Originally posted by: Triumph
Fedex! Fedex! Fedex! UPS is SUCK. A majority of my experiences with them have been unenjoyable. OTOH, the USPS services 10 times the volume, delivers everywhere, and on saturday, and they've always been great. Why can't UPS do the same? There's no excuse.
I dont think they're taxpayer subsidized.
As far as shippers go, picking one is really consistent on needs. UPS and FedEx offer competitive volume discounts, but some programs give one the edge over the other.
My philosophy is to do business with all of them and see which one is the "best" in the aspect of price, reliability, etc.
I've done USPS. You get free shipping stuff. Prices are HIGH though. With $300 insurance, a 4 pound package cost DOUBLE what FedEx or UPS wanted to charge me on a book rate. And USPS wasnt day defenite.
I've done FedEx. You get CERTAIN stuff free. Prices are very competitive. However, incompetence at the counter didnt impress me.
I've done UPS. You get similar stuff as FedEx. Prices are competitive as well. I've had success with them. I havent had any damage claims, but they did lose stuff that was a PITA to get paid up on.
There are a lot of things one must take into consideration when picking a regular shipper to do business with.
FedEx holes most of their acct reps up in a township outside Pittsburgh. They have a limited amount of field reps. UPS has active reps that serve an area. When I have a problem, I like being able to call someone and show them where problems are occouring in the processes. IE: Billing, service failure, etc.
Tracking. This is a big one. It seems that UPS has better tracking than FedEx IMHO. Refreshes every 10 min rather than 10 hours for FDX. That and I can go local and have them printout full visibility tracking for me to see who dropped the ball during delivery. I'm not sure if FDX has the same, but I'm thankful.
Theres a lot I havent mentioned because nobody has read this far, so I'm gonna go off and do real work now.
-PAB