Russell (00:07.574)
What's up everybody? Welcome back to the eCommerce Unlocked Podcast where we're talking about all the things eCommerce, where you are going to learn tactical, real life things that you can put into practice in your eCommerce business today. And today it's a fun one. We're gonna be doing some spicy takes on the future of UPS.
Emerson (00:24.598)
Woo spicy on UPS. You never hear that UPS is never spicy I'd say
Russell (00:27.884)
Yeah.
No, no they're not. They're really boring. I mean the brown really exemplifies like the personality behind the brand, but today it's getting spicy.
Emerson (00:38.674)
They got yellow in it. It's brown and yellow. They got some color there.
Russell (00:43.518)
I mean, when you say brown and yellow, what do you automatically think of? No, a toilet, toilet. They need a rebrand for sure, but they're kind of known for their brown. So you can't really change that. But yeah, so today, I mean, we're doing a spicy take. So let me just kind of kick this off with an experience I had yesterday. It was, let's see, today's January 31st that we're recording this.
Emerson (00:47.126)
Uh, shipping for sure and spicy. Spicy shipping. That's why it's spicy.
Emerson (00:59.994)
Mm-hmm.
Russell (01:11.678)
Yesterday I was at, I had to do some Amazon returns, you know, coming right up on that, the last days for those, those holiday returns I go and it's packed at the UPS store. Like just tons of people as I'm walking in, the lady that's walking out, it's like, man, you got some Amazon returns. It looks like it's the last day. Cause just everybody was there and they just had these like boxes and these Gaylords are just full of, of returns, just bagging and they had like five employees there just cranking.
you know, taking people's returns, throwing them back. And I would say, you know, most of these were Amazon returns. And so really kind of got me thinking like, is this like all they do? We asked the people that work there and they're like, yeah, no, it's probably, I asked them like, what percentage of stuff do you do that are like Amazon returns? Like what percentage of everything you do is Amazon returns? And they said easily over 90%. So this got me thinking like, that's insane. Like, I can't believe that they're doing so...
Emerson (02:03.194)
That's nuts.
Russell (02:08.538)
many just specifically Amazon returns, but returns in general, like they've kind of got like a really good process for it. They're cranking it out, but it's insane how much they do. So kind of got us into this thought of like, well, what's, you know, what does UPS look like? What are, you know, what are they going? What are they doing? And so, you know, if you look at it, I mean, Emerson, when was the last time you did an Amazon return?
Emerson (02:31.07)
Um, I don't do my wife does them. I'd say I'm not actually that big of a, I don't know. It's, it's interesting. Yeah. She does. She does it. She goes every week, at least all the time. Um, dropping stuff off at UPI. She is like consistent returner. She's really good about it. I am honestly terrible at returns. I buy it. And I was like, ah, I got the wrong one. I guess I'm stuck with it. I got actually not that good at returning stuff.
Russell (02:53.574)
Well, shoot. Yeah, no, I'm a pretty, I'm a returner. I return lots of stuff, specifically like Amazon. No, I'm not a return abuser, but I like I'll order something. And then, well, so the ones that I returned yesterday, it was broken, it arrived damaged. So I told Amazon, like, I don't want this, right? I'm bringing this back. I felt like that was totally justified, right? I'm not an abuser, come on.
Emerson (02:59.152)
Oh no, you're a return abuser.
Emerson (03:16.706)
Definitely.
Russell (03:19.934)
But no, I mean, I will say, I take advantage of the return policy and looking at it, I mean, it's probably, the way they do it through UPS makes a lot of sense. Like you're not putting it in a box, you know, it's convenient for me cause it's boxless, it's label-less, you know, and they're just throwing it in a bag. They're, you know, bulk processing it and it takes up a lot less space. Like they're able to get tons of returns in like.
Emerson (03:32.026)
Mm-hmm.
Russell (03:43.478)
this gay lord versus, you know, if we individually boxed everything. So economically kind of makes sense, right?
Emerson (03:49.338)
For reference, a Gaylord is one of those big boxes. It looks like a refrigerator box for all your packages. For those of you wondering what a Gaylord is, that is what it is.
Russell (03:53.867)
Hahaha
Russell (03:58.214)
Yes, yeah, thank you. Thanks for calling that out because it is kind of a, one of those funny words that somebody's gonna be like, what is it, what, what is that? So, yeah, but anyway, Emerson, do you wanna kind of hit us with, kind of where are UPS from like a, from a stock standpoint, what they're looking at?
Emerson (04:04.794)
What is he talking about?
