History of FedEx
How “Absolutely, Positively Overnight!” Came To Be
Mark Twain once said, “The man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds”. This phrase could be applied to Fred Smith and Federal Express. From their beginnings in Little Rock, Arkansas in the early 70’s delivering 186 packages overnight to 25 U.S. cities, to three decades later parlaying it’s $20 billion dollar corporation into no less than five major operation companies. FedEx has become the world’s leader in global express transportation, providing fast delivery of documents, packages and freight shipments worldwide. As a result, the name “Fed Ex” is used in much the same manner as name “Band Aid” has today. Many use this term generically meaning all forms of overnight or rapid delivery systems. The powerful FedEx brand and the ever-familiar purple, orange and white colored letters are a welcome sight as deadlines near.
History of Moving Freight – The mail actually saved the future of passenger flight, but ironically outgrew it and needed its own logistical changes.
Fledging airmail service started in the U.S in 1918. The Post Office began regular delivery service between New York and Washington D.C., totaling a distance of 218
miles, using four U.S. Army Curtiss Jenny’s in which about 140 pounds of mail could be loaded into the front cockpits. Although before that, Aeromarine Airways flew passengers, airmail, and freight between Key West and Havana in November 1919 (Air Trans 95,105,319). The regular handling of larger packages did not occur until later on in the 1920’s. In those days, and for obvious reasons, air mail was considered pretty much a “suicide club” due to the lack of proper equipment, established airways and related equipment. Thus, the pioneers of early airmail routes must be credited for their efforts, as they established through their sacrifices, the foundation upon which commercial air transportation was built.
The honor of being the first air freight operator would probably have to go to Henry Ford, who at the time owned Ford Air Transport and was just as well known in aviation as in the automobile industry. The first original all-cargo air carriers were Slick Airways, United States Airlines, the Flying Tiger Line, and Air News. All were certified in 1949, but most were gone within a 5-year period (Air Trans 323).
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... air fleet and gives FE the right to place more than 10,000 of its drop boxes in post offices across the country. But this does little to address the Memphis-based carrier’s bigger problems: UPS, which has been winning market share from FE in e-commerce shipments (Internet).
The Future
What customers and companies are looking for already, is a way to ship packages without going through several steps, and be able to track “real-time” the shipping data. Fed Ex’s new data tracking network rolling out soon, should do the trick. The bottom line is that FedEx continues to deliver. They gave birth to the modern air/ground express industry with hard work and ingenuity, and they will continue to lead the way into the future.
Work Cited
About FedEX. http://www .fedex.com/us/about/express (4/29/01).
Holmes, Robert B. Air Mail. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc./Publishers, 1981.
Kane, Robert M. Air Transportation. Kendall/Hunt Publishing. Debuque, Iowa, 1999.
Sigafoos, Robert A. and Roger R. Easson. Absolutely Positively Overnight. St Lukes Press, Memphis, 1988.
Trimble, Vance, and Sam Walton. Overnight Success. Crown Publishers, Inc. New York, 1993.
In Conclusion, What is next for the shipping giant of UPS? In just 25 years UPS airlines has grown to be the second largest Cargo Airline in the world. Time will only tell what is next for the global shipping giant. “What can Brown do for you?”
Business depends very critically upon Fed Ex. If Fed Ex had a major disruption to their delivery system, flowers would not be delivered on time, resulting in dissatisfied customers. For example, if Fed Ex employees went on strike, there would be no alternative equivalent to Fed Ex to deliver flowers to customers. UPS, although an alternative, did not deliver perishable products in the same timely fashion as Fed Ex.
A system that sends real time updates to customers to let them know a closer range of time as to when your package will make it to you, would make it so more customers would be home to sign for their package. This would not only save time on the person receiving the package but would also save time, money and gas for the drivers as there will not be as many redelivery tries for the following day.
...to deal with inbound and outbound logistics, one that is made up mostly of the personnel from outbound logistics. These professionals deal with the second core competency of Deere, logistics, separate from the manufacturing of tractors and lawnmowers. The creation of this team helps eliminate the risk Fedex’s poor performance (managers were not pleased with Fedex’s centralized transportation management service) and need to measure performance of a 3rd part continuously. As a result, performance is self-managed. We expect as the IT system is used to optimize and plan transportation routes amongst inbound and outbound trucks, cost savings will increase more rapidly. We believe internal continuous improvement, leaner logistics operations and synergies amongst all logistics activities will lead to the $69 million goal being met by the third year after implementation.
Express mails are for individuals who need their item delivered overnight. It is guaranteed to arrive at the desired location on time and is less pricey through this mailing distributor. Priority mail is the method most people prefer. It will get a package or letter to its wanted whereabouts in three to four business days. Price wise this is less expensive in comparison to competitors offering the same service. In addition, they make a flat rate priority mailing option. Flat rate means, as long as, the contents fit into pre-sized boxes the cost is always one rate for that carton. If a person wishes to trace their parcel during transportation, they need one of two utilities. They are delivery and signature conformation. Both are used to track mail piece...
