FEDEX EXPRESS

is a major American based in , United States. As of 2023, it is the world's in terms of fleet size and freight tons flown. It is the namesake and leading subsidiary of , delivering freight and packages to more than 375 destinations over 220 countries and territories across six continents each day. FedEx Express is also the world's largest express transportation company. The company's global "Superhub" is located at. U. S. regional hubs are located at airports in , , , , , and. The concept for what became Federal Express came to in the mid-1960s, while an undergraduate student For an economics class, he submitted a paper which argued that in modern technological society time meant money more than ever before and with the advent of miniaturized electronic circuitry, very small components had become extremely valuable. He argued that the consumer society was becoming increasingly hungry for mass-produced electronic items, but the decentralizing effect induced by these very devices gave manufacturers tremendous logistic problems in delivering the items. Smith felt that the necessary delivery speed could only be achieved by using air transport. But he believed that the U. In his paper, Smith proposed a new concept—have one carrier be responsible for a piece of cargo from local pick-up right through to ultimate delivery, operating its own aircraft, depots, posting stations, and delivery vans. To ensure accurate sorting and dispatching of every item of freight, the carrier would fly it from all of its pickup stations to a central clearinghouse, from where the entire operation would be controlled. For years it has been misreported that the professor teaching the course gave the paper the , but Fred clarified in a 2004 interview that the grade is not known and the reports of a "C" grade were due to his response to a reporter who asked him what grade he received and his reply was, "I don't know, probably made my usual C. " Despite the professor's opinion, Smith held on to the idea. Smith founded Federal Express Corporation in 1971 with $4 million from his inheritance and $91 million in venture capital. in , where Smith was operating Little Rock Airmotive. After a lack of support from , Smith moved the company to Memphis, Tennessee and in 1973. The company started overnight operations on April 17, 1973, with fourteen that connected twenty-five cities in the United States. Fred Smith's childhood friend, of , sent Ardent partner to the Federal Express home office on Democrat Road near the Memphis Airport with the first package to be put into the system. That night, 186 packages were carried. Services included both overnight and two-day package and envelope delivery services, as well as Courier Pak. However, the company began to experience financial difficulties, losing up to a million USD a month. While waiting for a flight home to Memphis from Chicago after being turned down for capital by , Smith impulsively hopped on a flight to Las Vegas, where he won $27,000 playing blackjack. The winnings enabled the cash-strapped company to meet payroll the following Monday. "The $27,000 wasn't decisive, but it was an omen that things would get better", Smith says. In the end, he raised somewhere between $50 and $70 million, from twenty of the US's leading risk venture speculators, including such companies as the First National City Bank of New York and the Bank of America in California. history, in terms of venture capital. The company's early growth was fueled importantly by its advertising. In 1973, the company promoted itself as Later, the company produced the famous commercial, under the banner: "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight. " A 1977 legislative change (Public Law 95–163) removed restrictions on the routes operated by all-cargo airlines, and enabled Federal Express to purchase its first large aircraft: seven. In 1978, the company went public and was listed on. The following year, it became the first shipping company to use a computer to manage packages when it launched "COSMOS" (Customers, Operations and Services Master Online System), a centralized computer system to manage people, packages, vehicles, and weather scenarios in real time. In 1980, the company implemented "DADS" (Digitally Assisted Dispatch System) to coordinate on-call pickups for customers; this system allows customers to schedule pickups for the same day. In 1980, Federal Express began service to a further 90 cities in the United States. The following year, the company introduced its overnight letter to compete with the 's Express Mail, and allowed document shipping for the first time. Federal Express' sales topped $1 billion for the first time in 1983. In the same year the company introduced , a service that guaranteed the delivery of up to five pages in less than two hours for $35. ZapMail would later become a huge failure for the company, costing it hundreds of millions of dollars. In the 1970s, with the enormous growth, FedEx needed a method for quality control. They developed the tracking number for internal use to find that packages were moving properly. This info was eventually applied to all packages and be made available to the public to find the status of one's own package. In 1986, the company introduced the "SuperTracker", a hand-held bar code scanner which brought to the shipping industry for the first time. In 1989, the company acquired to expand its international service, and subsequently opened a hub at to accommodate this new, expanded service. As the volume of international shipments increased, Federal Express created Clear Electronic Customs Clearance System to expedite regulatory clearance while cargo is en route. In 1994, Federal Express rebranded itself as "FedEx" for marketing purposes, officially adopting a nickname that had been used for years. Also that year, FedEx launched as the first transportation web site to offer online package tracking, which allowed customers to conduct business via Internet. In 1995, the company acquired air routes from Evergreen International to start services to China, and opened an Asia and Pacific hub in in the. In 1997, FedEx opened its hub at and, in 1999, opened a European hub at in France. In the 1990s, FedEx planned, but later abandoned, a joint service with to have BA fly a supersonic jet airliner to in Ireland with FedEx packages on board, and then FedEx would have flown the packages to their delivery points in Europe. , a vice president at the time, was in charge of this proposed venture. In 1998, FedEx merged with and reorganized as a holding company, FDX Corporation. In 2001, FedEx Express signed a 7-year sole source contract to transport all Express Mail and Priority Mail for the. Prior to 2001, the Postal Service contracted with multiple airlines on a regional basis for these services. This contract allowed FedEx to place drop boxes at every USPS post office. In 2007, the contract was extended until September 2013. In December 2006, FedEx Express acquired the British courier company ANC Holdings Limited for £120 million. The acquisition added 35 sort facilities to the FedEx network and the company introduced Newark, Memphis, and