Fedex?

[karen3172]

Fedex do any shipments by rail and if so how? If Fedex doesn't ship by rail and does only by truck how do they compete UPS?

[art11758]

Fed Ex time sensitive/overnight service still goes by air. When they purchased American Freightways they aquired the infrastructure for dedicated team driven truck service. Considering how many highways there are, even in some of the remotest parts of this country, proper dispatch could and does easily give better transit time. JMO I'm far from an expert. Just a interested observer.

[Anonymous]

Everynow and then I do see a FedEx Trailer on a BNSF Train.....

[dldance]

last fall I saw quite a few Fedex trailers on BNSF right about the time that fuel prices soared.

dd

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by art11758

Fed Ex time sensitive/overnight service still goes by air. When they purchased American Freightways they aquired the infrastructure for dedicated team driven truck service. Considering how many highways there are, even in some of the remotest parts of this country, proper dispatch could and does easily give better transit time. JMO I'm far from an expert. Just a interested observer.

I too, am a somewhat interested observer, and by no means an expert, the holding company has three major components, FedEx Express, FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight. Each of these companies operated separately from each other. They have separate management, infrastructure and equipment.

FedEx Fright is the LTL (less than truck load) company, which was put together by merging American Freightways, in the east, with Viking in the west. It does use some intermodal rail.

The last article I saw on the subject listing LTL intermodal rail use was from a couple of years ago, top on the list was Yellow Freight, next was Roadway, then ABF. FedEx Freight was a think 4th on the list, but with a substantially smaller volume than the 3 top rail users.

I know very little about the package business, but I think FedEx Ground uses very little intermodal rail services, especially compared to UPS.

[Anonymous]

yep ive seen it happen on a a BNSF train in the LA area my dad is a pilot for fedex and he had no idea they put trailers on trains

[csxns]

On NS trains here in North Carolina also.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by the feed

yep ive seen it happen on a a BNSF train in the LA area my dad is a pilot for fedex and he had no idea they put trailers on trains

Again, FedEx the holding company, has three major componates, which company's trailers did you see? FedEx Express, FedEx Ground or FedEx Freight?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SP9033

QUOTE: Originally posted by the feed

yep ive seen it happen on a a BNSF train in the LA area my dad is a pilot for fedex and he had no idea they put trailers on trains

Again, FedEx the holding company, has three major componates, which company's trailers did you see? FedEx Express, FedEx Ground or FedEx Freight?

Express is thats what i remeber

[Anonymous]

QUOTE:
Express is thats what i remeber

Again, I'm no expert on the package industry, but I don't think that FedEx Express uses intermodal rail at all. But, that does not mean you didn't remember seeing FedEx Express equipment on a rail flat. It could have been a equipment move.

[Anonymous]

FedEx has a few divisions within itself. Overnight delivery is not going to be on a train, it travels by airplane, then truck. But some of the other options you might see on a train. I work for a trucking company in Canada and I pick up trailers off trains all the time. If the company has some time to get it to it's destination, going by train is cheaper. As previous answer it could be just equipment moves

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by karen3172

If Fedex doesn't ship by rail and does only by truck how do they compete UPS?

Unlike FedEx, which has two separate companies in the package business, UPS is one company in both air and ground transportation of packages.

For this reply, lets separate this into air and ground transportation. FedEx Ground, the old "RPS" company verses UPS ground.

FedEx Ground employees are mostly contractors. Route drivers are independent contractors and purchase their routes and trucks from FedEx. As independent contractors for FedEx Ground, the workers, pay all taxes for their Social Security, Medicare, state industrial combinsation, and state disability insurance (where required). For employees, these are mostly divided 50/50, half paid by the employee and the other half paid by the employer.

The FedEx Ground contractor also pays for all insurance on the truck, along with all maintenance costs for the delivery truck. They also bare the major portion of any retirement program and also pay the full cost on medical insurance.

A FedEx Ground delivery driver, with a good route, might gross $100,000 to $120,000 bucks or more, after the above mentioned expenses the net on income could drop to as low as $45,000 to $55,000. A UPS Ground driver nets between $55,000 to $70,000. The same forces apply to line drivers of FedEx Ground, which deliver packages between stations.