Emerson (04:14.422)
Here comes a one, two punch of UPS. Let me hit you with it. All right. Yeah. Well, last year, 2023 was an interesting year. I mean, most of us are aware of, they had the team's first strike, the union strike going on last year, which affected a lot of the volume of what was going on with UPS in particular. So it was kind of like a all out war of the carriers trying to get that volume during that throughout the UPS strike. Obviously we kind of heard about the results of that.
Russell (04:17.89)
Hahaha
Emerson (04:42.81)
Teamsters Union got some pretty good leverage on that, higher wages and stuff like that. Been implemented.
Russell (04:49.41)
So really quick, the Teams for a Union, those are just the drivers. The drivers are part of a union, right? Is that the... Okay.
Emerson (04:55.042)
Yep. Uh, team, she was driver union on it. Yeah. UPS is unionized on that. So, um, wanting some of their stuff is like, they want to AC in their trucks. They wanted, um, higher pay different hours to work stuff like that. Um, there's a whole bunch of, we could go wait in depth on everything with the UPS strike. Um, but yeah, so that's, they came out pretty aggressive on some of those demands and since I think pretty much got all of them in the final hour, um, UPS, like, all right, here we go. Sounds good.
Russell (05:24.823)
Hmm.
Emerson (05:25.014)
So but due to that also just due to the kind of economics the economy in general volume across all carriers is down as a whole but that strike Definitely diverted a lot of revenue away from ups to other carriers. So kind of just from their earnings call A couple days ago on it is they saw a decrease of about 27% or so in profit last year than in previous year. So what's kind of interesting about these numbers? I kind of want to do a bit more in-depth analysis on it is
Russell (05:50.926)
cheese.
Emerson (05:54.094)
They were down 27% from last year. But what's interesting is they definitely had some pretty good years during COVID and stuff like that where they had some higher profit margins. So what I'm looking at this and like, they have been juicing the bill, I'd say for a little bit, they definitely took advantage of COVID and those peak surcharges and those COVID peak surcharges are still implemented like, and COVID has been like done for years now, right? But they're still kind of juicing that.
Russell (06:05.14)
Absolutely.
Russell (06:19.466)
Well, I mean, if you just look at the past five years of their stock, you know, pre COVID, so early 2020, they were chilling around like $100 a share. And right now today they're at 143, which is a three year low. So, I mean, they skyrocketed when it came to COVID. I think their all time high was somewhere around like 224. So obviously, I mean, they went crazy. They were making buckets. And from our last episode.
Emerson (06:25.448)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Emerson (06:36.424)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (06:41.378)
They went nuts.
Russell (06:47.614)
with Josh from Shipware, he kind of exposed that like they were juicing the numbers. They were like they were making some good margin. And then looking at the five year run rate for their stock, they're still, you know, 40 percent higher than they were pre-COVID. So like still solid. But they're down almost 50 percent year over year over the past three year average. They're down. And so that obviously doesn't bode well for them.
Emerson (06:51.855)
Hmm.
Emerson (07:06.262)
year for year.
Emerson (07:11.522)
Yeah.
Exactly. Yeah. So I think that's some of the stuff they're looking at. Um, they kind of saw some revenue diverted there. They're claiming they've recouped 60% of the volume lost during, um, during that team's for strike. I'm not sure how much I buy that honestly. Um, I know they're competing heavily on getting that, those that back and you're getting great discounts down. I mean, I'm hearing of brands that are getting better shipping rates now than pre COVID even, um, on it. So it's like, they're definitely trying to buy that.
Russell (07:40.13)
Bye.
Emerson (07:43.286)
margin back and it definitely is, but the carriers are kind of starting to play ball. I mean, now before we were in the carriers kind of had the hand in negotiations and now a shipper are kind of getting some power back to get better rates. So as a whole, I mean, yeah, the housing market still be a bit more stingy than I would like it to be. But yeah, but yeah, I mean, as a whole there, they're claiming numbers are down. They definitely are down. There's definitely opportunity from the.
Russell (07:44.91)
Mm-hmm.
Russell (07:57.486)
Kinda sounds like the housing market. Ha.
Russell (08:05.11)
Little bit, little bit.
Emerson (08:13.274)
get volume back, revenues down, volumes down, operating margin, it's pretty consistent. It's not too much of a dip. I think it's around, what, like a 10% dip on operating margin, which makes sense. I mean, with the Teamsters unit, they're needing to pay more for labor and wages and things like that. Upgrading those trucks, it isn't cheap. So that doesn't surprise me. And for the other side, it's like about on target of where they're trying to hit on operational margin.
