United Package Smashers

Chicago UPS Workers Brace for Strike

Your packages may be late in Chicago, if Teamsters Local 705 makes good on threats to commence a strike on August 1st if UPS and the union is unable to reach a new agreement. The current contract expires on August 1st. The workers are seeking a raise in benifiets and pay, according to news reports.

From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Local 705 workers voted overwhelmingly Sunday to authorize a strike if a fair agreement isn’t reached. It is seeking a $1-an-hour wage increase across the board and a $1-an-hour increase in benefits, sad Pocztowski, a former UPS driver. UPS offered a 30-cent-an-hour increase, he said, an offer Pocztowski labeled “an insult.” Besides pay and benefits, remaining issues include subcontracting work and job security, Pocztowski said. The six-year UPS contracts at Local 710 and 705 expire at 12:01 a.m. Aug. 1.

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UPS: Air Shipments on the Decline

UPS is reporting a decline in overnight, 2nd and 3rd day express air shipments and a rise in ground shipments, apparently as companies look for ways to trim costs of the bottom line. Competitor FedEx is also reporting similar experiences.

From The Washington Post:

UPS said the average number of daily domestic overnight air shipments it handled slipped 3.8% in the latest quarter compared with a year earlier, while less profitable ground deliveries edged 0.3% higher. Overall U.S. volume was flat. FedEx saw domestic overnight shipments fall 7% for envelopes and 1% for boxes in the latest quarter, compared with last year. Overall average daily U.S. volume declined 3%.

Surely the companies are happy to see their most profitable products used less and their least profitable products getting bought more. Thats always something to make the investors happy.

Posted in All Items, Competitors, FedEx, Profits, UPS Rates, Volume | No Comments »

UPS Pays Insurance Claims… Depending on Who You Are!

We all know what happened to Highland Products in Florida when UPS “lost” one of their packages. But apparently some customers get treated better than others. Take a look at the treatment one customer got when his package turned up missing. Of course, there was no great press to be had for UPS by taking care of the folks at Highland Products. Just a customer to satisfy.

Joe McMahon, the Holbrook man whose package of autographed Rangers jersey numbers was lost by United Parcel Service in April, has received an outpouring from Long Islanders eager to donate to his charity.

…

UPS also said it would donate $2,500 and a photo of jockey Kent Desormeaux and the UPS-sponsored Big Brown, favored to win Belmont Saturday. “Ultimately, we wanted to do whatever it took to make him whole,” UPS spokeswoman Ronna Branch said.

Posted in All Items, Package Abuse, Services | 2 Comments »

USPS to Make More Last Mile Deliveries for DHL

The United States Postal Service has struck a deal with UPS competitor DHL to nearly double the number of packages in which USPS makes the last mile delivery to the customers. DHL typically uses the service in areas where it has not built out its fleet and distribution network.

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UPS and DHL Partner for Air Shipments, DHL to Cut 6,100 Jobs

The financial woes at DHL are continuing as the company announces plans to restructure and simultaneously announces the first phases of that restructuring. The night sort operation at DHL’s Wilmington, OH hub will be eliminated - which is expected to cost 6,100 jobs including the jobs lost at various companies DHL wholly or partly owns at the complex. DHL is outsourcing those operations to UPS in what is currently being called a ‘partnership’ by DHL but that could be the beginning of a sellout to UPS.

Clearly, this means good things for UPS’s sagging profits, as their stock is climbing.

Posted in ABX, All Items, Competitors, DHL, Profits, Services, Volume | 2 Comments »

UPS May Finally Face Trial Over Mailboxes, Etc. Dealings

The Platinum Shield Association said on Monday that a California appeals court has reversed a lower Court ruling that granted UPS’s Motion for Summary Judgment, effectively dismissing the Mailbox, Etc. store owner’s complaints against the company. It now appears that a trail will proceed after nearly 5 years of legal wrangling.

Posted in All Items, Caught in the Act, Employee Abuse, Platinum Shield Association, UPS Store & MBE | No Comments »

Fake UPS Employees Go to Jail

Two women who posed as United Parcel Service couriers to steal packages in San Rafael were sentenced Wednesday, one to jail and the other to state prison. Mari Lynne McClennan, 37, and Sabrina Mamie Ugenti, 24, were arrested in February on Grand Avenue in San Rafael. Their vehicle was stopped by San Rafael police after a resident called in a tip that two women in UPS uniforms were taking parcels from outside homes in the Glenwood and Peacock Gap neighborhoods. Police found numerous packages in the back seat and trunk, and both McClennan and Ugenti had UPS uniforms. McClennan used to work for UPS and kept her brown uniform, police said. The items in the car were linked to six residents, according to court documents.

Posted in All Items, Caught in the Act, Crime & Security, Package Abuse | 1 Comment »

Upset eBay Sellers Encourage UPS Boycott

Sellers upset with recent changes on eBay to the feedback program have begun encouraging sellers to boycott eBay advertisers, including big names like Proctor & Gamble and United Parcel Service. They are calling the date that the changes went into place (05/19/2008) “Black Monday”. The storm on eBay’s feedback changes has been raging for months since the idea was first announced, but this is the first time that eBay sellers seem to have organized a strike plan against the company in retaliation for those changes. This could get interesting before all is said and done.

United Package Smashers has contacted public relations person ell for both the Boycott eBay Advertisers site and United Parcel Service, but we are still awaiting a reply. We will keep you updated on any new developments.

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USPS to Challenge UPS on Price, Not Just Service

The US Post Office is promising to give UPS and other small parcel carriers a run for their money by - for the first time in history - offering price breaks to volume shippers. Up until this point, the USPS charged all customers the same price for identical mail pieces of a given class regardless of quantity mailed, basing all discounts on the degree to which the mail was prepared for delivery and automation by the shipper.

USPS began to update its pricing models a couple of years ago by rewarding customers who use online labels with discounts. The online labels reduce the cost of handling the items, since PostNet bar codes and other automation features are applied before the item is entered into the mail stream, instead of manually by a sort facility. Complete information on the new pricing can be found at: http://www.usps.com/prices.

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UPS Sues New Jersey Lawyer for Trademark Infringement

UPS has sued a New Jersey lawyer, Samuel Z. Brown, of The Law Offices of Samuel Z. Brown - for supposedly infringing on UPS’s trademarks involving the color brown, including the use of Sam’s last name in the domain for his firm’s website.

From The Daily Report:

UPS objects to Brown’s Web site, www.sambrownlaw.com, and his uses of the phrase “See What Brown Can Do for You,” and his “Brown Engine” that performs a “See What Brown Can Find for You” search function. The 101-year-old UPS has used brown as a signifier since 1916, according to court papers. One of the parcel service’s founders, chose the color brown for company uniforms and delivery vehicles because the color “reflected class, elegance and professionalism,” the company said in its pleadings.

Its quite hilarious that UPS thinks it owns exclusive rights to a color which also happens to be a last name. None the less, this is a suit UPS is unlikely to win as the courts have held that common terms can be used by multiple trademark holders in unrelated businesses. For instance, Best Buy would have a hard time suing someone who uses the term “Buy Here, Pay Here” to sell cars.

Since UPS is filing frivolous lawsuits, it has crossed the mind of The United Package Smashers’s webmaster that we could be the next target, since we make use of another part of their trademarked terms “United Package”. We have also made various uses of their brown color scheme in the past.

Posted in All Items, Caught in the Act, Lawsuits | No Comments »