Unlike FedEx Ground, UPS workers are all employees of the company, and have always been. They mostly only pay half on the taxes mentioned above. UPS pays all costs of health and welfare, retirement and medical insurance. There is no truck costs paid by UPS Ground employees.

So, with an average wage of over $25 an hour, along with all the associate expenses, a UPS worker earns way over $40 an hour. Because costs of manpower at UPS is much greater than FedEx Ground, rail has for a long time always figured into UPS's business model.

Because FedEx Ground employees are contractors, and the cost to the company is so much less than UPS employees, there is no need to really include rail in the business plan, except when seasonal demand out-strips capacity.

FedEx ground competes with UPS mostly without intermodal rail because in relationship with UPS, workers at FedEX Ground work so much cheaper. This allows FedEx to keep its package business mostly on the highways.

Again, I know very lttle about the package business, except what I read.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by KevinRC

FedEx has a few divisions within itself. Overnight delivery is not going to be on a train, it travels by airplane, then truck. But some of the other options you might see on a train. I work for a trucking company in Canada and I pick up trailers off trains all the time. If the company has some time to get it to it's destination, going by train is cheaper. As previous answer it could be just equipment moves

Again, FedEx, the holding company (stock symbol FDX) owns and operates three major componate companies in transprotation, FedEx Express, FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight, these are not divisions of one company, but are three free standing companies owned by the holding company, FedEx (stock symbol for FedEx the holding company FDX).

Other companies owned by FDX are; FedEx Kinkos, FedEx Custom Critical, FedEx Trade Networks, and FedEx Supply Chain Services.

[samfp1943]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SP9033

QUOTE: Originally posted by karen3172

If Fedex doesn't ship by rail and does only by truck how do they compete UPS?

Unlike FedEx, which has two separate companies in the package business, UPS is one company in both air and ground transportation of packages.

For this reply, lets separate this into air and ground transportation. FedEx Ground, the old "RPS" company verses UPS ground.

FedEx Ground employees are mostly contractors. Route drivers are independent contractors and purchase their routes and trucks from FedEx. As independent contractors for FedEx Ground, the workers, pay all taxes for their Social Security, Medicare, state industrial combinsation, and state disability insurance (where required). For employees, these are mostly divided 50/50, half paid by the employee and the other half paid by the employer.

The FedEx Ground contractor also pays for all insurance on the truck, along with all maintenance costs for the delivery truck. They also bare the major portion of any retirement program and also pay the full cost on medical insurance.

A FedEx Ground delivery driver, with a good route, might gross $100,000 to $120,000 bucks or more, after the above mentioned expenses the net on income could drop to as low as $45,000 to $55,000. A UPS Ground driver nets between $55,000 to $70,000. The same forces apply to line drivers of FedEx Ground, which deliver packages between stations.

Unlike FedEx Ground, UPS workers are all employees of the company, and have always been. They mostly only pay half on the taxes mentioned above. UPS pays all costs of health and welfare, retirement and medical insurance. There is no truck costs paid by UPS Ground employees.

So, with an average wage of over $25 an hour, along with all the associate expenses, a UPS worker earns way over $40 an hour. Because costs of manpower at UPS is much greater than FedEx Ground, rail has for a long time always figured into UPS's business model.

Because FedEx Ground employees are contractors, and the cost to the company is so much less than UPS employees, there is no need to really include rail in the business plan, except when seasonal demand out-strips capacity.

FedEx ground competes with UPS mostly without intermodal rail because in relationship with UPS, workers at FedEX Ground work so much cheaper. This allows FedEx to keep its package business mostly on the highways.

Again, I know very lttle about the package business, except what I read.

