Swallowed by Corporate America
The legacy of James E. Casey, founder of United Parcel Service, has been swallowed by the corporate mentality running the show. Mr. Casey's feeling that the company was about the people that worked there has been thrown in the trash. Todays CEO's are all about profit, money, and the stock holder. Any operation is subject to the effect on the bottom line. Every person is only as important as their effect on the bottom line. There is no function important enough to be kept if it effects the bottom line. The bottom line is why you have seen the destruction of the safe driving award system. The attitude has changed from upper management that safe driving is a condition of employment. Your reward is that they won't fire you, if you have no accidents. The implementation of Telematics is about replacing costly management people with a machine capable of supervising the hourly workforce thus saving money in wages and benefits by eliminating people.
"Take people out of the equation and you improve the bottom line".
The driver is still a necessary evil because the technology does not exist to replace them. You can bet that someone somewhere is working on the problem.
The legacy of James E. Casey died on the day of the IPO, (Intial Public Offering), of UPS stock. The thought behind that push was the desire of upper level management to drive the value of the stock up before they sold it off. One of the reasons the stock value has remained so flat is because the old time upper level management has put a glut of stock on the market keeping the value of that stock low. They of course sold their stock at the moment of high price and have walked away from the company leaving the world you live in today as a driver.
Remember, every time you ask for, or need, anything from the company, the background question is, "what does it mean to the bottom line".
Cost of health care? Bottom line. Cost of pensions? Bottom line. Cost of wages? Bottom line. Cost of vehicles? Bottom line.
You have been swallowed by Corporate America. Welcome to the "bottom line".
I imagine if somehow Mr. Casey could come back today, he would not recognize the company he left behind. Nostalgia is just that, but it is comforting to remember the man who started the UPS Thrift plan, which is sorely missed by all those who recall it.
I thought during my 30 years, the best CEO was Oz Nelson, who was quickly replaced by Jim Kelly. Oz was a man who did amazing things in the history of UPS. He created the "Delivering our Future" program, and increased the awareness of the entire company concerning the driver's front line job, and it's importance.
Both Oz Nelson and James Casey, with all their experiences and skills, would not fit in with the modern day scheme of things at UPS. They would not know how to start the day in this new world.
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