Tag: USA

UPS Franchisees file a complaint

Posted by | Jun 13, 2007 | |

More than 200 owners of UPS Stores across the country have filed a complaint against UPS and its franchiser, Mail Boxes Etc.

The franchise owners said in a filing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that they haven’t been able to make money because UPS undermined them by using the branded stores as drop-off points for prepaid packages and forcing the owners to focus on providing document and printing services.

The complaint, filed in April, claims the business model of the UPS Stores has been disastrous to franchisees’ bottom lines.

UPS bought Mail Boxes Etc. in 2001, and many franchises converted to UPS Stores about two years later.

The UPS Web site permits customers to print out their own shipping labels and pay online for delivery. Then they can drop the packages — for free — at a UPS Store.

Those formerly profitable customers no longer paid the stores directly for shipping, so the stores depended on payments from UPS for those packages, a development the franchisees in the suit said has “drastically reduced” the stores’ profitability.

It can take months, and sometimes years, for a complaint to be certified as a class-action suit, and for the lawsuits to be resolved.

A separate complaint filed May 2 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco accuses UPS of overbilling its franchise owners for shipping rates.

The former franchise owners aren’t so sure that document services can make up their losses.

The UPS Store franchise owners say they are just hoping to get back some of the money from their initial investments, which for some was more than USD 150,000.

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United Parcel Service Ranks No. 43 on the 2007 Fortune 500

Posted by | Jun 13, 2007 | |

United Parcel Service ranks no. 43 on FORTUNE’s list of America’s largest corporations.

UPS was ranked No. 44 on the 2006 list. Its 2006 revenues were up 11.7 percent from the previous year; profits were up 8.6 percent from the previous year.

Other companies in the Mail, Package, Freight Delivery sector on this year’s Fortune 500 include: FedEx ranked No. 68.

Last year, Fortune 500 firms, which cover a large swath of the U.S. economy including 31 non-public companies, earned a record USD 785 billion, up 29 percent from 2005. “Put simply, American companies are enjoying the most sumptuously profitable period in the 500’s 53-year history,” said Shawn Tully, Fortune’s editor at large. “Virtually every conceivable force, from mild labor costs to a falling dollar to soaring productivity, has favored big companies.”

The Fortune 500 ranks companies based on revenues. New York boasts the most Fortune 500 firms this year with 57 companies, while Texas and California took the No. 2 and 3 spots, with 45 and 22 headquarters respectively.

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DHL opens new international gateway in Mexico

Posted by | Jun 13, 2007 | |

DHL announced the opening of a new international gateway in Hermosillo, Mexico, that offers international next day service and enhances the company’s capabilities to meet the growing needs of businesses shipping between Northwest Mexico and the United States.

The new DHL Hermosillo gateway operates daily flights between Hermosillo and Phoenix, Arizona, with all northbound shipments being routed through Phoenix to DHL’s principal air and ground hub in Wilmington, Ohio. The new service enables next day delivery for all shipments up to 150 pounds (70 kilos) from Hermosillo to the entire U.S. network. The service also provides for second day delivery to and from Guaymas, Ciudad Obregon, Navojoa, Empalme and other surrounding communities, as well as later shipment cutoff times for international deliveries from the region. The new flight will particularly benefit customers shipping high value automotive parts, electronics, textiles, medical devices and other products produced and manufactured in Northwest Mexico.

The announcement follows the recent launch of DHL’s Merida, Mexico gateway to meet the increasing demand from customers shipping between the U.S. and Mexico from Southeast Mexico. The investments in the new international gateways and U.S.-Mexico flights are part of DHL’s North America Trade Lane initiative, which was launched in November 2006 to increase the speed and efficiency of cross-border shipments across North America.

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U.S. Catalogers plagued by the rising postage costs

Posted by | Jun 13, 2007 | |

With the increase in postage rates in effect for nearly a month, some businesses are feeling the heat more than others. While many companies that mainly use catalogs as marketing are being scorched by the new restrictions and costs, companies who use postcards haven’t been affected enough to feel singed. Indeed, all postage prices went up, including the inexpensive postcard that went up from USD 0.24 to USD 0.26 per card. The postcard, however, isn’t nearly as affected due to the weight and size of a postcard being consistent, whereas catalogs are of varying weights and sizes.

Several big catalog companies—including J.C. Penney, Spiegel and Brighton—have for some time mailed out postcard campaigns in order to get prospects to call them or visit their website. Once a prospect is interested and requests a catalog, one is sent. This is a more cost effective way for businesses as each postcard costs less USD 0.35 to design, print, address, etc. A catalog can cost up to USD 2. Then when is comes to sending the promotion to the prospect, a postcard costs a flat rate, as opposed to a catalog that has to be weighed prior to being stamped.

Postcards were found to have the highest read rates of all direct mail media, compared to other media such as letters, flyers and magazines. Considering consumers are hit with over 3,000 advertising messages on a daily basis, having the highest-read-rate percentage speaks for itself.

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UPS Store owners are angry – Franchisees file a complaint, saying the business model keeps them in the red

Posted by | Jun 13, 2007 | |

More than 200 owners of UPS Stores across the country have filed a complaint against UPS and its franchiser, Mail Boxes Etc.

The franchise owners said in a filing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that they haven’t been able to make money because UPS undermined them by using the branded stores as drop-off points for prepaid packages and forcing the owners to focus on providing document and printing services.

“For a large group of us, it has been very difficult to make this work,” said Larry Bowdoin, the Alabama-based president of the Brown Shield Association, a group of UPS Store franchise owners. “Who would’ve thought that UPS would’ve created this franchise and wanted to see it do anything except succeed?”

The complaint, filed in April, claims the business model of the UPS Stores has been disastrous to franchisees’ bottom lines.

UPS bought Mail Boxes Etc. in 2001, and many franchises converted to UPS Stores about two years later.

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