UPS United Parcel Service

By Paul Ziobro 

Donnie Ledrick heard a peculiar "flap flap flap" after leaving the loading dock at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., and pulled over his United Parcel Service Inc. truck to inspect.

Peering out the driver's side, he immediately saw the carnage. Five FedEx door tags ringed the UPS logo. Another five were stuck to the front hood, while three more dangled on the fender.

"Wow!" Mr. Ledrick recalled thinking. "They got me." And good too. Normally, it's one or two tags, not a baker's dozen.

While FedEx Corp. and UPS fight for customers and global supremacy in the delivery sector, a friendlier battle is being waged on streets across the U.S. FedEx and UPS drivers have taken to using sticky door labels, typically for notifying homeowners and businesses of a delivery attempt, in a quest to tag their rivals with their colors.

It isn't clear when the tradition started, but it has caught on during the coronavirus pandemic to lighten a dark time and break up the monotony of an increasingly taxing job. Drivers share photos of their conquests on social media.

Participants say it's all in good fun. In fact, while the companies remain fierce rivals and executives swear they would never take a job with their chief competitor, drivers from the opposing teams often maintain a cordial relationship. The bond is a function of crisscrossing the same busy streets, often hitting the same stops, while alone in their trucks. Sometimes they ask each other for directions or reminders of codes to enter a lot. It isn't unheard of for drivers in rural areas trade packages to save time.

The openings for attack have grown. Drivers have been operating at a rushed pace during the pandemic due to a surge in online shopping, with daily packages rivaling those during the peak season before Christmas. Drivers mostly disembark from the passenger side too, leaving one side overlooked.

Mr. Ledrick made one grave mistake. After unloading packages at the dock, he hopped into the truck through the rear loading door and walked through it to the driver's seat. He never saw the tags along the side or front.

The strike was payback, courtesy of FedEx Ground driver Penny Shinholster. Her son, a FedEx contractor, was tagged by a UPS driver a day earlier. "I told him, 'Don't worry about it, the first UPS truck I see, I'll tag it,' " Ms. Shinholster said.

One challenge in responding is that Mr. Ledrick's FedEx counterpart typically arrives at Mercer College before him. He enlisted help from some workers at the college to plot his response. "I left five or six to stick on her car when she goes to leave," he said.

Little did he know that the dock workers were loyal to Ms. Shinholster, having kept watch while she struck. She was in no danger from them.

This game of "tag" is particularly active in Macon, where four UPS drivers and at least that many FedEx drivers serve the area. One UPS driver there stuck a tag high in the middle of a FedEx truck's windshield, which he couldn't reach and drove around with it for the rest of the day. Mr. Ledrick has taken to affixing tags on FedEx boxes dispersed throughout the city where they pick up packages, so they know he was there.

"We don't go hunting each other down," Mr. Ledrick said. "We wait for each other to cross paths."

Tene Good has been a driver for FedEx's Express unit since November, working the afternoons picking up packages for shipment. She spotted her first target earlier this month. Outside the Carolina Place mall in Pineville, N.C., a UPS truck was waiting, as it does most days. "I did the whole driver's side of that truck," she said.

She wasn't fast enough. The other driver, who she had met along the route, spotted her before she was done.

They both burst into laughter.

The other driver, who recorded the discovery, promised a response.

"The war is on, baby!" he says on the video. "The war is on, FedEx."

FedEx and UPS higher-ups were mostly unaware of the friendly game played in parts of the country. But neither seem to have qualms about using company property for unintended purposes.

"During this global pandemic we could all use a smile," a UPS spokesman said. "A friendly game of tag is one way of remembering to smile while our people continue to bring others the things they need to live their lives and run their businesses."

A FedEx spokeswoman said: "Our team members are proud to deliver for our customers. Sometimes, they are known to literally stick it to the competition."

Few delivery drivers are safe from the crossfire. A favorite target is the new kid on the block, Amazon.com Inc., whose growing fleet of delivery vans is viewed on Wall Street as a threat to the incumbent delivery firms.

The U.S. Postal Service has also gotten drawn in. David Maldonado, a FedEx Ground driver in Middleboro, Mass., spotted a Postal Service truck parked in the driveway at a house he was delivering it to and noticed that it belonged to what he said was a surly worker that he often spots while out delivering packages. After he walked past the car in the driveway, he grabbed a tag out of his pocket and slapped it on the car.

"She needs to loosen up a bit," he said.

Blake Irwin delivers his packages, and tag, with love. The Livonia, Mich.-based UPS driver typically delivers to industrial customers and rarely sees his competition. But he finally spotted a FedEx driver backed into a delivery dock, rooting around in the back looking for a package.

"I think, 'Oh, man, I got to get this guy," Mr. Irwin said. He ran to his truck, grabbed a tag, slapped it on the truck and took a picture. As he was pulling out, he called out, "Have a nice day."

He has adopted another calling card for his conquests. With a black marker, he'll write "I [heart symbol] UPS" on the tag.

But he has a bigger goal in mind, if he has enough time and tags, for his rival's FedEx logo. "I want to make a giant heart around it," he said.

Write to Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 17, 2020 10:26 ET (14:26 GMT)

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