Still, Shore to Door's McCallum is worried about even a minor hiccup in service. But it wouldn't be fresh. The combined effects of heavy volume and fewer pilots could hurt a wide cross-section of industries. At Micro Plastics Inc., a maker of threaded nylon fasteners in Flippin, Ark., President Tom Hill monitors the strike talks daily. Hill says he would switch back to using UPS only if the strike were prolonged enough to stop workflow.
Contingency planning is essential for any business that's too dependent on one carrier.
At the very least, small companies should consider opening accounts with competing couriers. Of course, the downside of using several delivery companies is that you're unlikely to generate enough volume to get much of a discount. But that would be a minor inconvenience compared with being unable to deliver merchandise. When a strike happens, they won't take any new accounts. That's the case at UPS, whose systems will be taxed under the holiday crunch.