Indianapolis routes directly to UK airports instead of stopping at FedEx's European hub at Charles de Gaulle Airport. FedEx Express also acquired Flying-Cargo Hungary Kft to expand service in Eastern Europe. The hit parent company and its express division hard. Many companies looking for ways to save money stopped shipping or moved to cheaper alternatives, such as surface shipping. FedEx also announced layoffs and work hour reductions at some of its hubs. In December 2008, FedEx postponed delivery of the new ; four were delivered in 2010 as previously agreed, but in 2011, FedEx only took delivery of four, rather than the ten originally planned. The remaining aircraft were delivered in 2012 and 2013. The operations were transferred to in southern China. FedEx announced in December 2008 that it still intended to open the building on time despite the bad economy. The hub's operations would be scaled back from 1,500 employees to only 160, the size of the previous operations at the much smaller sorting facility. FedEx gave no time line as to when the hub would be operating at expected hub levels. hub back in 1998. FedEx had to fight many complaints from nearby homeowners about the anticipated noise generated by its aircraft, because most of its flights take place at night. A third runway was built to accommodate the hub operation and the extra aircraft. FedEx began full hub operations at the Greensboro facility on September 2, 2018. The roof of the hub features FedEx's largest solar power installation, producing 800,000 kilowatt hours per year. The company says it does not want to relocate Asia–Pacific hub to the Philippines, but they are planning to expand operations in ,. On October 6, 2020, FedEx celebrates its 36 Years of Operations with new Philippines gateway in Clark. The company built and opened a 17,000 sq. m. facility (costing US$30 million) at in July 2021. The company took delivery of the last Boeing 727 built in September 1984 and the last A300/A310 built in July 2007. To be able to respond to changing freight demand quickly (i. e. In 2007, FedEx revealed plans to acquire 90. Because production ended in 2005, FedEx was left with no choice but to acquire secondhand aircraft from other airlines to replace its aging Boeing 727 fleet, at a cost of US$2. 6 billion. The 757's debut for revenue service was on May 28, 2008. The company had planned to introduce the first aircraft into service in August 2008 for use on routes between hubs in the United States and Asia. FedEx has said that will allow it to transfer its nonrefundable deposits to purchases of future aircraft, and has stated it may consider the A380F when the A380 program is less affected by construction delays. On December 15, 2011, FedEx announced an order for 27 to replace its MD-10s. The airline also delayed deliveries of eleven Boeing 777Fs currently on order, but converted two options to firm orders. The contractor is responsible for providing a crew to operate the aircraft and coordinating all maintenance. In exchange, FedEx pays a monthly administrative fee and reimburses the contractor for any expenses related to the operation and maintenance of the aircraft. Outside the United States, contractors operating FedEx Feeder routes may sometimes fly their own aircraft. At the time, the company had hoped to replace its entire 30,000 W700 delivery truck fleet with the hybrid, but in June 2009, only 170 were on the road. 93 of these operated in the United States in New York, , , and Washington, D. C. ; while the rest operated in Tokyo, Toronto, and. FedEx blamed the low number on a lack of investment from other major companies in hybrid technology. It had hoped that other companies would order hybrid trucks, and that tax credits would be issued by the United States government to reduce the cost. FedEx claimed that the hybrid truck in the 2003 test decreased soot by 96% and emissions by 65%. It also claimed that the truck achieved more than 50% better fuel consumption while still having the same cargo capacity as a conventional truck. In 2009, FedEx Express partnered with and started a new test program of electric/diesel vans. The test program consisted of ten hybrid vans deployed in the Italian cities of and Turin. FedEx claimed the new vans would have a 26. 5% reduction in fuel consumption and a decrease in emissions of 7. 5 tons when compared to FedEx's standard vehicle. The conversions boosted FedEx's fleet of by more than 50 percent to 264. The trucks were placed into service in California, in Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The Bronx became FedEx's first all hybrid station. However, the company has been making an effort to phase out older aircraft, especially its , and replace them with newer twin-jet models. The purchase set off a major shuffle in the FedEx fleet. The 777 aircraft have replaced the older trijet MD-11 on long-range, international routes, freeing up the MD-11 fleet to fly shorter routes. The new planes also allowed the older, smaller Airbus A310 freighters to be retired in 2020. Over the history of Federal Express and FedEx Express, there have been eight incidents in its , plus an attempted hijacking, two deaths and eight aircraft. Auburn Calloway, a Federal Express pilot (and former military pilot) facing possible termination for inconsistencies in his claimed prior experience, attempted to hijack the aircraft and crash it. He intended to make the crash appear as an accident in order for his family to receive his Federal Express insurance money. The crew of Flight 705 were able to subdue Calloway and land the aircraft safely. The crew's injuries disabled them from flying professionally ever again. Calloway was eventually sentenced to two life sentences in prison. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service. ---
Arriving at from at the end of a scheduled flight, the number 3 (right-side) engine contacted the runway during a rough landing which caused the aircraft to flip over. The crew escaped through a cockpit window before the aircraft was destroyed in the ensuing fire. On final approach to from , the aircraft's landing gear hit a tree about 70 feet (21 m) high and 3,650 feet (1,110 m) short of the runway which caused it to crash into the trees and open field short of the runway into parked construction vehicles, coming to rest about 1,000 feet short of the runway and facing in the opposite direction of its flight path. After landing at following a flight from , the left main landing gear collapsed. The aircraft touched down and bounced on its nose gear back into the air, coming down again on its nose gear before bouncing back up. It is intended that this system could be deployed on commercial airliners to protect them from terrorist attacks such as the of a in 2003. FedEx Express became the first air carrier to deploy the Guardian on a commercial flight in September 2006, when it equipped an MD-11 freighter with the pod. By December 2007, the company had nine aircraft equipped with the system for further testing and evaluation. Because of the program's success, the directed DHS to extend it to passenger-carrying aircraft. |

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