Frederick W. Smith started Federal Express Corporation in 1971 as FedEx Corporation. On the first night of its continuous operation, 186 packages were delivered. Smith came up with the concept for a term paper when he was at Yale. By 1983, the company had a billion dollars in revenue. Today FedEx transports about 15 million shipments daily.
Five things to know about FedEx
1. FedEx claims to have coined the impression of express transportation
The company started in 1973, and by the 80s, it was already directly competing with USPS. FedEx claims to have coined the idea of express and overnight shipping as they introduced their overnight document-sized letter that could hold two ounces of documents for under $10. From 186 packages on day one to more than 15 million daily shipments today, the company has only grown big.
2. It is one of the major ones when it comes to the industry
E-commerce and services, along with transportation, FedEx comes in the second position in package/courier carrier, right behind UPS. It operates across 220 countries and employs a vast number of people, and the number is somewhere between 475,000 to 476,000. The company, despite the pandemic, managed to bring in a revenue of $69.7 billion last year.
3. More than shipping
The Company does more than ship packages, and its FedEx Office segments look after various document and business services, along with supply chain management, e-comm tech, and much more. It also engages in 3D printing.
4. Multiple locations
FedEx operates across 220 countries and has got about 13 major transportation hubs, 7 of which are located in the United States.
5. The Future of the Company
The Company has been seen with ambitious planning for the future, engaging itself in futuristic innovations. Roxo, the Company’s delivery Robot in their testing stage, is said to be capable of carrying around 100 pounds and can even navigate stairs. If this isn’t the future, then what is. It has also been seen that the company, together with Volvo, is coming up with technology that can help autonomous trucks close together. This is foreseen to be saving fuel consumption and regulating the traffic.
How late does FedEx deliver?
There have been a few instances where the customers of Portland have complained about the delay in their packages being delivered and even missed deliveries. The complaints are piling up, and the company is answering these by saying that this is due to the shortage of workers. The pandemic has brought in many challenges, and the shortage of workers across all industries is one of them. Raj Subramaniam, FedEx President, and Chief Operating Officer said that the company is trying to hire about 90,000 new employees and that this should solve the understaffing issue.
They deliver between 8 AM-8 PM Monday to Friday. If you have a question like ‘does FedEx deliver on Sunday, ‘ the answer is yes. They do deliver on the weekends, however, only for residential deliveries. Their EOD (End of Day) is 8 PM, and hence your package should be delivered by this time if you have received any message saying EOD will deliver your package today.
FedEx tracking
Tracking a FedEx package is easy. You just need the FedEx tracking number. This will be available in the receipt. In case you do not have the FedEx tracking number, you can track your package by the reference number that was assigned to your shipment. Please note that you will not be receiving the tracking number until the package has been shipped.
You can also track the package by address, but this option is not available online. You will need to contact customer service to get your shipment tracked as per address. FedEx tracking number is a 12 digit number, and they are usually alpha-numeric.
