I saw my first FedEx Ground trailers on the BNSF transcon near Clovis. Looks like the price of diesel is causing FedEx to consider alternatives.
dd
That’s probably because a two-day delivery with FedEx is much cheaper than the “classic” overnight/flight express. I know they already compete with UPS-Blue Two-Day; wonder if they’re going for Basic Brown service too??
It seems to me that the two giants are integrating across a large spectrum of the freight market - everythng from air overnight to traditional LTL
FedEx bought non uniion LTL trucker American Freightways to expand its options. UPS just bought another non union LTL trucker, Overnight.
Both FedEx and UPS will make rational, reasoned decisions on their use of rail. (they won’t always be right - but they’ll always be rational and reasoned.) When rail service and price fit their needs, they’ll use it.
If their negotiations succeed you may well be able to see FedEx trains in France. They have been talking with SNCF about leasing TGV’s much the same as the Le Poste TGV operation.
Don’t know if anything ever came of the talks.
Dale
Actually, I think both carriers have gotten a little sloppy. Since I am too far north from Chicago’s Loop for my UPS packages to be routed through the South Loop hub, I find that my packages from the South (occasionally East) wind up in a hub facility on the wrong side of the metro. area. And even if they wound up there late at night or very early in the morning, there apparently is no special truck to get inter-terminal transfers up to Glenview (my hub) in time for them to leave ca. 7:00 a.m. As a result, about half the time my packages are delayed for a day, or even a weekend.
FedEx is indeed reliable, but they show up late in the day and their Two-Day air isn’t really any better than UPS Blue, but at least it isn’t chronically late. In my opinion FedEx still does best at its original mission, overnight flights to a central hub (Memphis was the first, there may be another now), then shipped to a destination where it “absolutely, positively” has to be there overnight! Before FedEx started ground service it was not unusual, in the eighties, for Loop law firms to FedEx material practically across the street. The package itself went pickup-O’Hare-Memphis-O’Hare-office delivery! I should think it would be much cheaper to stick to rubber-tired transit for that kind of thing.
I am really impressed lately with DHL. They have come on time, much earlier in the day, and their tracking is easy to use. More and more, UPS packages can’t be tracked by an individual recipient until they are about at their destination (day late and a dollar short on the info. quotient).
I don’t think that FedEx has the volume at this time to justify much more use of rail than they already do. UPS is still the 800-pound gorilla in the package market and their volumes allow them to dictate service standards from the railroads. FedEx is not a small outfit but their volume is appreciably less than UPS, which may explain why they went with team drivers instead of intermodal for their long-haul ground express service. As mentioned above, all is subject to change.