The Airplane was first invented in 1903; it amazed everyone but never really took off because of how dangerous it still was. They used planes in WWI but they threw them aside. After WWI (around mid 1920’s) the Federal Government had the idea of airmail. This was readily accepted; instead of receiving mail in two weeks it would only take a couple of days. Soon after this, transporting people quickly caught on although only the upper-class people could afford it, it soon became accessible to almost everyone. (Inventions: Airplane)
Besides that, in this competitive society, time is important to everyone. People are increasingly using the internet as a time-saving resource. People engage in numerous activities online, such as e-mail, planning trips, online banking and online research for their good purchases, all of which are easily completed online. FedEx can satisfy the consumer requirement of convenience with its sophisticated online service.
FedEx has annual revenues of $20 billion and is the leading global provider of transportation, e-commerce and supply chain management services. FedEx accounts for a large market around the world. It is a fact that FedEx reported an average daily express package volume of 3,167,000 for the fiscal year ended May 2004, with U.S. volume of 2,771,000. Of those U.S. shipments, 1,846,000 (66.6%) were overnight shipments, and 667,000 (24.1%) were overnight letters. Total international daily package volume was 396,000, just 12.5% of all shipments, and FedEx does not break out overnight shipments (www.yahoo.com) (Appendix A)
The United Parcel Service is a global leader in shipping and logistics. UPS was founded in 1907 as the American Messenger Company with a value proposition that still holds true today: best service and lowest rates (UPS History, 2014). After rapid growth and mergers with competition, the company became the United Parcel Service in 1919. Throughout the next decades they continued to broaden their services and horizons. In 1953 they started offering two-day air service to major cities in the United States (UPS History, 2014). Another notable event occurred in 1975 when they obtained authorization to ship freely in all 48 contiguous states. Prior to this, some packages had to be transferred between several carriers before reaching their final destination. (UPS History, 2014) This undoubtedly created challenges in their operations and supply chain. Their ability to overcome this issue is just one example of their determination to be the best shipping company. To compete with some of its largest competitors, UPS started their Next-Day-Air service in 1982. In the late 1980s, they streamlined their air services with the creation of UPS Airlines. This has been an important component of their supply chain, especially with the use of the Computerized Operations Monitoring, Planning and Scheduling System (COMPASS). (UPS History, 2014) During the 1980s UPS also expanded their international services. The 1990s saw more advances in technology as well as services. UPS realized that they were in a strategic position to offer supply chain solutions. The UPS Logistics Group was formed in 1995 with the purpose of providing global supply chain management solutions and consulting services (UPS History, 2014). Over the last decade, UPS has continued to ...
...ries, it was mainly used for luxury, goods, and relatives from the United States. Since our world has advanced in the past 100 years, we could accommodate more vacation areas, receive and ship a greater number of imports and exports, and see relatives from different countries. It has made our world an easier and more efficient place, one airplane at a time.
The United Parcel Service has taken steps to restructure itself from an operations-oriented company into a market driven industry. Recent findings suggested the need to achieve better external customer satisfaction. The steps taken were to improve the overall of all customers that utilize the services at UPS. Other key areas that need improvement are volume logistics and customer logistics. The main priority at UPS is to deliver the package on time. They provide a much-anticipated alternative to the monopoly of the United States Postal Service. This competitor has been unreliable on multiple occasions. The average customer is feed up with the inconsistencies of the United States Postal Service. Unlike this company, the United Parcel Service helped define the word efficiency. Even from the earliest days, when Jim Casey and Claude Ryan, two Seattle teens, gave life to the now world-known UPS delivery company. ”Management is the...
Private persons, big and small businesses at a point would have to either send or receive parcels, shipment, among other things. This cannot be done without the help of cargo companies, which are highly involved in the process of transportation of goods and services from one point to the other, but in short and long distances. And the demand to have this parcel and shipment delivered in a faster and more secured way , has brought about a high competition among several companies in the world , and they all have adopted both similar and also different measures to tackle the issues they deal with in the delivering order and tracking issues.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is fundamentally another name for personnel management. It is the process of making sure the employees are as creative as they can be. HRM is a way of grouping the range of activities associated with managing people that are variously categorised under employee relations, industrial/labour relations, personnel management and organisational behaviour. Many academic departments where research and teaching in all these areas take place have adopted the title department of human resources management. HRM is a coordinated approach to managing people that seeks to integrate the various personnel activates so that they are compatible with each other. Therefore the key areas of employee resourcing, employee development, employee reward and employee involvement are considered to be interrelated. Policy-making and procedures in one of these areas will have an impact on other areas, therefore human resources management is an approach that takes a holistic view and considers how various areas can be integrated.
In August of 1971, Smith started his venture by buying controlling interest in Arkansas Aviation Sales. While operating his new firm, Smith recognized the tremendous difficulty in getting packages delivered within one- to- two days. This dilemma motivated him to do the necessary research for resolving the current inefficient distribution system. Thus, the idea for Federal Express was born: a company that revolutionized global business practices and now defines speed and reliability1.
The main purpose of Human Resource management is to develop both the individuals and the organization. This means Human Resource is not only responsible for finding and maturing talents of workers, but also putting programs in effect that will enhance communication between other workers.