FedEx Totally Explained

Everything about Federal Express totally explained

FedEx Corporation, is a leading logistics services company, based in the United States. FedEx is a syllabic abbreviation of the company's original name, Federal Express, used until 1994.

History

The company was founded as Federal Express in 1971 by Fred Smith in Little Rock, Arkansas. The company moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1973 after Little Rock airport officials wouldn't agree to provide facilities for the fledgling company's airplanes. The name was chosen to symbolize a national marketplace, and to help obtain government contracts. The company began operations on April 17 1973 with a network of 14 Dassault Falcon 20s which connected 25 U.S. cities, but expanded greatly after airline deregulation in 1978. The company operates much of its U.S. overnight freight through its Memphis hub with other hubs at Indianapolis, Fort Worth, Oakland, Newark, Anchorage, Paris, Subic Bay, Toronto, and Miami. A mid-Atlantic hub is current under construction at Greensboro and is schedule to be completed in 2009.
   Between 1984 and 1986 the company operated a fax service known as Zapmail. Fax transmission was offered to customers as a means to expedite delivery of documents. Eventually judged a commercial failure, it resulted in a $320m write-off.
   In August 1989 the company acquired Flying Tigers, an international cargo airline. In its purchase of Flying Tigers, the company inherited the former's U.S. military transport contract and carried passengers between the continental United States and overseas military installations until October 1992. In January 1998, Federal Express acquired Caliber System, Inc, which owned Roadway Package System, Roberts Express, Viking Freight, and Caliber Logistics. When these companies combined, the new organization became known as FDX Corp. The name "FedEx" had been a popular, if unofficial, abbreviation for Federal Express for several years before the company chose it as its primary brand name in 1994. The new identity was revealed to the world on June 24 1994. The "Federal Express" name was eliminated entirely in 2000, when FDX Corporation changed its name to FedEx Corporation and adopted the tagline "The World On Time". In 2000, FedEx and the USPS signed a 7-year contract to carry all the USPS overnight and high-priority mail throughout the FedEx system. The postal contract has recently been extended until 2012 and USPS continues to be one of the largest customers for FedEx.
In 2001, FedEx acquired American Freightways, a leading less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier, and combined them with Viking Freight to create FedEx Freight. In February 2004, FedEx bought Kinko's, a Dallas-based chain that provides copying/printing and business services, for $2.4 billion, in a similar move to the UPS acquisition of Mail Boxes Etc. In 2005, FedEx Express began expansion of its Indianapolis hub, which by its projected completion in 2010 will be one of the largest FedEx Express hubs.
In May 2006, FedEx acquired the assets of Watkins Motor Lines, a leader in long-haul LTL freight transportation for $780 million cash. The purchase allowed FedEx to provide more choices for heavyweight deliveries. The company has been rebranded as FedEx National LTL, and is part of the Fedex Freight segment.
   In December 2007, the Internal Revenue Service of the US 'tentatively decided' that FedEx Ground Division might be facing a tax liability of $319 million for 2002, due to misclassification of its operatives as independent contractors. Reversing a 1994 decision which allowed FedEx to classify its operatives that own their own vehicles, the IRS is auditing the years 2003 to 2006, with a view to assessing whether similar misclassification of operatives has taken place. FedEx denies that any irregularities in classification have taken place, but is facing legal action from operatives claiming benefits that would have accrued had they been classified as employees.
   Due for completion in 2008 is the new Asian-Pacific Superhub in Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in Southern China; replacing FedEx Express' current hub in Subic Bay, Philippines and increasing service levels and demands in Southern Asia.
In its advertising, the company made famous the line "Absolutely, positively" for their overnight service; the original phrase was "When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight." Another slogan, "Relax, it's FedEx", is well recognized. For several years the company promoted the slogan "Don't panic", particularly on buttons. Throughout Europe, the marketing tag line is "whatever it takes". One major exception is Interior Alaska outside of Anchorage or Fairbanks local areas. Overnight packages are transferred to the United States Postal Service and then shipped either parcel post or first class mail with no tracking ability. FedEx marks the tracking of these items as "Delivered to customer" when the USPS receives the items.
   Major competitors include UPS, DHL, and TNT, in addition to post office organizations around the globe.

Operating units and logos

FedEx is organized into operating units, each of which has its own version of the wordmark, designed by Lindon Leader of Landor Associates, in 1994. In all versions, the Fed is purple. The Ex is in a different color for each division. The corporate wordmark uses a grey Ex. The original "FedEx" logo saw the Ex in orange; it's now used as the FedEx Express wordmark. The award winning FedEx wordmark is notable for containing a hidden right-pointing arrow in the negative space between the "E" and the "X".

