5 ms·

So, They are renting their own trucks for last mile in some cases. But it is just a pick up per day limit. No mention of if you take it to a shipping location y

So, They are renting their own trucks for last mile in some cases. But it is just a pick up per day limit. No mention of if you take it to a shipping location yourself. Bitch to bitch, but take care of your customers.

gruez 6y ago
How expensive could it be to rent your own truck and deliver it yourself to a fedex/ups sorting center? Seems weird that retailers are complaining over a $100 cost (very generous estimate) spread over 100+ packages.
- Hizonner 6y ago
  How many trucks are available for rental? Can every shipper get one? Can small shippers organize cooperatives to get access to them? Who's going to drive them?
  - gruez 6y ago
    >How many trucks are available for rental? Can every shipper get one? Isn't the car rental industry in shambles due to covid-19? There's probably plenty of trucks (or similar vehicles such as SUVs/minivans) available for rent for cheap. >Can small shippers organize cooperatives to get access to them? Small shippers likely won't face issues with volume, and even if they do they can use their own personal vehicles. >Who's going to drive them? All the people unemployed from covid?
    - akiselev 6y ago
      > Isn't the car rental industry in shambles due to covid-19? There's probably plenty of trucks (or similar vehicles such as SUVs/minivans) available for rent for cheap. I've been renting a full size pickup truck from my local enterprise RAC for less than the price of their cheapest sedan over the last month, but my friends renting uhauls have had a lot of trouble getting them.
  - rootusrootus 6y ago
    Depending on how motivated you are, pickups are the most popular vehicle on the road and we already know that gig drivers will happily take up the slack for a few bucks.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- csharptwdec19 6y ago
  > Seems weird that retailers are complaining over a $100 cost (very generous estimate) spread over 100+ packages Some counterpoints: - 100 as a cost for a truck run sounds like it could be a little low; you've got to load/unload them, and I'm not certain what the drop-off process looks like if you have more than a couple packages. I know from experience, loading up a van full of 50 PCs and monitors, driving to a location, and unloading, then driving back is a 1-2ish hour job for two people. (And in that case, the Van was already owned.) Yes that's a bit more of an 'extreme' example but since Newegg was one of the impacted retailers it felt like a relevant example. - Online retail's 'Race to the bottom' has eliminated for many industries the ability to buffer for cost shifts like this. By that I mean, 100$ over 100 packages would still be an extra dollar per package. But if you're selling 5-10$ gloves, that 1$ may be cutting your profits in half.
  - hef19898 6y ago
    If you get a truck, that would be 100 for the truck, and the driver is most likely on the payroll already. Being a big enough shipper, you should get the loading equipment from UPs, if you don't have it already. Preload the goods, roll them on your truck, deliver them to depot and roll them of again. Or use pallets, if UPS is ok with that. Getting the slots at the UPS depot might be tricky, so. It shouldn't be such a huge cost driver, so.
    - bluGill 6y ago
      The driver might be on the payroll, but you need to hire someone else then to do whatever job the driver was doing before. Oh, and better check with your insurance and local laws. When you pay someone to drive for you all sorts of regulations come into play.
      - hef19898 6y ago
