Dépêches

UPS Bailout Opposed by FedEx Express

Dépèche transmise le 9 juin 2009 par Business Wire

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--United Parcel Service – the 100-year-old company that operated for decades as a parcel-delivery monopoly – is quietly seeking a Congressional bailout designed to limit competition for overnight deliveries, leaving Americans with less reliable next-day delivery network for critical goods like medicines and essential inventory, according to "BrownBailout.com” and a public-education campaign launched today by the creator of the overnight delivery, FedEx Express.

The focus of the campaign is the 230-word bailout to UPS written into the voluminous FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009 currently before Congress that would force FedEx Express – UPS’ primary competitor for next-day deliveries – to operate under a law not designed for airlines and express companies.

“In 1997 UPS experienced a system-wide strike that crippled business and commerce across America. Now it wants Congress to expose FedEx Express to that risk,” said Maury Lane, FedEx Express spokesperson. “America relies too much on the reliability and dependability of the FedEx Express overnight-delivery network, and we can’t allow this bailout to pass only because UPS wants to harm its main competitor.”

UPS and FedEx Express are fundamentally different companies. UPS – the largest political giver to Congress over the decades – is a trucking company, shipping 85 percent of its parcels on the ground. FedEx Express is an airline, flying 85 percent of its packages in the air.

“The operations of an overnight airline and that of a traditional trucking company are radically different. You can’t shoehorn an airline into trucking company’s rules and still expect critical packages to arrive within hours on the other side of the country,” Lane said. “UPS is making a problem where one doesn’t exist. This is a bailout, plain and simple, and the American people won’t stand for it.”

“BrownBailout.com” includes:

• A fact-checker for some of the common untruths told by UPS;
• The history of the Railway Labor Act and why congress created it for companies like FedEx Express “to avoid any interruption to commerce;”
• Quotes from small business owners, employees and UPS itself on the devastating consequences of the 1997 UPS strike and how, if the Brown Bailout becomes law, history may repeat itself;
• An online petition for concerned Americans to ask the Senate to say “no” to the Brown Bailout; and
• Brown Bailout videos revealing the hypocrisy of UPS’s legislative bailout.

For more information on UPS’ “Brown Bailout”, visit www.BrownBailout.com.