FedEx Express - The original overnight courier services, FedEx Express provides delivery of goods, from envelopes to freight. It has the largest civil aircraft fleet in the world, and the world's largest fleet of wide bodied civil aircraft, including the Airbus A300, Airbus A310, and McDonnell Douglas DC-10, MD-10 and MD-11 models. It was the launch customer for the freight version of the superjumbo Airbus 380F, but canceled its order due to production delays. It has now ordered Boeing 777F aircraft, which will be the new flagships of the FedEx fleet. FedEx Express's ontime to delivery error rate is lower than 2 errors per 10,000. Logo color: orange.
FedEx Ground - Guaranteed day-definite delivery at a cost savings as compared to time-definite FedEx Express. Originally started delivering primarily to businesses, but now offers services to consumers and small businesses through its website, FedEx Kinko's, and other outlets. Uses a large fleet of trucks which are owned by the independent owner/operators and drivers are independent contractors who control individual delivery routes and territories. Formerly Roadway Package System (RPS). Logo color: green.
- FedEx Home Delivery - A division of FedEx Ground specializes in residential delivery with standard operating hours of 9am-8pm Tuesday through Saturday offering delivery options to provide flexibility for residential recipients. The logo is that of FedEx Ground, but often includes a drawing of a dog carrying a package known as spot.com. Currently, FedEx Home Delivery only operates in the United States, and isn't yet available in Canada. To make up the difference, FedEx Ground in Canada performs the business deliveries, as normal, as well as the residential deliveries, that FedEx Home Delivery would usually take.
- FedEx SmartPost - Consolidates parcels from merchants such as e-commerce and catalog companies, and delivers them for "last mile" residential delivery via the US Postal Service. Formerly the independent company Parcel Direct until FedEx acquired them for $120M in 2004.
FedEx Freight - Less than truckload (LTL) and other freight services. FedEx is one of the larger LTL carriers in the US, behind market leaders YRC Worldwide, and Con-way. Logo color: red.
- FedEx Freight East - Formerly American Freightways.
- FedEx Freight West - Formerly Viking Freight.
- FedEx National LTL - Formerly Watkins Motor Lines.
- FedEx Freight Canada - Formerly Watkins Canada Express.
- Caribbean Transport Services - Up until 2003, a part of FedEx Trade Networks. Provides airfreight forwarding services between the U.S. mainland, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and other Caribbean islands.
FedEx Kinko's - The retail arm of the corporation. The logo color is blue, the same as that of FedEx Custom Critical, but it also includes the name Kinko's in purple after FedEx, and also comes with an asterisk-shaped logo (known as the 'Beacon') of three deltas (each green, orange, and blue, representing Ground, Express, and Kinko's, respectively), converging and forming a purple triangle in the middle, representing FedEx Corporation. (The official letterhead contains this at the upper right of the FedEx Kinko's name.) Formerly an independent company, it was simply known as Kinko's.
- FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Centers - Provides business services—including printing, copying, and Internet access—in addition to FedEx shipping.
- FedEx Kinko's Ship Centers - Provides a central location for FedEx customers to deposit their packages for shipping, also offering a self service photocopy and fax machine, office products for packing and shipping, boxes and packaging services. Formerly, these locations were named FedEx World Service Centers.

FedEx Custom Critical - Delivers urgent, valuable, or hazardous items using trucks and chartered aircraft. Freight not accepted for transport includes perishable food, alcohol, livestock, household goods, hazardous waste and money. Drivers are independent contractors. Service in Mexico uses interline carriers. Formerly Roberts Cartage or Roberts Express. Logo color: blue.

Passport Transport - Transports cars, especially those of high value.
White Glove Services - Handles high-value or sensitive freight which may require special handling, extra security, or temperature controlled transport. For example, bacteria cultures, temperature sensitive medications, and certain food items can be transported at the temperature intended by the shipper.
Air Expedite - Formerly known as CharterAir. Specializes in same and next day delivery of freight, including Saturday delivery.

FedEx Trade Networks - Provides services relating to customs, insurance, and transportation advice. Formerly C.J. Tower & Sons, then Tower Group International. Logo color: yellow.

FedEx Supply Chain Services - Provides logistics services including Critical Inventory Logistics, Transportation Management Services, Fulfillment Services, etc. Formerly Roadway Logistics System, then Caliber Logistics. The logo color is platinum, the same as the corporate logo.

FedEx Services - Provides marketing and information technology (IT) services for the other FedEx divisions. The logo color is platinum, the same as the corporate logo; headquartered in Memphis, TN.

