Nope not a joke they actually put out a story on the employee site trying to explain that we are doing well despite losing customers to the 2020 PSR sham thankfully employees are calling them on their lies and not having comments deleted like usual let see just how if in a few more weeks they double down with more drivel keep commenting if you can and calling them on their lies
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Reasonable suspicion test for that response.
@OP: this is the wrong question to be asking.
The question to ask is whether or not the UP business model and those of other large North American freight railroads are even still relevant, and if they will remain profitable in the long term. All of the major freight railroads are operating based on a 19th century business model. With the onset of drones, self-driving vehicles, and mid-sized regional logistics centers that are almost fully automated, hauling large quantities of freight over long distances will probably be making a lot less money in the near future. If anyone in the C-suite is aware of the coming disruption and prepared for it, then they're doing a good job of hiding it.
PSR seems to be the method that the execs and shareholders are using to pump the last drops of profitability out of the C1 railroads before they dump them. What happens when they dump them is anyone's guess.
"We'll do anything that you want, BUT YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT." Paying for it means covering your expenses plus profit. You don't "shed" customers; you charge them for your services. Cost plus profit. If it's too much, they go elsewhere. If it's a bargain, they take it.
And in any case, you keep talking to the customers to learn what they need.
Loosing money on a particular customer or service? RAISE THE PRICE. Customer can't go higher? OK, then ask yourself this: is the price increase permanent or temporary? Will we wish we had that customer in the future? Is there any way we can make a profit at a lower price? No? Ok, then we loose a customer.
But we didn't "shed" a customer. Shedding a customer means "Sorry, but we're not going to run trains to your siding anymore, no matter how many boxcars you order. It's just too much of a hassle for us, because it does not fit our new Precision Scheduled Railroading model. We don't care if you're willing to pay for the extra crews and engine and track maintenance. Just go away and use a truck line!"
It's ridiculous.
It still comes down to a greedy few making a gazillion bucks by leaving behind the many employees who gave up their weekends, holidays and normal schedules for years thinking it would be worth some kind of retirement. Guess what? We were all Charlie Brown and UPRR turned into Lucy. Still waiting for Enron day when the rich insiders run with the money from the stocks and we see the company fold to rubble and ashes.
We understand business we just think you're full of sh–. A lot of us have business degrees and even MBAs. We know about cost accounting, activity-based costing, finding unprofitable customers and blah blah blah.
Like someone said, that may be part of it, but it's not all of it. There are a lot of economic factors at play and those that care to educate themselves can do the research on their own without being spoonfed on here.
Oh... shedding customers is much better than losing them. Your assumption is we make money from all of our customers. Now here is where you get educated. We don’t. Shedding some customers is by plan. They were invited to pay more if they wanted our service so we don’t suffer the losses. If they refused. They were shed. It’s math.
UP employees proving they don’t understand business.
UP legal team on here explaining why losing customers is a great thing 😂
Choosing to "shed" customers is WORSE than losing them. It's no way to run a business.
Choosing to shed customers is not the same as losing them. Just like retiring is not the same as being fired. It’s a business plan that was purposefully implemented. Therefore it’s not losing customers it’s changing their business model.
The best quarter is the third quarter, thats when all the Christmas goods and next years new vehicles are sent out. Not the fourth quarter. 4th quarter and 1st quarter has always been the slowest.
The fact they use carloadings as a factor is stupid anyway. The only thing they should use is the profit. Everything else can be twisted to show whatever number they want. You could store everything and only run z trains and have a or of 20% but you aren't making billions. Their profit went down last quarter. I always feel the fourth quarter should be the best. Harvest is in and waiting to get transported everyone is buying Christmas gifts huge family meals and very busy travel seasons.
There's nothing wrong with improving efficiency. But you can't afford to drive away your loyal customers. In fact, railroads are regulated and must serve their customers (and must compete). The old management style of "We'll do anything that you want, but you have to pay for it." and "we are selling excellence" both make a lot of sense. They made UP very profitable. They also made it a great place to work, and they made the stock a great investment.
Someday, when the hedge funds are done eviscerating UP, UP management will have no choice but to return to that philosophy. I'm sure that most of UP's executives can't wait for that day to come. When it does, it will take at least a decade to rebuild their customer base, and even longer to rebuild a workforce that trusts them.
The sad thing is that EVERYONE already knows this. Everyone. Lance, Vena, Sharon, the FRA, the survivors of the CP, CN, and CSX; the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Benjamin Sasse, Deb Fischer, Don Bacon, etc. They all know and understand what's being done, and don't like it either. Lance and company, to their credit, did hold it back for a while. But they caved.
At this point, the damage has been done, and it's all about the money. It will require regulatory intervention to stop.
BNSF has always had way more carloads than UP (for at least the last five years). They may have gained some of UP customers too but it isn’t as you are implying. They were never neck and neck and picked up all UP’s loss to blow so far ahead of them.
@ypu
Here’s the thing when your competitor is stacking up 180,000-200,000 carloadings weekly and your showing 130,000-150,000 carloadings you’ve lost business no matter what spin you try to turn. Trucking can barely keep up with the demand and they have a shortage of drivers. When I hired on the magic profitability number for carloadings to break even was 140,000, which makes me wonder at this point the mass cutting of employees, closing of shops and storing of locomotives and cars just how long is the sub 140,000 carloadings we are seeing now just how long til the company has to make even more drastic changes to keep “showing” profits
They may be selectively choosing to get rid of unprofitable customers in some cases. They are also losing a lot of customers to the trucking industry.
They chose to lose customers where there weren’t cost vs benefit efficiencies.