UPS or FED EX, kind of like Coke vs. Pepsi, right? 

My work-flow pretty much follows ”The World is Flat” model that Thomas Friedman writes about in his same titled book: http://tinyurl.com/2uvvy3 

About 90% of the orders that I deal with arrive and ship by either UPS or Fed Ex.  I depend heavily on both services,  and I admire both.  (For example, I particularly appreciated the insights of Fed Ex founder, Fred Smith, on “The Charlie Rose Show” recently http://tinyurl.com/4ps88j  And I’ve been an admirer of the widespread social improvement efforts of the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation.  http://tinyurl.com/6yc5ag  Its roots are with the UPS founding family.)

I have minor issues with each company as well.

For example, why does Fed Ex Ground have to be treated so differently — like it is a separate company with different pickup times, etc. while UPS will pickup any UPS order?  OK, ok, I know there are internal company organization reasons for that, but all I know is that shipping via Fed Ex Ground just adds a layer complexity to my day that I don’t experience when I ship via UPS Ground.

But then, my beef with UPS is their long tracking numbers.  My word, you could end up typing all day if you can’t cut and paste them for some reason.

And why do I have to click on terms and conditions when tracking a package on the UPS website?  Hmmm, I wonder why Fed Ex doesn’t make me do that?  Could it be they are less concerned about legality?  I doubt it.  I dunno, I kind of follow the rule that if someone really wants to sue you, they will, so making folks do a check-off kind of seems pointless in that light.

One other issue, consistent reliability for Saturday delivery is an issue for both companies as far as I am concerned, so I call that a draw.

So up til now, determining which shipper I put down on our work order has pretty much been either client preference or with whom our shipping team has negotiated the latest greatest discount rates.

But then something happened recently that turned me into a UPS loyal fan.   I had an order shipping via UPS from our replication facility.  The client had sent us a last-minute address change.  The shipping folks at the plant actually wrote in the change, but there was a software glitch (hence fixed) and the system thought that the shipment had already gone and therefore disregarded the change. 

It wasn’t until the order was en route that it was discovered that the shipment of 35 boxes was headed to the incorrect address.  Well, I had seen those UPS “White Board” ads on TV.  So I said, ”Let’s see if that really works.”

Sure enough, all the boxes were intercepted and arrived just one day later than they were scheduled — which still was within the client’s deadline window.

Whew!  “Now that was cool,” I said.  That’s a new service offering that REALLY means something to me.  UPS helped my team and me save some serious face. 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I still use Fed Ex every day, and I remain a big admirer of them, and maybe they’ll come up with a new service that saves the day for me as well, but guess who is going to be choosing UPS a bit more in his work orders for quite a while to come . . .

I invite you to share your comments below.

And if you are interested in marketing, you may want to check out my blog on attending a recent seminar conducted by marketing expert, Robert Middleton, of Action Plan Marketing: http://tinyurl.com/4ykpa6