What will a UPS strike mean for the hobby?

[Lbrdsoxfan]

i have 3 packages due this week, hopefully before any hard stops occur.

Long as its before 12:01 a.m. August 1 your good.

 

[Tonycass12]

I feel like all the big retailers for corals and hard goods will use this as another excuse for a price increase.

On the other side hopefully this forces some reffers to reach out to others local or regional to them to trade and sell. Ive been for some time avoiding the big online retailers. I have my local shop order the hard goods for me and just plan well so I oder whats running out well before it's actually gone. I also get some of the insanely expensive corals from local guys for relatively little compared to what they charge online.

Get more local folks.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

I agree. I also agree that waiting to get items won't be a big deal for me personally. I just worry more about the other businesses that this will impact. I'm thinking about families that will be hurt by loss of income. Bad situation for sure.

It's just not a good situation all around. I don't think it'll break any businesses, but it isn't going to be great for the family-owned operations. Let's hope the strike ends quickly in a way which supports the workers.

 

[Icryhard]

industry will take a massive hit. The overall implications are big enough that the strike should not happen, IMO. We’ve become a society dependent on fast shipping.

I am not sure as to why the strike is happening, but complaining about "big enough and therefore no strike" is not a legitimate reason. If you wish for no strike, the people in charge better start negotiating quickly.

 

[PhishMonger84]

What is interesting about this though...it may also mean that you wont be able to get things from your local fish store..as they are bound by overnight shipping dependencies as well. I could see this being a HUGE catastophe to our industry.

I am intentionally not addressing anything other than the delivery issues...trying to keep this apolitical.

My LFS run to Southwest Cargo for their fish shipments. i don't know if UPS is that backbone of their logistics service or not but they do touch a lot of businesses in ways we don't directly see.

But beyond fish, a strike would have huge implecations to the economy, as the teamsters have the support of the air handlers from UPS as well.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I am not sure as to why the strike is happening, but complaining about "big enough and therefore no strike" is not a legitimate reason. If you wish for no strike, the people in charge better start negotiating quickly.

Or not. Sometimes you can make more money as a business by just shutting your doors.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

My LFS run to Southwest Cargo for their fish shipments. i don't know if UPS is that backbone of their logistics service or not but they do touch a lot of businesses in ways we don't directly see.

But beyond fish, a strike would have huge implecations to the economy, as the teamsters have the support of the air handlers from UPS as well.

Yup, the pilots wont cross the picket line. The company will effectively stop.

 

[Icryhard]

Or not. Sometimes you can make more money as a business by just shutting your doors.

Not entirely sure what you are saying. How does it benefit UPS to shut its doors? UPS is massive and can most definitely tank the financial "loss".

 

[Reefer Matt Verified Media Partner]

Gonna need a lot more local frag swaps. Which isn't a bad thing.

 

[Budman93]

Get your orders in now if you want anything. Or else you will be paying a premium on shipping.

 

[Reefing102]

As mentioned…my opinion as well…the immediate effects will be lost or delayed packages and impact on businesses.

The long term impact I think will be overall higher prices because UPS will just raise their rates, our vendors will want to keep their shipping reasonable to sustain ordering, therefore incorporating more shipping cost into the product cost. Just my thoughts

 

[paragrouper]

I’m taking a sabbatical from live shipments now, as it’s summertime here in Texas, so I do not expect it will have much personal impact. However, UPS has around 25% of the US business, so I expect it will be felt in other ways. It will be interesting to see how many vendors opt for alternative commercial carriers (FedEx and DHL).

For business, we use all three of the major carriers—depending on what we are shipping and where we are shipping to.

 

[dennis romano]

I ran a Receiving/Shipping department for twenty years. A few years back, UPS had a stoppage and we tried to get Fed Ex to pick up the slack. Overnights took two to three days while grounds went from three or four days to six days minimum. Throw in the excessive heat variable and you might as well not even bother.

 

[LightingBug]

I am not sure as to why the strike is happening, but complaining about "big enough and therefore no strike" is not a legitimate reason. If you wish for no strike, the people in charge better start negotiating quickly.

There are several reason for the impending strike, but the largest one is pay. Specifically pay for part time workers. Those workers get ~$20/hour and the union wants more (forgot the $$$)

As far as impact for our hobby, we should feel lucky as consumers. None of us are waiting on pacemakers or live organs or medicines.

There are so many small business that rely on UPS to both move their goods, and receive raw goods to make their (insert whatever gadget name here) that they will have to make drastic changes to their processes, if they even can.

As someone who was lightly involved in the supply chain for my business, this will be a huge deal worldwide.

Even if they resolve this before the 1st, the costs will rise for shipping. The $$$ for the part time employees has to come from somewhere, and it's likely to come from us, the consumers.

Not trying to be a negative Nancy, but the more I see and hear from people in the supply chain, the worse it gets.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

It will hurt everyone. FedEx dose not have the capacity to make up the difference

THIS! It would be even worse than shipping during Covid. FEDEX had the contract to ship the vaccine, and dropped the ball on everything else. UPS picked up the slack, but if UPS isn't shipping, there is no way that FEDEX can meet overnight timelines consistently with all of the volume...

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I’m taking a sabbatical from live shipments now, as it’s summertime here in Texas, so I do not expect it will have much personal impact. However, UPS has around 25% of the US business, so I expect it will be felt in other ways. It will be interesting to see how many vendors opt for alternative commercial carriers (FedEx and DHL).

For business, we use all three of the major carriers—depending on what we are shipping and where we are shipping to.

Problem is that FedEx does not have the capacity to pick up anymore shipments and has publicly said as much. They will remain loyal to their existing customers first.

Also DHL is so convoluted with shipping here in the states, they cant handle extra capacity either. Also they use a LOT of commercial aircraft to move packages in the USA including my current employer... I wouldnt trust them to move a bowling ball let alone something thats time constrained.

 

[shakygator]

What is interesting about this though...it may also mean that you wont be able to get things from your local fish store..as they are bound by overnight shipping dependencies as well. I could see this being a HUGE catastophe to our industry.

I am intentionally not addressing anything other than the delivery issues...trying to keep this apolitical.

a lot of that stuff comes freight from airliners? aka southwest, etc

 

[rtparty]

Sadly, this is strike is far more reaching than just the hobbyist side. This is business ending if the strike lasts any length of time. It will completely halt my business and many other small businesses. I’d be better off sending packages by owl than using FedEx or USPS.

We are very close to our UPS driver and talked to him at length about the whole thing. While I’m only getting the one side, UPS caused this mess on themselves. It’s a 2 second fix.

We all know it’s us consumers that will pay the bill anyway. If UPS raises prices, we will all just pay it and pass the cost onto the next guy.

Edit to add: after hearing what our UPS driver made last year, I don’t have any sympathy for the full time drivers. Sorry

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I feel like this will hurt a lot of businesses and potentially affect the prices on a lot of items as well

 

[ronnie]

I am not sure as to why the strike is happening, but complaining about "big enough and therefore no strike" is not a legitimate reason. If you wish for no strike, the people in charge better start negotiating quickly.

You misunderstood my opinion as a complaint. It is not a complaint. It’s an assumption that UPS striking would cause such large implications that our government will step in before a strike happens. I do wish for no strike, and I do know why it is happening.

I’d recommend reading about it some to get an understanding of how/if your daily life will be impacted.