FedEx - Whats Up?

Why is it that UPS, or Yellow, or Conway truck drivers are so much better and more considerate drivers?

Does the fact that many FEDEX drivers are owner operators (contractors) get FEDEX off the hook for legal liability when they wreck? If so, that would explain much.

Oh yeah, and please feel free to patronize me whenever you feel like.

Here's an ideal, I mean IDEA, you obviously never thought of:

Maybe I've been in a truck that usually pull pups and I know how easily they want to swing around, and yes, maybe I have driven an ungoverned truck before.

 

It's not just on the roads. Try pulling into a truck stop near a Fed-Ex terminal one morning. They stand right in the doorway allowing no one around and shoot all kids of evil looks if you dare say "excuse me".

I know not all of them are bad, but they certainly have more than their fair share of super truckers!

 

I have driven for Fed Ex Ground for 5 years, and we do get enough time to get where we need to be. You have aggressive drivers everywhere. I am not a o/o but I do drive for one, and some of them are bad as well. I happen to drive for a very good one. We are not told to take it out of gear going down hill, I use my jake. Going down hill you have alot of momentum and the back trailer will bounce around , that scares many people who are around them. You might take that as aggressive but as a driver of doubles for 5 years I would chose that over a 53' they are much easier to handle when you know how to drive them.

 

Heres my beef:
I've been driving this route which is about 215 miles to the end of my route, then I come back empty. I run the Three Sisters in Western WY and lemme tell you that of all the crashes involving trucks, FOUR of them have been Fed-Ex hauling doubles. A couple have been jack-knives, one had one of the pups totally destroyed (including a good chunk of the packages inside equally shot or tossed all over the highway. I helped out another Schneider driver last week who himself saw another fed-ex doubles accident that week. The thing is that if I myself see and hear of five accidents over 3 months on a 100 mile stretch (which is where all five happened), what does that mean about the entire REST of the country involving fed-ex?

The problem is that they seem to much more concerned with getting the packages there on time, compared to them arriving in one piece, or being concerned about driver safety.

 

The guys that are driving these trucks are at times very inexperienced working for peanuts for the guy that has trucks leased on to Fed-Ex ground. The pressures they are under coupled with inexperience are exactly why these guys are crashed so often. When the weather goes bad, it's a guarantee that you're gonna see these guys off of the road somewhere on your route. One answer is probably gonna be governing them because, most of the guys drivin' these things have no business pullin' doubles.

 

I have been with Fed Ex Ground for 5 years and have 10+ years experience with no accidents and the owner operator I work for pays me very well, one of the reasons I am still here. Yes there is some inexperienced drivers, but if you have never pulled doubles then you really do not know what your talking about. We also get plenty of time to get where we are going. It takes a little more then a steering wheel holder to drive doubles. Not everyone can or wants to drive doubles but I would take them over a 53' any day.

 

Well I dunno...I figger that if Fed-Ex didn't rush (as some claim) then I wouldnt have seen four accidents, heard of another, and have my wife see one last night that resulted in what we have heard to be a fatality.

About two weeks ago, my Safety boss from the comp came up to do a 90day eval on me and go over some fuel saving stuff. We ended up talking with another driver I meet up with and he made the point which I think applies to some doubles drivers. He said that lots of people go out and get an endorsement for doubles or triples and start driving them right away with no experience driving them at all...thats part of the problem.

 

I totally agree with you here. I would not say all FedEx drivers were like that but I have seen a few. I got doubles endorsement but I got no desire to run doubles. I have seen drivers that had a hard time tryin to keep them in the road and can see where they could get out of control way too easy!

 

Great then why do ALL, yes, ALL FedEx trucks seem to be driving like a bat out of hell everywhere I see them? If you have plenty of time you should not need to routinely drive 10mph over the speed limit, Right?

I thank you for coming here and saying that FedEx loads have enough time to drive legally for on time delivery so I won't feel bad about calling the company safety dept when I see you guys doing 65 in a 55 switching from lane to lane going down I-5.

 

Report them, get em fired so we can get their jobs!