potential" it brings. I'm sure it shocks them every time someone says, no, its not in my "business plan" to take on the burden of seasonal employees. (Probably because they don't believe that one of the sheep in their flock has chosen to BAH at all and anger them).

He was given an individual threshold that is ALMOST doable under 12 hours so already we know the bonus is gone because there WIIL BE "Did Not Attempts" coming back because he WON'T exceed the DOT limit, he WON'T do the number "fudging" that they'd like either. Word is, they've been doing some number fudging themselves, making sure that there are no over 12hr days even if the day is 13hrs. Believe me, the minute they pull it on him, the minute they make him sign the hours sheet and the numbers have been lowered, I'm calling the DOT 1-888-368-7238 (DOT Safe Driving Violation Number) and letting them know about the creative time accounting they've been doing. I've recommended he start logging the hours and really want to find a way to track it from the scanner itself as proof.

SO, as I've said before, YEAH, RIGHT: Supplementals are GOOD MONEY . OK, Sure -- well, it seems to work out to be about a couple hundred bucks a week after expenses - to worry about: Will the guy quit or call in sick or get hurt and you are stuck with this threshold and responsibility, will the guy "release" packages and in turn get YOU claims, will the guy run the rental into a phone pole and give YOU insurance issues, will the guy DNA a lot and cost you your bonus, make you end up having to deliver a larger bulk anyway? All things that can tick tick tick away from your "great" earnings. He stills sees this as breakeven at best and only headaches for him. He sees it as not what he signed up for, he didn't do it last year, he will not do it this year.

Well, its clearly not a popular stance and the past few weeks pressure has been building up. He is WELL OVER the threashold already and I'm sure it's in part punishment and/or a way to cause problems to say he's not performing - although he generally does more volume than a bunch of the other guys, has maybe one or two claims total, and has taken maybe 2 days off in the year he's done this. Its AGAIN obvious that WAVE MAKERS are dealt with harshly to scare the herd and to make sure that everything goes management's way. Who care's if he's a good performer who takes pride in his work, truck and image - the supposed idea of what they are looking for.

So, right now, its wait and see. He will only do his 12 hours, whatever he doesn't do will come back with him in the morning and if he's got more than 12 hours worth the next day they'll build up. END OF STORY. We know they'll try and say he's not fullfilling his contract which I think is hysterical to say the least. I'm encouraging him to say, its your problem not mine, "I fully acknowledge the contract where it says you reserve the right to allocate packages from my zone to other drivers when the volume is more than I can reasonably handle in a day."

I expect soon to be posting the dramas of "breach of contract" OR alternately "How He Walked Away" in the coming weeks because one or the other is going to give.

I like the idea of one of the commenters to this site. I'm wondering what newspaper would publish a nice story about our own brand of "A Christmas Carol". Probably none, they probably get "great rates".

Why pay for Labor?

My hard drive problems being fixed, I thought I'd post on the latest from today. Other stuff has happened as well but today's little announcement has me hopping mad.

I got a call from the truck this morning from a somewhat aggravated boyfriend. This morning, the terminal manager announced that, since they are short handed, the contractors will be needing to help in some of the package handling functions - sequencing and numbering the packages. He said that it was "majority rule" and since only a couple people voiced a problem - they were rolling with it. My BF says most guys are just keeping quiet and going with the flow but evidently there is one guy pretty pissed. My BF is not all that happy about it either, he thinks it might add another 45 minutes or so to the load time meaning he'll have to get in there even earlier. When peak season hits fully they'll be really screwed.

It seems like a pretty sneaky maneuver on the part of FHD. In my industry, when we are shorthanded, we call say, A TEMP AGENCY to get extra help. They pay package handlers somewhere around $9-$10 an hour. I'm sure they could pay temps a little less. But why bother when you have able bodied contractors around that you can coerce into doing it for free? They didn't offer any money for this extra work that will most likely make a 10 hour day into 11 and so on. If this really was a "business" like they keep insisting, there wouldn't even be this concept of "majority rule" either. How can other contractors have a remote say in determining the work performed by everyone? Were they a unified group, perhaps, but this is supposed to be an independent model. UNREAL

My opinion is he should go in and tell them to shove it for good and figure out how to re-use or sell the truck. What's next? Getting in at 4:00am and unloading the tractor trailers and sorting out their own packages?

What's good and how I think it could be improved.

We were talking the other night about what (if anything) he likes about the "job". Right now the bad outweighs the good, but in all fairness, it isn't my intention to just complain about this whole thing. I just want to contribute an honest bit about things that really happens because we found it so hard to find the truth even from the "test run driver".

He says that, if it weren't for all the BS, what he spends his day doing is all that bad. Once he learned most of his route and stopped having to worry about finding EVERY street, things have gotten a little smoother. He gets to observe more goings on around him and deal with people a little more personally.

Delivering can actually be interesting in some ways, his route is varried between city, suburb and rural so there is plenty of variation to the day in terms of driving and the types of things being delivered. I find it interesting that He gets claims in affluent areas mostly that usually turn out bogus in terms of the release program since there are better ways to put packages out of site. With $500K house I guess you need to find ways to rip off FedEx for your order. The doors may be half falling off, the windows partially boarded up, the paint chipping but they get the wine of the month club? I guess you need priorities in life. All in all, if the day isn't overloaded he can almost enjoy the work and being out and about instead of behind a desk. And, on the non-overloaded days he can actually do what they claimed the division was about, provide friendly neighboorhood type service where he can take the time to chat every now and then.