So I think they're kind of expecting that as a whole.
Russell (08:45.474)
Well, then during their last earnings call, they just announced that they're laying off 12,000 employees, which I think I saw a number here is like 7% of their workforce or something like that. So I mean, that's a pretty big layoff. It's going to save them about a billion dollars a year. And honestly, we don't have to get like too deep into the economics of it. But I mean, they're definitely kind of on the down. You know, they were riding that covid high. They're laying off 12,000 employees.
Emerson (08:53.658)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (09:04.622)
Thank you.
Russell (09:08.45)
Their margins are getting tighter because they're giving more discounts and they're paying more because of the union kind of pressuring them from the other side. So they got to make some changes, right?
Emerson (09:17.558)
Well, I also would say, let me look at UPS in particular. Like, yeah, there's some, like, if you look at just UPS and you hear that, you kind of like, oh, UPS is in the hole. Like this is not good. This is actually happening across the industry as a whole. I mean, FedEx right now is losing some of their air freight, uh, you, because they FedEx moves a decent amount of USPS, um, shipments by air and stuff like that. And we're kind of seeing that USPS is taking back some of that control. So FedEx is looking at doing layoffs on some of their pilots and the FedEx pilots, those are unionized pilots.
And they're kind of, we're starting to see some pushback from that organization. So interesting to see what happens with the USPS Air Division in the future. But as a whole volume is down across all channels for all carriers. We're seeing more players in the market than before. There's more regional carriers coming into play, more shared networks that's taking some volume. And then this as a whole shipping is down. COVID we saw such a spike in it. I think people are going back into retail.
There's a bit more like physical presence happening than before. And so I think that markets is doing more course correction right now as a whole. So yes, there is opportunity. I think UPS is hurting in some areas more than others, but as a whole, we're seeing this pretty kind of significant happening across the board, I'd say with most carriers as a carriers as a whole.
Russell (10:34.674)
Okay, so I mean, to clarify or to kind of, yeah, to clarify what I was saying, I guess it's less that UPS is on the down, but it's more the whole shipping industry is in flux. Like, you know, with the new regional carriers with, you know, just things, you know, coming off this COVID high, the industry is ready for kind of a change, right? That's kind of what I'm getting. And, and kind of going back to our original
Emerson (10:55.418)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Russell (10:59.43)
point of this episode of the story that I was kind of telling being in the actual UPS store, they are doubling down on returns. So UPS published, I don't know when this was published, it was a few months ago, they published an article on their website basically saying it was titled Three Reasons Why UPS Is Going Big on Returns. And then they announced the acquisition of Happy Returns, which, I mean, Happy Returns, have you ever used it, Emerson?
Emerson (11:29.466)
I actually haven't, no.
Russell (11:31.006)
No, it's good. Honestly, it's a very interesting kind of niche that they fulfill. And I know you're familiar with kind of how they do things, but they have these happy bars. Is that what they call them? Happy bars across the country. I forget how many, like 60,000 or 120,000, some crazy number. I mean, they've contracted with all the Ulta beauties and Coles is Amazon, but you get the idea. All these different places. It used to be with FedEx.
Emerson (11:44.142)
Yep. Happy return of bars.
Russell (11:59.734)
then UPS bought it, so now you return happy returns to UPS. And really it's an interesting business model because it's a boxless, label-less return experience, which is really good for consumers. Consumers like it, like who owns a printer? I do, but you know, I'm old school, I guess. But I remember, I do, but talking to my brother, he does not return anything because he doesn't own a printer. Like I asked him to ship something for me, this was a little while ago, and he was like,
Emerson (12:16.592)
Who owns one? I do!
Russell (12:27.926)
Dude, it took me six hours to figure out how to print off the thing. OK, that was unnecessary. But happy returns makes it really easy, because you have thousands upon thousands of places where you can just take it. They'll scan it. They'll put in a big gay lord, to use that word we learned earlier, and then consolidate the shipment back to the brand. So pretty interesting. They've got their own end-to-end.
Emerson (12:32.311)
I'll take care of it. I'll put it on schedule.
Russell (12:54.646)
like software solution, but then they also like can integrate into other returns platforms. So they're kind of going this, what do you call that horizontal integration and they've got the vertical, but now they're kind of going horizontal as well and capturing almost becoming a frenemy to all of their competitors on the returns platform side.