The FedEX trailers that were seen on the train might have been an equipment reposition to support new service, or service area.
Both Fed Ex and UPS offer similar service parameters (ie: overnight, and day incremental shipments, up to a non-time critical bulk[ or on pallets] truckload business. Their models in a lot of cases are similar, in particular in the area of the overnight packages.
Prior to FedEx buying the American Expressway [ out of Harrisonvile,Ark- formerly was the Arkansas Freightways, they relied on a system of contracted truck carriers [M.S. Carriers, Prime, Swift and others] utilizing Team driven trucks over long distances and single drivers on shorter or ten hour runs, or via single driver reralys] to bring their packages into a major Hub] at that time Newark, NJ, Indianapolis, In or Memphis from Eastern half of US locations, California had a hub in the Los Angeles area. Then about 6/7 years ago there was some discussion and preplanning to try and fit rail intermodal into their business model, but then the consensus was that there was not the required relaibility level for their business model, and the idea was shelved.
When American Freightways was purchased, I think there was some discussion that they could eventually replace the contracted truck carriers on the runs that required relays, and utilized the American drivers for their relays, then FedEx acquired Roadway Package Express amf that was about the time they were incorporated into the Fed Ex ground operation and their Expedited courrier truck operation was brought into the comapny to replace Fed Ex's [Ad Hoc] trucking operations. I think in the last six years Fed Ex has continued to bring more and more of their operations on trucks "in house" .In spite of having a very large cargo plane fleet, the general public would besuprised as to how much "Overnight-type" expedited freight for air cargo is moved in trucks, both conventional trailers and palletized roller bed trailer equipment for most of the major Air Express carriers, DHL/Airborne, UPS and Fed Ex to name some.

[Anonymous]

im in a fedex family and i dont know any of this lol

[karen3172]

Thx, esp. SP9033
Ron

[rvos1979]

I work at Stoughton Trailers, and I do remember that the last order of trailers we did for FedEx Ground were set up for intermodal use.

Rumor has it they might be ordering another batch of trailers from us soon, not sure how true this is, heard it at work a few weeks ago.

Randy

[dldance]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dldance

last fall I saw quite a few Fedex trailers on BNSF right about the time that fuel prices soared.

dd

The TOFCs I saw were either Ground or Freight - definately not Express.

dd

[MP173]

SP:

Great explanation of the FEDEX system. Thanks.

RVOS....any slowdown in trailer orders at your plant? I am hearing things are beginning to slowdown a bit. I sell a related product that goes on trailers and we are pretty busy right now.

ed

[route_rock]

A lot of so called air frieght is on the ground moves. I have hauled some in my days driving. You kno how hard it is to keep a straight face when someone says it was worth it to have this machine shipped over night by plane, note the machine was over 10 wide and 13 feet tall and weighed in at 35,000.But it was shipped by air snickers.
FedEx Freight runs trailers on intermodal but not at the volume of the big boys. Yes UPS and Yellow and other union drivers make some big money but I hate to tell you this. Its market driven. My area you can go drive for Roadway for the same amount of money as the non union LTL companies. Oh and you dont have union dues to pay in so your actually making more.
Contractors wont stay if the money isnt there either. Sure your buisness isnt eatin a lot of costs by using a contractor but he wont stay aroundif he aint making money. and if all of them run off and take their power units ( leaving you with nada) your up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

[rvos1979]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MP173

SP:

Great explanation of the FEDEX system. Thanks.

RVOS....any slowdown in trailer orders at your plant? I am hearing things are beginning to slowdown a bit. I sell a related product that goes on trailers and we are pretty busy right now.

ed

Well, business has slowed down a bit now that we finished a 1,000 unit order for UPS, but they dropped second shift at one plant and moved people to our plant, we're knocking out about 20-25 trailers in a 10 hour shift.

Rumors have been floating around about an order for FedEx and a 5,000 unit order for UPS, but we haven't started building suspensions for those yet, haven't even heard if we got the orders yet.

Randy

[fuzzybroken]

I was amazed at the number of brand-new trailers I loaded this past Peak (Christmas) season at UPS! It was getting to be an every-day thing for a while. But I haven't seen one since New Years...

When UPS introduced their "Blue Label" service -- now 2nd Day Air -- it was all carried by airplane. Next Day Air was also originally carried by airplane. 3 Day Select was named so that they could use either the Air or Ground system, depending on transit times. Eventually they figured out that Air service could also be transported by Ground sometimes, but didn't change the names.

I don't have as much familiarity with FedEx, though I do know that their "Express" service remains separate from their "Ground"/"Home Delivery" service, the latter being RPS with the recent addition of Parcel Direct.

[AztecEagle]

All I Know About The Package Business is From Watching "The King of Queens".Dumb Joke To Get You Started in the AM:FedEx and Union Pacific Are Gonna Merge.Call It "Fed UP"!!(Rim Shot!!).