From 2004 to 2005, Unlimited Postal Service had the highest

Question

From 2004 to 2005, Unlimited Postal Service had the highest on-time overnight delivery rate of the six major delivery companies in the country. From 2005 to 2006, however, Unlimited Postal Service had the lowest on-time overnight delivery rate of the six major delivery companies. The on-time overnight delivery ranking of the other five companies relative to each other remained unchanged.

Which of the following, if true, would most contribute to an explanation of the facts above?

In early 2005, Unlimited Postal Service stopped taking overnight deliveries after 1:00 PM to ensure that the deliveries would be made according to schedule.

In a drastic cost-cutting measure, Unlimited Postal Service laid off 10 percent of its employees in early 2005.

Unlimited Postal Service implemented a new electronic package tracking system in early 2005 in order to improve delivery speed and efficiency.

In response to cuts to their retirement benefits, Unlimited Postal Service's delivery personnel went on a company-wide strike for all of February 2005.

Although all six delivery companies try to keep their overnight deliveries on schedule, increased security measures at many airports increased delays in deliveries originating in the cities those airports serve.
Source: Veritas Prep

Marcab · Answer

Hey man...I thought the answer to be B.
Don't have any idea how D is better than B?
Can we have the OE please.

TGC · Answer

Hi Marcab,

Plz justify (B). as IMO these 10% employees can be of any department.Not certainly from delivery department.

Why not A,Had they closed taking orders after 1:00 PM today they will have less orders to be delivered tomorrow,what say??????

plumber250 · Answer

Hi - I agree with Marcab,

B is a good candidate. Please can we have the OE?

A is definietely wrong though. If they stopped taking orders after 1, this would make it more likely the orders they do take being delivered on time goes up. We're talking about 'rate' so % complete not total number.

TGC · Answer

Here is OE
Correct Answer: D

This is an 'explain the paradox' question. The correct answer must explain how Unlimited Postal Service went from first to last in on-time overnight delivery rate, even though the other five companies' relative positions stayed the same. Something drastic must have happened to affect Unlimited Parcel Service that did NOT affect the other companies. Answer choice (D) could explain how Unlimited Parcel Service's on-time delivery rate dropped; its delivery personnel were on strike for an entire month while its competitors were operating as normal. Answers (A) and (C) would actually make the paradox even stronger. Answer (B) is irrelevant; we do not know what type of employees were laid off (it might have been only the legal department, which would not affect deliveries). Answer (E) affected all six companies, so it would not explain how only Unlimited Parcel Service's on-time delivery ranking changed.

Carcass · Answer

Ok but in D we have a strike but this could not affect the rate because the strike take place on february and we have a lower rate that reflect an entire year........

i'm skeptical with this question, telling the truth

plumber250 · Answer

I agree with Carcass,

Dodgy question.

Carcass · Answer

@Plumber

Moreover the OE says that the 10% of the laided off are employees that do not impact on the rate.

Ok here is the trick: never do an assumption or an inference on a gmat question (as general rule) BUT here my common sense tells me that this group (our 10%) for logic are employees that IMPACT the rate, lowering it

To make a long story short, from the question: I could think that this 10% are employees that affect the rate as well as  NOT

notrandom · Answer

B) In a drastic cost-cutting measure, Unlimited Postal Service laid off 10 percent of its  employees  in early 2005. 
  Employees is too broad a term. It includes delivery personnel + other employees. So we don't know whether 10% were delivery personnel or others. Also, since we are bothered about on-time delivery rate we need something that affects that rate specifically  - Wrong

D) In response to cuts to their retirement benefits, Unlimited Postal Service's  delivery personnel went on a company-wide strike for all of February 2005 .
 Bang on! Two things to notice - first this statement directly addresses the issue at hand - low on-time rate - and links it to the delivery personnel. 
Second- the period covered is from 2005-2006 (12 months - a short period) and if out of those 12 months, your employees are not working for 1 month, while the employees of the other 5 major companies are, it will affect you overall on-time rate.  - Correct

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

From 2004 to 2005, Unlimited Postal Service had the highest on-time overnight delivery rate of the six major delivery companies in the country. From 2005 to 2006, however, Unlimited Postal Service had the lowest on-time overnight delivery rate of the six major delivery companies. The on-time overnight delivery ranking of the other five companies relative to each other remained unchanged.

Which of the following, if true, would most contribute to an explanation of the facts above?

In early 2005, Unlimited Postal Service stopped taking overnight deliveries after 1:00 PM to ensure that the deliveries would be made according to schedule.

In a drastic cost-cutting measure, Unlimited Postal Service laid off 10 percent of its employees in early 2005.

Unlimited Postal Service implemented a new electronic package tracking system in early 2005 in order to improve delivery speed and efficiency.

In response to cuts to their retirement benefits, Unlimited Postal Service's delivery personnel went on a company-wide strike for all of February 2005.

Although all six delivery companies try to keep their overnight deliveries on schedule, increased security measures at many airports increased delays in deliveries originating in the cities those airports serve.

By the process of elimination ,Option A, C and E are clearly out of scope.

Option B:10 % emploees were fired,but from where or which department? lets assume there are 10 departments and 10 employees in each department and 1 is fired from each department.How much would be the impact...?we are not sure how much.so we keep this on hold.

Option D:Employees from the delivery department went on strike, that means all the rest of the departments were working which includes the employees from the department that collects the post to be deliverd.That means the Unlimited Postal services collected post for one month but did not deliver any for entire 1 month that means the ontime delivery rate reduced by 8.3% directly.

Option D is better detailed and provides a better reason while addressing the paradox in the facts provided.

goforgmat · Answer

I picked A .
 carcass  - this is a question we should skip ?

dg88074 · Answer

The answer is D. The last line of the question stem is the key to solving.  The on-time overnight delivery ranking of the other five companies relative to each other remained unchanged . This means that the delivery companies were handling roughly the similar distribution of workload. If Unlimited postal failed to make deliveries in Feb, then this would cause it to slip to the last ranking.

VerbalBot · Answer

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From 2004 to 2005, Unlimited Postal Service had the highest

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