Clandestine_ice
TB Veteran
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Funny u should say that in this day and age I could see a liability issue with this. Should we go in the home with full body cam apparatus?Depends on what she looks like and what she’s wearing!!
FedEx Freight | Freight 2020 Needs To Be Shelved
- Thread starter Boats n hoes
- Start date
We have had contractors and technicians installing stuff for freight 2020 off and on for over five months now. They recently put in the antennas (250-300 of them) but I think they still have to run all the wiring for them. It has been pretty surprising to see how much hardware this new system requires. That said, it's surprising and even kind of insulting that no one can seem to get some basic questions about this new system answered.
For example:
My center has something like 12 shipper load and count accounts which probably make up 15-20% of everything on the outbound. Let's say 150 bills and about 400 HU. Wouldn't surprise me if it was more. Bottom line is that we're supposed to tag all that stuff on the dock, which renders the new technology useless to us in that sense. It actually slows things way down.
Further, several of these SLC trailers are often something like one normal skid with three loose boxes which gets billed as 4HU. Or it will be 8HU of mail that comes in four stacks. We tag each piece of freight and send them on their way. Would the new system prompt several employees to visit that trailer and grab one of the eight skids at a time instead of just grabbing each stack? Same question for a skid with a bunch of boxes on it: visit the same trailer numerous times to grab one box at a time for the same shipment? Are we going to require SLC customers to package things differently? I get that some of this is wait and see, but like I said this is regarding at least 15% of what goes on for a fairly large center and even now no one seems to know.
And then we get into the issues of building headloads (still a thing?) moving a big shipment of tall freight all at once to fill up space properly, tags that were applied but unsuccessfully activated (this happens often), how is the city operation supposed to work if elements of the same shipment are headed toward the EOL on separate trailers (bay EVERYTHING?), will this equipment work in the extreme cold? The dock computers mounted to the wall never have problems, but the ones on the forklifts stop working consistently once you get below about 10 degrees.
At my center on the outbound we also have to empty out trailers to the bay to get a new one in and chase for hots in order to barely get by. How is that going to work with this new system? Whenever this thing does start working we're already spending an extra few hours per day tagging stuff while breaking trailers the same way we've been doing for years, which in my mind kind of negates whatever efficiencies we achieve.
The fact that we're not hearing much about the progress on this makes me wonder if they made a mistake going all in with it, or if the communication my center is especially bad.
For example:
My center has something like 12 shipper load and count accounts which probably make up 15-20% of everything on the outbound. Let's say 150 bills and about 400 HU. Wouldn't surprise me if it was more. Bottom line is that we're supposed to tag all that stuff on the dock, which renders the new technology useless to us in that sense. It actually slows things way down.
Further, several of these SLC trailers are often something like one normal skid with three loose boxes which gets billed as 4HU. Or it will be 8HU of mail that comes in four stacks. We tag each piece of freight and send them on their way. Would the new system prompt several employees to visit that trailer and grab one of the eight skids at a time instead of just grabbing each stack? Same question for a skid with a bunch of boxes on it: visit the same trailer numerous times to grab one box at a time for the same shipment? Are we going to require SLC customers to package things differently? I get that some of this is wait and see, but like I said this is regarding at least 15% of what goes on for a fairly large center and even now no one seems to know.
And then we get into the issues of building headloads (still a thing?) moving a big shipment of tall freight all at once to fill up space properly, tags that were applied but unsuccessfully activated (this happens often), how is the city operation supposed to work if elements of the same shipment are headed toward the EOL on separate trailers (bay EVERYTHING?), will this equipment work in the extreme cold? The dock computers mounted to the wall never have problems, but the ones on the forklifts stop working consistently once you get below about 10 degrees.
At my center on the outbound we also have to empty out trailers to the bay to get a new one in and chase for hots in order to barely get by. How is that going to work with this new system? Whenever this thing does start working we're already spending an extra few hours per day tagging stuff while breaking trailers the same way we've been doing for years, which in my mind kind of negates whatever efficiencies we achieve.