Emerson (13:02.062)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (13:10.67)
Well, what's interesting about happy returns as a whole is just the evolution of it, of it originally started off as a tech platform, then they realized their actual main offering is in the logistics arm. And so kind of what you're saying is, um, for a while they've gone through. I can't remember how many acquisitions they've been through, but they've been acquired like before UPS, they were part of PayPal and so PayPal used to offer. Hey, use our platform for free. You still pay for a shipping label and everything. Um, but like, Hey, if your store uses PayPal, you can get this free returns platform.
Russell (13:20.418)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (13:38.706)
UPS took over and they said, no, we're now charging for the platform. Um, so it's definitely kind of like changing hands, how they're leveraging it, kind of different ownership, different strategies, what they want to utilize it for. So I think it's kind of like, um, I don't know the pretty girl at the ball, but I think people don't know like how do they all kind of have their, their ways with it. They're trying to like manipulate, use it for their own business ventures. Like we saw PayPal trying to leverage that now UPS has taken over seeing how they leverage that. Um,
to boost their network. I'm interested to see how that affects it. But what's interesting about UPS and Amazon together, I mean, we saw this, what, 15 years ago, UPS was the main carrier for Amazon. And then all of a sudden, Amazon came up with its own fleets. And so another thing that changed the dynamics of the shipping industry is, Amazon is now the largest domestic carrier. They ship more, they deliver more packages than UPS did. Which UPS used to be, I like the...
was the highest delivery on that. So it's kind of interesting now is Amazon is now the biggest shipper in the U S or carrier in the U S by volume. They don't do reverse logistics. I, I at least haven't seen them really do anything on picking up returns from your doorstep or anything like that. Once they get to that point, that could be interesting right now. Pretty much everything goes. What's that? Oh, dang.
Russell (14:56.15)
They do, but I think they charge like 20 bucks a pickup. Yeah, so it's pretty bad. It's not consumer friendly, but when it comes to a warehouse or a brand, it makes sense, right? So it's, I guess, not necessarily reverse logistics at that point. It's just doing pickups on a one-by-one basis.
Emerson (15:03.075)
Thank you.
Emerson (15:07.46)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (15:15.034)
Yeah. So I think it's gonna be interesting to see what Amazon, Amazon definitely leverages the UPS network for now. I'm interested. My hot take of that is I'm interested to see how long they do that for honestly, until Amazon. That's a huge pain point for Amazon is their reverse logistics is returns. They have a high return rate across the board as a whole, just due to the nature of their business and how they operate. They're leveraging the UPS network like they did for outbound shipment.
Um, I think this happy returns is a great way for UPS to get access to more. Return facilities as they're trying to facilitate that for customers, or they can return at more locations. And that's what they primarily acquired happy returns for. So interested to see how that goes and how long, how long UPS, honestly, holds onto happy returns. I think it makes sense to a degree of why they acquired him, but also I think it's kind of interesting, um, acquisition strategy as a whole.
Russell (16:06.602)
Honestly, I somewhat, I guess not disagree, but I would go even further to say, I don't think they get rid of happy returns. I think it is a, like a very strategic, and if I were UPS, I'd make it a very strategic play to enter an industry that the competitors aren't really diving into.
I mean, they're getting kind of, their space is getting encroached on by Amazon, has been for 10 years now. And they recognize that it's probably not something that they can really compete. They're not gonna get the Amazon volume. They're just gonna be losing Amazon volume. They're not gonna get more. So it's like, okay, where do we turn to increase our revenue and where do we see opportunity? And I think it's on the returns, kind of the reverse logistic side. They currently do all, I guess maybe I can't say all, but I would say the vast majority of
Emerson (16:32.483)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (16:40.442)
Mm-hmm.
Russell (16:55.634)
Amazon returns go through UPS because the customer just goes and drops it off, boxes, label lists returns. Now they've got this piece that takes it outside of Amazon. So if Amazon does pull that away, they now still have happy returns, which, you know, a lot of Shopify, a lot of e-commerce merchants use. And so they'd be able to still capitalize on that infrastructure that they're building for the reverse logistics. So I almost see them doubling down. I mean, they've even published this on the site. They're doubling down on, on reverse logistics on returns.
where you don't see that from Amazon or from FedEx or USPS really. So they're kind of like trying to niche it out. And my spicy take is that they go even deeper into this and this become like they just try to corner that market and make it way, like make it very difficult for Amazon to go and compete with them on that. And the reason I think it'd be really hard for Amazon to compete on the reverse logistics side is because they would need locations, they need real estate, which UPS has Amazon. It's easy for them to buy a bunch of trucks and compete.