        True that! Maybe a good reason to not use semi trucks, driving times are less strict for 3.5 tons over here. If it is not getting out of hand, these things should still manageable, so. Also playing with specific pick up schedules and ship methods, e.g. express vs. standard, can help. All in all some very nice Q4 stuff!
- dghlsakjg 6y ago
  I've dealt directly with this issue, and I would say that $100 is nowhere near enough. Daily costs might look like this for the operation I was involved in (Cap. hill Seattle). Rent a truck for a day (if available. every other business is trying to do the same thing): $20 Insurance for rented truck: $20 Parking for rented truck: $25 Loading, driving, and unloading truck 2x people for 1.5 hours at holiday rates $20/hr (if you can spare the labor, hiring someone you can trust to drive a truck/van is harder than it sounds): $60 Mileage charge for U-Haul ($1 per mile): $5 I would say that $130 is an absolute bare minimum to budget for. Keeping in mind that the shipper is still charging you the same amount as they were for pickup service. Logistics is hard.
  - scoopdewoop 6y ago
    $100 is nowhere near enough, but you estimate it at $105 with a $25 parking fee?
    - dghlsakjg 6y ago
      The OP said that $100 was a generous max high end. I estimated $130 as an absolute bare minimum for the operation I was familiar with, it was based on the real world. Feel free to take away the parking for a location that doesn't have paid parking. But make sure to factor in that the mileage and labor hours must also go up if the depot is farther away. The larger point is that it is an additional expense and operation that small businesses need to deal with at the busiest time of year.
- Judson 6y ago
  The cost of the rental truck may be the least important piece of this equation. Depending on the pickup shortfall, I could easily see the need for multiple trucks needing to go to each carrier's facility. You're also going to multiple employees per truck, with at least one being more senior since there could be tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise. They'll need to get to the carrier facility and make sure the boxes are scanned, because they are now a variable in the transport, and it would look bad if a box went missing and supposedly never made it to the carrier. At the warehouse we have cameras that make it unnecessary to watch the boxes being scanned. Not to mention customers check tracking like hawks and would call and take up support resources wondering about their box that "shipped" but the tracking page says "Fedex is waiting on your box to arrive". On top of this, carrier pickups are typically scheduled as late as possible. We lobbied heavily for our UPS / Fedex pickups to be 6pm (or later during peak). So you're going to need to send employees to the carrier at 6:30pm or later, dropping the truck off at the warehouse at 7:30 (at the earliest) after loading/unloading/scanning (It was a 15 min drive to the carrier center). So they're getting home at 8pm, and need to be back at the warehouse at 7am to pick all the orders for the next day.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  > Seems weird that retailers are complaining over a $100 cost (very generous estimate) spread over 100+ packages. Well if you were making $1 profit on each package you've now got a serious problem haven't you?
jgjr 6y ago
As I've repeated above, this is not a pick up per day limit. This is a package scanned per day limit. We were told explicitly that they would turn us away and place a hold on our account if we brought them to the hub ourselves. I even offered to drive to major hubs hours away if it meant getting this packages injected into the system.

