Huck

I think the efficiency Fedex brought to the table was the massive Indy hub. I used to fly Gemini planes into the Postal Hub on the other side of the airport. All they had to do was run the trucks over to the Fedex facility. And they've got flights going to many of the cities already.

I could see Memphis being shed but not the Indy action.

J Dawg

But isn't this exactly what FedEx does in many places? At least in my city it is. Two A-300s come in early in the morning from the overnight sort. One of them turns back to MEM at about 9am, sits several hours there, then is back by 7pm to do the night stuff again.

UPS has several airplanes that sit during the day that can do this. In addition there is the existing second day air sort (daytime) that is already flown, again with a long ground time in SDF. These planes make it back to the outstation to do the night sort. SDF's "Worldport" is highly automated and it would be no problem to tighten up the day sort schedule if need be.

I just don't see a lack of ability on UPS' part to be able to do this.

Zoso

IPA discussed the postal contract in a communication to us a couple weeks ago, plus topic came up and was directly asked to UPS CEO Scott Davis from the last earnings conference call. Davis informs investors that it won't be a problem.

Also, just to help answer original question, UPS is telling IPA that their bid is real and that they intend to win all or at least a significant portion of the contract.

Me personally, I'm skeptical too but that's what we're being told.



Conference call transcript:

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Mr. Bill Greene of Morgan Stanley.

William J. Greene - Morgan Stanley, Research Division: Can I ask for a little bit of clarification on the comments that you made, I think it was last week, just that UPS does intend to bid on the postal service business, the priority mail contract? I was always under the impression that one of the reasons FedEx had that business was because of the size of their air fleet. Do you have the sort of underutilization in your air fleet that you could handle that? Or would it all go through the ground network? How does this -- I don't sort of know how that would fit into the UPS network.

D. Scott Davis - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer: Bill, I think, clearly, we have the air network and ground network to satisfy those needs. USPS has informed us the intent to solicit bids on these air services for September 2013 forward. We've informed them that we're clearly interested in bidding on that business. Today, we already do well over $100 million of line haul with the post office. We've got a strong, strong international air network, world-class network. We have proven logistics capabilities. We think it fit very well into UPS in the future.

William J. Greene - Morgan Stanley, Research Division: So it wouldn't -- there's no capacity constraint for you.

D. Scott Davis - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer: No, I mean, we'll have to do some adjustments to our capacity, getting a lot of this done in the 2-day network. We can do some things on the ground. So we can make it fit.

Commando

Just like the lack of Military Charters. UPS's number one priority is the Customer. Not USPS. If an Airplane breaks, and is not in position, UPS would flip out. This is why they want the aircraft in the gateways.

L'il J.Seinfeld

They're offering nearly $7 billion for TNT! If that's not growing your company I don't know what is. Hopefully we see more need for pilots.

McBoeingBus

Growth depends on your perspective. UPS is a multi-headed beast. UPS growth doesn't necessarily mean growth at UPS Airlines. You'd think so, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Remember, UPS Airlines moves packages. SCS, Freight and all of the rest are independent and may or may not use brown tails. Check out the annual award of DoD lift and ask how many UPS pilots flew those routes versus the amount of lift awarded. Good luck.

MBB

Sideshow Bob

Dude...

This is like going into a dyke biker bar and announcing that women should raise kids and not wear leather chaps in public. You gotta know you're going to get slaughtered.

Repeat after me...

"Nothing bad will EVER happen to Fed Ex, they will continue to grow forever, and they will always make the most and UPS sucks and will be run out of business in two years tops."

FDXLAG

Actually we hate Fred Smith and his creation Fedex because while our contract is as good as yours we didnt earn it like you guys. The ba$tard just gave it to us.

Couldnt find any quotes that said UPS was gonna tank. Did find one or 8,312 that reminded us trucks were cheaper than planes and FDX pilots were due for their comeuppance.

Sideshow Bob

Such blasphemy...tsk, tsk.

As always standing in your esteemed shadow, we're going to let you guys set the agenda and raise the bar, so like in every other aspect of all things we can benefit from the high and mighty. Forge the path, show everybody what ALPA can do!

We grovel in your presence.

Just watch you don't screw the pooch...you've got lead this time skippy. Do the industry proud.

fr8av8r

Hope you're not holding your breath.

Yeah, what he said.