Emerson (17:29.079)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (17:48.282)
Thank you.
Russell (17:52.482)
but it's harder for them to go and buy real estate or get leases, long-term leases, to have these return locations. The only way Amazon competes is through robots, you know? Something like super futuristic that maybe will come at some point, but it's not in the next 10 years, in my opinion.
Emerson (18:03.247)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (18:09.058)
I like the spicy take your spicy take and my spicy take, please. Um, it is getting hot in here. Um, well, yeah, well, I think it's really interesting about UPS acquiring happy returns is they're going, all these places are retail locations that they pick up from. And so UPS is already typically going to those locations. They're already going to Walgreens. They're doing those, those commercial deliveries. So they're already.
Russell (18:12.358)
Oh dude, we're full of spice. Chicken makes chicken spicy or whatever. That...
Emerson (18:38.638)
there, which for me is interesting is, I guess I lied. I have done happy returns a couple of times where I've dropped off at like a wall arrange or something like that. But it's, I guess in my mind, maybe there's, there may, there's a bigger tech play than I understand of how it is. Um, I guess maybe I'm going to, I'm going to untake my hat as I'm thinking about it. If you look at UPS and their real time thought processes, um, at first it's like, Oh, why did he just build the tech? And then I kind of just was like, Oh yeah, UPS tech.
Russell (18:57.731)
This is real time people, real time spicy take.
Emerson (19:06.874)
Carrier tech sucks. Like if you look at any of that stuff, it's all very archaic. It's built in the eighties and it's all just like bolted on kind of to their tech. So in my mind, I'm like, why doesn't UPS is already delivering to those locations. I was picking up, that's all they're doing. It's like, hey, I drop off my packages every day for Walgreens. Let me pick up these Walgreens packages. They're already doing that. So it's just like optimizing their routes. Why they spend.
Russell (19:09.133)
Hahaha
Emerson (19:32.49)
Hundreds of millions of dollars whatever acquiring happy returns when they could have just built that software by the same time like they're not software developers that probably didn't make sense for them to do that because their tech I'm it is the hardest thing you get through
Russell (19:42.974)
Yeah, and I mean, there's already the process built, there's already the customers, they're honestly probably paying more for the customers and the pre-built revenue of it than more than anything because I think they...
Emerson (19:47.595)
Yeah.
Emerson (19:53.282)
But I guess my hot take on that is, is UPS getting much more volume back on that? I wonder if there's a back end play where you have to use UPS then to generate those shipping labels. Cause right now it's like, they already were getting that revenue anyways for those labels. It's not like they've increased their revenue on labels as a whole. UPS, unless they're changing, a lot of stuff goes through a shared ship network within happy returns. So maybe they have a different network expansion that they didn't have before possibly.
Russell (20:05.614)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (20:23.126)
Is the only thing I can think of because most of those, yeah, they're coming back UPS, they're all, it's all consolidated shipment back from, from happy returns. They're going to a warehouse. They're saying, Hey, here's all these shipments that got returned from California, this whole palette going to New York or whatever, and they're consolidating that over to the end consumer and those logistics and whole on a reverse logistics can be slower than outbound you're trying to get that next day, same day, two day delivery to the customer. Usually a return can take a week, two weeks, even three weeks, depending on the consolidation method you're using to get that item back. And usually.
Merchants don't mind that as a whole they want cheaper shipping costs more than faster returns. I'm happy as a whole
Russell (21:00.586)
Well, yeah. And honestly, I think this is, this is partial, probably it's partially a revenue play for them and it's, you know, also part of it has to do with the, uh, the efficiency aspect of it. Like if I've got a pallet, um, or a Gaylord full of these returns that need to go back to New York, I'm in LA and I've got a truck that, oh, you know, we have got one more spot on there. Cool. Throw it on there. If I don't have any more spots, cool. We'll just wait till the next truck. So maybe it is just making like.
Emerson (21:14.125)
Anyway.
Emerson (21:28.022)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Russell (21:30.05)
being able to fill out their trucks a little bit better and make it so that it's just a little bit more efficient and they kind of like cover their costs a little bit better. It could be a margin play. I don't know. I mean, really it, there are so many aspects to this that really could work in their benefit if they don't totally botch it and then end up selling it in three, you know, three years. PayPal, I think only had it for two years. So, I mean, they're just, it's going just, it's bouncing around. So in my mind, it makes a lot of sense. When I first heard this, I was like, why would UPS do that? But honestly, I think it makes a ton of sense. And I would-
Emerson (21:49.146)
Yeah, they don't have that long.
