Was excited to read about a fascinating topic but the second paragraph under the 'Express' heading accidentally cites a virtual airline's website rather than Fedex itself — a problem that unfortunately throws into question the accuracy of the rest of the article for me.
As someone who relies on overnight 2-3 times per week, I have to say FedEx expresss (air) is a logistical wonder but unfortunately the packages still have to hit the ground to get to your door. And the ground service is a joke at least in SF. I never knew this but ground delivery drivers are not employees instead they are all independent contractors. Quite often packages come several days late. The driver will also falsely mark item as delivered or that no one was available. Customer support cannot reach anyone at the SF hub/station. I once went to the station and had to wait an hour before someone talked to me. I’ve heard they’ve had many layoffs and completely shut down the Oakland hub. Also heard UPS is much better and pays drivers better (they are union). If I didn’t get a 90% personal discount thru my work I would never use them.
I worked one Christmas for SF’s FedEx Ground 20 years ago. It’s worth noting FedEx routes are (were?) owned by drivers, who would subcontract the routes to seasonal labor like myself.
Fedex is the worst. I live in a house with a wooden fence all around. The sidewalk goes to the gate to get to the front door. Once fedex delivered something to my back deck where there is no sidewalk.
My parents live in a rural area. Two story house with a clear front and back door. Fedex decided to deliver a package by putting it on the storm cellar door on the side of the house.
20 years or so ago FedEx beat the pants off of UPS in my limited experience. The only thing brown did for me [1] was play football with my Newegg packages and bust them open which, for a child spending their entire net worth on a video card, was rather disheartening. Over the years this trend reversed to the point that I actively avoid FedEx so that my package arrives in one piece at my doorstep instead of at their distribution center with a giant hole ripped in the side of it.
I wonder whether Amazon's scale forced UPS to up their game when they were shipping partners. It's also very possible that my experience is completely anecdotal.
If Express is being encroached upon, maybe it needs to start doing weekend pickup/delivery.
When they can pack superhighways overnight with self-driving semis, it's going to get cheaper and better. I still am frustrated with self-driving that they are obsessed with city taxis. Self-driving on highways is so much simpler to automate, and a whole lot more useful to me as a midwest driver.
And what's the state of drone delivery for last mile? Fedex envelopes would seem to be perfect for them.
The true backbone of the American economy, the logistics network and supply chain. Most do not think about how their cheap Chinese plastic garbage is delivered to their door, only how quickly and for the lowest cost. If you really think about it, the engine of our consumption based economy is the humble cardboard box and pallet. Take stuff out of one box to put in another box so it can be opened somewhere else and be placed in another box to be opened up again and thrown away.
I don’t think FedEx has ever been correct about a delivery to our address in NC. We just add one or two days to every estimated delivery and don’t stress about it but I just can’t believe they keep underestimating.
I have never given this a lot attention.
I learned a few things from the post and
I am always grateful for that.
One question that popped into my head is
that with that having a fleet that big
the company must be rather vulnerable if
the number of packages decreases significantly
over even a small amount of time.
Operating a fleet like that, and probably have
lot of flights that cannot be canceled, to save
money, given the propagation problems that would
create downstream.
In a highly improbable hypothesis of a day without
any package at all, the cost must be in the two digit
millions
I dont think there is ever a day without packages but there
are slow days and incredibly busy days.
> By far the largest Express sort facilities are in Memphis ...
I once worked for well known company with a large presence in Memphis. Our mostly empty parking lot was a mobile location for the city's new network of gunshot detectors. In Memphis I would guess 80% of residents carry firearms for protection.
My most recent $75 overnight via FedEx Express was not delivered on time (day late which mattered and why I spent so much) and they straight up lied about it. Only anecdata but sad to hear so many concurring stories.
So now that they have such a good network, they decide to worsen it just so people buy their express services more? Damn it, business schools ruin the world.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 46.5 ms ] threadRemarkably, FedEx has its own map of every airport it services, along with routes, flight times, operators, and aircraft types. https://fedexvirtual.crewsystem.net/route_map.php
I worked one Christmas for SF’s FedEx Ground 20 years ago. It’s worth noting FedEx routes are (were?) owned by drivers, who would subcontract the routes to seasonal labor like myself.
Maybe the really high priority packages can be dropped out of the plane and delivered with a drone
My parents live in a rural area. Two story house with a clear front and back door. Fedex decided to deliver a package by putting it on the storm cellar door on the side of the house.
I wonder whether Amazon's scale forced UPS to up their game when they were shipping partners. It's also very possible that my experience is completely anecdotal.
[1] https://wanderingeye.marketing/remember-that-ad-campaign-wha...
When they can pack superhighways overnight with self-driving semis, it's going to get cheaper and better. I still am frustrated with self-driving that they are obsessed with city taxis. Self-driving on highways is so much simpler to automate, and a whole lot more useful to me as a midwest driver.
And what's the state of drone delivery for last mile? Fedex envelopes would seem to be perfect for them.
One question that popped into my head is that with that having a fleet that big the company must be rather vulnerable if the number of packages decreases significantly over even a small amount of time.
Operating a fleet like that, and probably have lot of flights that cannot be canceled, to save money, given the propagation problems that would create downstream.
In a highly improbable hypothesis of a day without any package at all, the cost must be in the two digit millions
I dont think there is ever a day without packages but there are slow days and incredibly busy days.
I once worked for well known company with a large presence in Memphis. Our mostly empty parking lot was a mobile location for the city's new network of gunshot detectors. In Memphis I would guess 80% of residents carry firearms for protection.
https://www.atlasofsurveillance.org/a/aos009983-memphis-poli...