What makes it bad is, they don't get paid for each attempt to deliver things, the overload means they have to rush if they want to get home at night, the terminal expects them to just "appoinment deliver" and "go back" to the customer without extra payment and that everything that is a problem for FHD logistics is automatically the drivers' responsibility.

Considering what I read about people complaining about the service most contractors have the same situation. If FedEx would take a good look at it from a customer service perspective they could improve both their image and the overall job/business satisfaction of the contractors.

It would take some costs to do but I think these are some things that would be good for management to focus on, albeit probably a fantasy :

Really plan volume by having honest reviews with the contractors about the volume they can handle. Consider the contractors input and be just as flexible as they want the contractors to be. Set realistic package thresholds and get a true estimation of the needed number of contractors. To stay competative doesn't just mean package volume, it means excellent customer service and how can they do this under the pressure to performthey are under?

Build a "small" supply of temp/relief drivers. Either get away from the idea of zero fleet/zero paid employees or build a program where the people who want to run multiple trucks can supply the force but make it worth their while. If you have 100 contractors that may want to take 2 weeks off during the year that is 104 weeks worth of work and if there were a true 3-4 relief only trucks then the contractors could breath a little easier. These reliefs should bear the brunt of claims/insurance. Nothing is more aggravating than knowing that the temp that drove for you lost you your monthly "bonus" because they got a valid claim.

Allow some sort of FHD independent contractors group to be formed. When my father was running a delivery truck for the food industry, he was part of a group that made it possible for them to get things like reduced healthcare, disability, credit unions and other services. FHD is so paranoid about teamsters and unions that they miss the point that having and allowing a support group would benefit them overall.

Encourage contractor input in the "roundtables" rather than shooting down everyone's concerns and questions. Stop this concept of "taboo" subjects and "jeopardizing your contract" everytime you voice an opinion.

I have the feeling that there are a lot of contractors that wouldn't want to walk if things could be improved. The overall concept of what the service is supposed to be is appealing however in its current implementation, it really isn't working. I wonder what other people think is good and what they'd like to see made better.

Search Engine Exclusions?

Something funny I've noticed. For a couple of weeks now, I've seen people hitting this page from search engines like Yahoo. Now suddenly, you can't find a single reference to this page on there. Its like someone magically erased it, or, if I was being paranoid that there was some biased exclusion going on. You have to wonder if FedEx has something to do with it and it wouldn't surprise me.

The Class Action Lawsuit (UPDATED 9/29)

An anonymous commentor asked a question here about the "Class Action Lawsuit". I thought I'd post a little about that today because it also may be helpful to some who don't know about it. The site I mentioned in "A link to FedEx information for FedEx Employees" has a copy of the lawsuit in their documents section, but you may have to create a login to access this PDF file. Its a free site and they promise not sell your e-mail or send spam. I haven't gone through the site nearly enought, but its a good site to find information.

About the lawsuit. There were three FedEx Ground contractors in California - Estrada, Morgan and Roberts who filed the suit requesting that the judge find, in their favor, that they are "employees" of FedEx based on the nature of the contract. The judge picked through the "contract", which sounds identical to the Home Delivery contract, and ruled that two of the contractors were indeed employees. This was decided 7/26/04. They will go through another round of findings to determine the accounting but what it means is, FedEx will need to back pay these contractors for various things. It will be interesting to see what they will be responsible for.

The reason that he did not find in favor of the third contractor was that he was running more than one truck and they felt that multiple route contractors are indeed independent. They also excluded contractors that formed LLC's and Corporations, Temp Drivers, workers who are contracted by contractors and line-haul drivers.

I found it very interesting to read the document because the Judge really scrutinized the contract. I would recommend that anyone considering a route read it. I'm not sure where the ruling will go nationwide, but it does open the door for other people to file in their states since the precedent has now been set. The fedexaminer.com site did mention that there was a meeting at the filing attorney's office on Monday, September 20 for FHD contractors who qualify so it looks like they may be moving forward in California.

My boyfriend had formed an LLC, like many other contractors at his terminal and that may have been a mistake. He formed "after" the contract was signed, so he may have a shot. But, it is also something to consider if you are already a contractor who may be thinking of forming a company.

UPDATE
This is straight from the website of the law offices representing the Californian FHD Contractors. There you can find the press release as well as a copy of the ruling. I've contacted them to ask if they know of any other states pending lawsuits, since I would believe that lawers elsewhere would be trying to get information. I'll post whatever response I get here.

On July 26, 2004, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Howard Schwab issued his ruling in the liability stage of the class-action lawsuit Estrada v. FedEx. The decision, issued following nine weeks of trial and extensive post-trial briefing, finds that all single route pickup and delivery drivers employed by FedEx Ground in California are employees, contrary to the Company's attempt to designate them as independent contractors. The Court also found that the drivers have not been indemnified for expenses incurred in the course of their work, and the Court therefore ordered the parties to return for phase two of the trial, in order to determine the extent of the company's monetary obligations toward class members. A more complete summary can be found in plaintiffs' press release announcing the decision.