With each passing day since the United Parcel Service strike began Aug. 4, the number and severity of business disruptions has grown. Many Los Angeles-area businesses have been hit hard, scrambling to come up with alternate arrangements for shipping and receiving merchandise. Whether through delayed deliveries or shorter pick-up schedules, businesses are under pressure to prioritize their shipments and reschedule deadlines. The Business Journal Forum asks:

Has the UPS strike affected your business?

Susana Bailey

Shipping Manager

Rampage Retailing Inc.

Very much. I have to ship a lot of stuff out, but none of the other courier services are helping too much. We’ve got a lot of stuff sitting here. It’s a big, big problem.

Elizabeth Lamont

Owner

Room With A View

Very much so. There’s two issues. I have special orders for customers coming. If a small vendor wasn’t set up with Fed-Ex beforehand, they can’t use them to ship to me. It’s very much an inconvenience to our customers. Second, we are absorbing the charges of shipping Fed-Ex, which is costing us a lot more. The thing I foresee is a lot of my smaller vendors and artists that are making things for Christmas deliveries are going to be late. Now is their production time.

Dan Harary

President

Asbury Communications

It has affected us via our use of Fed-Ex. Really, we’ve had to hand-deliver the stuff to the Fed-Ex offices ourselves, because they can’t pick it up from us.

Kathleen Curran

Sales Assistant

Terra Cotta

It’s absolutely affecting our business. If we can’t get our merchandise we have nothing to sell.

Ashley Quinn

Executive Producer

Renegade Animation

Yes it has, definitely. Actually it’s funny we don’t ship UPS, we use Federal Express. The first days of the strike they weren’t able to deliver our stuff on time. One overnight package took four days. When you’re in the production business, or any business, it’s very impactful. Fed-Ex is accepting packages only until 3 (p.m.), instead of 6 (p.m.). That turns our production schedule upside down. We’ve had to rearrange some schedules and clients are inconvenienced. We haven’t lost revenues, just sleep.

Diane Morrison

Manager

So. California Gas Co.

Energy Resource Center

We don’t typically use UPS. What’s happening is Fed-Ex will come for routine packages, but for some of the larger packages they won’t stop at our location. We have to send packages to our downtown office for pick-up there. It is impacting certain deadlines.

John Fuller

The Fuller Group

The answer is yes. It means that we can’t wait until the last minute; we’ve all been spoiled. Fed-Ex and the Postal Service no longer offer guarantees. So for us, we normally had until 5 o’clock (p.m.) now it’s 2 p.m. It just means you have to plan more carefully.