RE: FedEx Representatives Address Open Forum Topic
>Phil,
>But rather I am asking what these questions that were asked
>are and what wasn’t asked which are more important. I know
>there must have been restrictions what you can ask and how
>you ask it, one reason is because you are a FedEx contractor
>and the other is FedEx is just like any big business who
>have automatic damage control prevention in place when
>giving interviews.
I arranged this interview myself. Diane and I were at FedEx Custom Critical HQ for TVAL training and truck certification, which takes a couple days. It seemed like a good time to do some writing and since I was that close I decided to write about FedEx. My interview request was quickly granted with no restrictions whatsoever on the kind of questions I could or coult not ask.
There were a couple questions I asked that they refused to answer, as stated in the interview; "Due to competitive information and customer confidentiality, FedEx could not give specific freight-volume numbers or specific customer examples of freight going onto FedEx Custom Critical trucks. " Their responses or lack of them seemed fair to me. I could ask anything I wished. The would answer as they wished.
EO is not the New York Times or Washington Post. I am a truck driver first and a writer just for the fun of it. I did not go into that interview to play investigative reporter, gottchya journalism, or to scoop other trucking industry news sources. I used my spare time, and the time FedEx exeuctives gave me to address certain topics that had come up in the open forum in recent months. My idea was to bring information here from authroitative sources that might help Open Forum readers better understand the topics raised.
>A few of us wonder why Jeff didn’t do the interview
>because of the neutrality he has and that should take place
>in any interview (in many of our opinions).
The potential confilict of interest is acknowledged and thus disclosed in the final paragraph of the story.
You may appear
>to this group that you represent us through the questions or
>pattern of questions being asked, which you do not represent
>the average contractor (you are truly above that – yes
>that is a compliment) and this may be taken as input from
>us. This is nothing to do with your writing style or you.
Your last comment confuses me. Bringing questions and comments that are publicly posted on the Open Forum to FedEx people does not mean I represent Open Forum participants. Given the treatment I receive here from some, the last thing I would want to be is an Open Forum representative, real or perceived.
The piece was written with it's information value to the EO community in mind, not with my role in it. I just happened to be the one to write it because it seemed like a worthwhile project to do while I was killing time at FedEx.
I would love to see similar pieces written about Panther, Landstar Express America, Tristate, Bolt, and all the other expedite carriers written by drivers who are so inclined. You can be sure that if I had some time to kill in Seville, Ohio, I'd be knocking on Panther's door for an interview there too.
Maybe Leo or DaveKC could save me the trouble and do such an interview themselves. A lot of concerns about Panther have come up in recent months in the Open Forum including dispatch procedures, the Conway NOW purchase, fleet size questions, freight availability, the Panther public offering and more. Wouldn't it be nice if someone (preferably a Panther driver) took those issues to Panther officials and wrote it about it on EO?
>and what happened to Cheri's comments?
I suspect her better nature got ahold of her and she deleted the comments. Only Cheri can say.