Russell (21:59.518)
If I were UPS, I wouldn't get rid of it. I'd double down on it. I'd find like a way to make your processes more efficient, turn it into a revenue play. Cause you know, the label, quote unquote, the happy returns label is like $4 and 12 cents an item. That's kind of the quotes that I've been seeing. And so it's like, they'll make money on it. There's money in returns, you know, and there's less of like a, hey, get it there fast. So it could work well for them.
Emerson (22:14.423)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (22:21.806)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think it's been interesting. There's not really anyone honing in on the reverse logistics aspect of it. There's software on it. There's been a lot. I've seen a lot of startups of like, Hey, we'll come to your house, pick up your return, no box, no label needed and ship it back. So it's like a mobile type of a happy returns, I'd say, but they're so niche in like a certain area, a certain like that, that I haven't really seen it stick very well. Um,
Russell (22:46.802)
And the costs are so high. I mean, UPS already has all that. They already got guys. Since doing this, I've seen two FedEx trucks and a UPS truck drive by my house. So it's like, they're already out. They're already doing it. They don't, they're not going to be eating a ton of cost and having to buy more, like a bigger fleet and that kind of thing. So in the end, I think it makes a lot of sense and it gets a really cool new niche for a UPS that I think they can corner and keep FedEx and, you know, USPS and Amazon out of.
Emerson (23:12.758)
Yeah, I'm interested to see how the other carriers compete in this area of it. And I'm interested to see why maybe they haven't hyper focused on it. So if there's a way to do it profitably, I think it'd be interesting. Most carriers I talk to, they don't really, they don't focus on the reverse logistics. It's not a fun part for them because it is so fragmented. Like when you're picking up from a warehouse shipping out a thousand orders a day, you can optimize that network. When you have a thousand individual addresses, important from different locations into your network.
to go to one location, it's just a little bit different. The pickup is the most expensive part of a shipment, the pickup or the drop off. And so when those are high flux of different locations, it stresses the network out. So interested to see who can kind of come up with a streamlined process.
Russell (23:54.638)
But I guess to the Amazon and happy returns side, and this will be the last thing I say about this, you're forcing the customer typically to go to your location and hand it to you. So you're not having that final mile or the first mile issue. You basically are just like, hey, bring it to us. Like with Amazon, like that Amazon store or that UPS store was packed full of people doing Amazon returns. We all drove there.
Emerson (24:09.304)
Yeah.
Emerson (24:19.534)
Mm-hmm.
Russell (24:20.254)
and they didn't have to eat the cost of coming and picking it up from me. And so in the end, you know, as long as there's a location close to people and they, they're touting 60,000 pick, uh, drop off locations on ups.com with their returns stuff. So in the end, like it's a good play. It could reduce their costs and you know, now they're shipping pallets of returns instead of single boxes.
Emerson (24:31.3)
Mm-hmm.
Emerson (24:43.034)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting to for sure to see how that happens I mean when you're looking at your carrier contracts, I mean that depends on the product size and stuff you're dealing with But when you shipping from a commercial address from like your warehouse to a residential You're usually gonna have a residential surcharge and that's gonna be like a buck two bucks Whatever it is with your carrier So when they're picking up from a commercial address delivering to your commercial warehouse address You're saving that residential surcharge that you paid on your outbound as a whole so
There's some things to look at on that. Sometimes they can charge a third party pickup fee on it. So maybe you are paying extra cause you're not shipping directly from your warehouse. So as you're looking at your rates, just be aware of what that looks like again, with happy returns, usually it's a consolidated rate. So there's different price and then your typical carrier rate you're looking at, but there are some pros to doing something like that as a whole. So just fun, fun things to dive into on your shipping rate card and whatnot.
Russell (25:37.226)
Yeah, well, after Emerson put us all to sleep with that one, we'll wrap it up. That's the pod. Ha ha ha. Goodnight, everybody. Hopefully, you're on your way to bed so that you're feeling nice and sleepy after the rate card discussion. But anyway, wrap it up. UPS isn't gonna stop being like FedEx. I don't think that's gonna happen, but I think they're gonna definitely try to corner the returns market.
Emerson (25:44.639)
Good night.
Emerson (25:48.814)
Thank you.
Emerson (25:54.274)
Great car discussions on the get-go.
Russell (26:04.87)
And so if you guys have any thoughts on that, please just hit us up, LinkedIn. I'm Russell Steed, Emerson Hammer. Let us know what you think and we'll see you on the next one.