The fact that we're not hearing much about the progress on this makes me wonder if they made a mistake going all in with it, or if the communication my center is especially bad.
Last edited:
going coastal
TB Lurker
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Well it’s 2020 and nothing. You would think there would be some information on freight 2020 since it was promoted for a couple of years. I sure miss the old days pick up and deliver freight damage free great customer service and just a little respect from our company.
No F-bdy Bs
TB Veteran
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- 577
Yup.
Supposedly, EVERYTHING was going live today.
Supposedly, EVERYTHING was going live today.
The Nature Boy
16 Time World Champion
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We’re spending millions of dollars on technology to help our dock chimps put stuff in the correct rolling box.
Meanwhile, in Shanghai,
Meanwhile, in Shanghai,
They still have 362 days left to roll it out.
yes they do. don't hold your breath. last year they couldn't talk about it enough. today...….crickets
Even less freight to haul! Bravo
The game has already been changed, Fedex is trying to keep up and not get left behind. XPO wanted Conways ENLO program, but the only way to get it was to buy Conway. Dayton already has a dock system like the one we are trying to implement. Our computer system is way behind, it runs off of Vista. The only company we beat in technology is YRC, and that’s only because they still do stuff with paper and pencil. That’s an exaggeration but not by much.
We still sometimes use sidewalk chalk too.....
Now that we're putting guys out of work for months at a time it might be worth reconsidering wasting thousands of dollars per day on RFID tags as an exercise to get us used to something a child could get the hang of in a few minutes.
This would be a smart place to start cutting unnecessary costs. If any centers are actually using this (are there any?) then maybe pump the brakes on it. Especially given that we have plenty of customers that don't want our drivers in their P&D areas.
This would be a smart place to start cutting unnecessary costs. If any centers are actually using this (are there any?) then maybe pump the brakes on it. Especially given that we have plenty of customers that don't want our drivers in their P&D areas.
Streaker69
The Influencer
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I get what you're saying but some things need to be clarified. First one being that there haven't been any reports of anybody being furloughed or laid off for months. That may change, but as of now that's what it is.
Secondly, Fedex 2020 is already paid for. FedEx isn't a mom and pop company that pays 30% now and the rest when it's done. That money is already gone and there are contracts in place. It may have been delayed because of CDC guidelines and non-essential shut downs, but that's an amendment not a cancellation.
Last I saw, some centers were using the RFID readers and all that other stuff. My center is not, so I don't know if they work or not or if they're worth it.
There haven't been reports of furloughs or layoffs, but they're working on that now. We had paid meetings about this. It is something that is going to happen.
As for the rest of it, what are you talking about? Delayed by CDC guidelines? I haven't heard anything about that. Take a step on any dock and witness the countless tags stuck to the ground and realize that it's a deeply flawed system. Or go to a cold weather dock with no heat and try to get anything to work with WI-FI reliably and in January.
I'm not saying it can't happen, but at the moment it doesn't. And I still haven't heard a convincing argument that it will ever make us money, let alone pay for itself.
Streaker69
The Influencer
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I agree with all of that. All I'm saying is that all of this has already been paid for. There would be no cost cutting if they scrap it because that money is gone.
As early as a month ago I was going through about $40 of tags per week, and spending an hour to 90 minutes per week fiddling with them. It's a bit less now because volumes are low, but do the math. How is this stupid system ever going to pay for itself even if it works like it's supposed to? They should have just projected rates based on the "dimension everything" model the rest of the world goes by and never bothered with the infrastructure. Lord knows we have the data.
But it sounds like we agree that a lot of money was wasted on a system that addresses problems that never existed in the first place, but creates several new ones.
But it sounds like we agree that a lot of money was wasted on a system that addresses problems that never existed in the first place, but creates several new ones.