FedEx business model

[ditto1958]

Okay folks, someone needs to explain this to me. I've had this happen before, and now it happened again. I made a purchase, and the seller shipped my- well, let's just call it an "item"- on Friday, and paid for 2 day delivery. I put in the tracking number, and they said the item was scheduled for delivery by 4:30 Tuesday, which is tomorrow. I was fine with that.

Now, here's the kicker. FedEx got it Friday, and transported it over the weekend, and it arrived at the local facility at about 4 A.M. today, Monday morning. Which is exactly where it stayed, and will stay, until tomorrow morning when it goes out on a truck for delivery.

So, you may be wondering (as I did on the previous occasion when this happened) why didn't they just put it on the truck and deliver it this morning? Well, it's because the sender didn't pay for next day delivery.

Hmmm.... well, technically that's true. But you've gotta ask then, if a package arrives locally sooner than promised, what would it cost them to just deliver it when it arrives, rather than letting it sit around a day before getting it out on the truck? The answer, unless I'm missing something, is nothing.

Seems to me that delivering some packages early could actually earn FedEx some goodwill with their customers. But, what do I know?

[ace73]

I know this! The main reason, is that some 'large qty' shippers would ship a dozen of packages 2or 3 day service and 1 overnight...when we deliver all of them next day.....we actually lose money.
For most of us, shipping 1 wouldn't seem to matter...... But sometimes we don't know how many.

[Henry88]

i'm thinking of that business model where all the workers are dilligently sorting hundreds of letters, placing each in their correct slot.

In a room on the other side of the shadowbox, all the letters are going into the same huge bin

[daytime dave]

A buddy works at Fed Ex and explained it to me. It baffles the mind, but in the end, you get what you paid for. If you pay the high rate, it comes off the truck the next day. If you payed for two day, it stays until the next day.

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

This is not the case with the US Postal Service. There have been times, and one recently in particular, that I ship a package by Standard Mail and it arrives just as quick as Priority.

My case in particular was a package from coast to coast. I shipped it from Virginia to the West Coast. Sent it from my local P.O. on a Saturday morning and it got there early Monday afternoon.

Now this won't happen every time, but they will not just "sit" on it, just because it didn't have the Priority markings on it.