Over the years we have heard and seen how United Parcel Service seems to do everything it can to show its lack of concern and sheer disdain for the catalog and direct marketing industry. Yet, we as an industry never seem to talk about fighting back and showing UPS that we are important to its business and that it cannot take our business for granted.
I rarely talk to someone in our industry who has anything very positive to say about UPS. It seems that UPS only “works” to get our industry’s business when some other company is asking for it; otherwise, hearing from a representative is rare. At the same time, UPS is the biggest opponent to the postal reform that our industry needs. Think of it this way: If you are using UPS to ship your packages, then you are “donating” to the fight against reform.
So why do we continue to support UPS by giving it our business? I would hope that we as an industry could stand together and tell UPS that unless it is willing to work for us and not against us that we will find other suppliers that will. And those suppliers are out there, including FedEx, USPS, R.R. Donnelley, Parcel Direct and others.
I challenge the DMA leadership (who has said that UPS has very little concern for our industry) to help coordinate this effort. And I strongly encourage all of my fellow catalogers and direct marketers to take a stand and show their disdain for UPS’ attitude by spending your shipping dollars with shippers that care about your business and the future health of our industry.
If we as an industry can’t stand together and fight for our collective well-being, then we could be, and should be, damned to our collective failure.
Mason Young, President/CEO, Summit Creek Inc., Denver