FedEx in the European Union

It was announced on 18th December 2007 that FedEx Express had bought the courier company ANC for £120 million. ANC operated as a separate entity, but accepting and delivering FedEx's shipments, until 17th September 2007 when it was renamed as FedEx UK. The acquisition brought about an extra 35 sort locations for FedEx in the UK. Fedex will operate cargo flights to Manchester Airport starting in September 2007 using an MD11 which will operate from Memphis to Manchester then onto Paris CDG and returning direct from CDG to Memphis.
The Stansted operations will still comprise of a direct flight from Memphis to Stansted and back to Memphis. It will also see the introduction of a flight from Indianapolis also using an MD11.
It has also been announced that FedEx will start operations from Newcastle Airport in the North to its European hub at Charles De Gaulle Airport, from Paris, the cargo can be flown to almost anywhere in the world. The Newcastle flights themselves will be operated by Farnair. Fedex also operate cargo flights to Lisbon airport.

Environmental Initiatives

In 2003, FedEx Express began introducing hybrid electric/diesel vehicles into its worldwide fleet. Currently FedEx operates over 100 such vehicles worldwide. The most common of these vehicles is a hybrid version of FedEx's standard "W700" 14-foot delivery truck. 88 hybrid W700's operate in various US cities (New York, NY; Portland, OR; Tampa, FL; San Francisco, CA; Sacramento, CA; Chicago, IL; Memphis, TN; Ann Arbor, MI and Washington, D.C.).
Additional hybrid vehicles operate in Tokyo, Japan; Toronto, Canada; and Turin, Italy.

Research and development

In 2003, FedEx partnered with the Department of Homeland Security and Northrop Grumman to develop and flight test an anti-missile system, the FXE Northrop Grumman Guardian that could be deployed on commercial airliners, to protect them from terrorist attacks such as occurred in the 2003 Baghdad DHL shootdown incident. FedEx supplied an MD-11 and a leased 747 for the flight test phase. They then became the first air carrier to deploy the Guardian on a commercial flight in September, 2006, when it equipped one of its MD-10 freighters with the pod, and subsequently equipped eight more aircraft for evaluation purposes.

Political donations

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, FedEx Corp is the 21st largest campaign contributor in the United States. They have donated over $21,124,184 since 1990, 45% of which went to Democrats and 55% to Republicans. Strong ties to the White House and members of Congress allow access to international trade and tax cut debates as well as the rules of the business practices of the United States Postal Service. In 2001, FedEx sealed a deal with the USPS to deliver all of the post office's overnight and express deliveries.
In 2005, FedEx was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.

Online

The domain fedex.com attracted at least 73 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.

Motorsports

From 1997 to 2002, FedEx was the title sponsor of Champ Car World Series when it was known as CART. The series was known as the CART FedEx Championship Series, which led to the official "Champ Car" designation in reference to the fact they were the FedEx Championship.

FedEx became the sponsor of the #11 NASCAR Nextel Cup Toyota owned by Joe Gibbs Racing in 2005. FedEx uses four (predominantly black) paint schemes to showcase its different products (Express, Freight, Ground, and FedEx Kinko's), and in 2005 also ran a special scheme to promote a charity event at the FedEx St. Jude Classic golf tournament.

FedEx sponsors the Formula 1 Team McLaren. The two cars on the team are driven by Lewis Hamilton of Britain and Heikki Kovalainen of Finland. Prior to that FedEx has sponsored Ferrari, Benetton (now Renault) and Williams F1.

FedEx in popular culture

In the 1991 film The Addams Family, Thing gets a job delivering packages for FedEx (then called Federal Express) after the Addamses are forced out of their home by Tully.
In the 2000 film Cast Away, Tom Hanks plays a FedEx executive whose cargo jet is brought down in a storm, stranding him on an uninhabited island. In it, the CEO--Frederick Smith--appears playing a part as himself.
In the 1999 film Runaway Bride, Julia Roberts's character flees her own wedding by jumping aboard a FedEx truck. When someone asks where she's going, another character replies that he doesn't know, but she'll get there by 10 A.M. the next day.

Funding for FedEx

Fredrick W. Smith's grandfather was a steamboat captain and his father built a bus system that led to the southern Greyhound Bus system. This gave Smith a seeming history and influence to do something with travel and business. The original funding for FedEx came from an investment of 4 million dollars that he inherited from his father. Venture capitalists gave Smith 80 million dollars to help him purchase his first Dassault Falcon planes. His college professors rejected his initial idea, but the venture capitalists that backed him with the large sums of money seemed to have more faith in him. Smith's company didn't always go as well as planned, however. Postal companies held a monopoly that prevented FedEx from delivering packages, and also airline regulations restricted the size of the planes which they could fly. Smith was so desperate in 1973 that he flew to Las Vegas and won $27,000 at a blackjack table and wired it back to his company.Further Information

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