gruez 6y ago

How expensive could it be to rent your own truck and deliver it yourself to a fedex/ups sorting center? Seems weird that retailers are complaining over a $100 cost (very generous estimate) spread over 100+ packages.

Hizonner 6y ago
How many trucks are available for rental? Can every shipper get one? Can small shippers organize cooperatives to get access to them? Who's going to drive them?
- gruez 6y ago
  >How many trucks are available for rental? Can every shipper get one? Isn't the car rental industry in shambles due to covid-19? There's probably plenty of trucks (or similar vehicles such as SUVs/minivans) available for rent for cheap. >Can small shippers organize cooperatives to get access to them? Small shippers likely won't face issues with volume, and even if they do they can use their own personal vehicles. >Who's going to drive them? All the people unemployed from covid?
  - akiselev 6y ago
    > Isn't the car rental industry in shambles due to covid-19? There's probably plenty of trucks (or similar vehicles such as SUVs/minivans) available for rent for cheap. I've been renting a full size pickup truck from my local enterprise RAC for less than the price of their cheapest sedan over the last month, but my friends renting uhauls have had a lot of trouble getting them.
- rootusrootus 6y ago
  Depending on how motivated you are, pickups are the most popular vehicle on the road and we already know that gig drivers will happily take up the slack for a few bucks.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
csharptwdec19 6y ago
> Seems weird that retailers are complaining over a $100 cost (very generous estimate) spread over 100+ packages Some counterpoints: - 100 as a cost for a truck run sounds like it could be a little low; you've got to load/unload them, and I'm not certain what the drop-off process looks like if you have more than a couple packages. I know from experience, loading up a van full of 50 PCs and monitors, driving to a location, and unloading, then driving back is a 1-2ish hour job for two people. (And in that case, the Van was already owned.) Yes that's a bit more of an 'extreme' example but since Newegg was one of the impacted retailers it felt like a relevant example. - Online retail's 'Race to the bottom' has eliminated for many industries the ability to buffer for cost shifts like this. By that I mean, 100$ over 100 packages would still be an extra dollar per package. But if you're selling 5-10$ gloves, that 1$ may be cutting your profits in half.
- hef19898 6y ago
  If you get a truck, that would be 100 for the truck, and the driver is most likely on the payroll already. Being a big enough shipper, you should get the loading equipment from UPs, if you don't have it already. Preload the goods, roll them on your truck, deliver them to depot and roll them of again. Or use pallets, if UPS is ok with that. Getting the slots at the UPS depot might be tricky, so. It shouldn't be such a huge cost driver, so.
  - bluGill 6y ago
    The driver might be on the payroll, but you need to hire someone else then to do whatever job the driver was doing before. Oh, and better check with your insurance and local laws. When you pay someone to drive for you all sorts of regulations come into play.
    - hef19898 6y ago
      True that! Maybe a good reason to not use semi trucks, driving times are less strict for 3.5 tons over here. If it is not getting out of hand, these things should still manageable, so. Also playing with specific pick up schedules and ship methods, e.g. express vs. standard, can help. All in all some very nice Q4 stuff!
dghlsakjg 6y ago
I've dealt directly with this issue, and I would say that $100 is nowhere near enough. Daily costs might look like this for the operation I was involved in (Cap. hill Seattle). Rent a truck for a day (if available. every other business is trying to do the same thing): $20 Insurance for rented truck: $20 Parking for rented truck: $25 Loading, driving, and unloading truck 2x people for 1.5 hours at holiday rates $20/hr (if you can spare the labor, hiring someone you can trust to drive a truck/van is harder than it sounds): $60 Mileage charge for U-Haul ($1 per mile): $5 I would say that $130 is an absolute bare minimum to budget for. Keeping in mind that the shipper is still charging you the same amount as they were for pickup service. Logistics is hard.
- scoopdewoop 6y ago
  $100 is nowhere near enough, but you estimate it at $105 with a $25 parking fee?
  - dghlsakjg 6y ago
    The OP said that $100 was a generous max high end. I estimated $130 as an absolute bare minimum for the operation I was familiar with, it was based on the real world. Feel free to take away the parking for a location that doesn't have paid parking. But make sure to factor in that the mileage and labor hours must also go up if the depot is farther away. The larger point is that it is an additional expense and operation that small businesses need to deal with at the busiest time of year.
Judson 6y ago
The cost of the rental truck may be the least important piece of this equation. Depending on the pickup shortfall, I could easily see the need for multiple trucks needing to go to each carrier's facility. You're also going to multiple employees per truck, with at least one being more senior since there could be tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise. They'll need to get to the carrier facility and make sure the boxes are scanned, because they are now a variable in the transport, and it would look bad if a box went missing and supposedly never made it to the carrier. At the warehouse we have cameras that make it unnecessary to watch the boxes being scanned. Not to mention customers check tracking like hawks and would call and take up support resources wondering about their box that "shipped" but the tracking page says "Fedex is waiting on your box to arrive". On top of this, carrier pickups are typically scheduled as late as possible. We lobbied heavily for our UPS / Fedex pickups to be 6pm (or later during peak). So you're going to need to send employees to the carrier at 6:30pm or later, dropping the truck off at the warehouse at 7:30 (at the earliest) after loading/unloading/scanning (It was a 15 min drive to the carrier center). So they're getting home at 8pm, and need to be back at the warehouse at 7am to pick all the orders for the next day.
chrisseaton 6y ago
> Seems weird that retailers are complaining over a $100 cost (very generous estimate) spread over 100+ packages. Well if you were making $1 profit on each package you've now got a serious problem haven't you?

jgjr 6y ago

As I've repeated above, this is not a pick up per day limit. This is a package scanned per day limit. We were told explicitly that they would turn us away and place a hold on our account if we brought them to the hub ourselves. I even offered to drive to major hubs hours away if it meant getting this packages injected into the system.