FedEx is (and always has been) optimized for overnight delivery. They fly all the packages to Memphis each night, sort them by destination, then fly them out a few hours later.
Does anyone know how 2-day service fits into this scheme? It’s not slow enough to involve long-haul trucking, like UPS. Do they just let the 2-day packages sit around an extra day, for the heck of it?
It just gets second priority for being loaded and moved. If it works like UPS (what I was told by a UPS employee)
Overnight packages are first to go, lower priority goes next, etc. If there is stuff left over it goes on the next plane. If it gets delived in the afternoon the next day…no biggie, if it gets delivered the day after still good.
Its kinda like you package flies “space available” and if they don’t get around to sorting and delivering it by 1030am (or whatever thay shoot for) its ok.helps keep the crew working steadily rather than rushrushrush…stand around…rushrushrush…
I use Fed Ex a lot at work. I’d say about 50% of the time, if you send it “2nd Day” to a major city/hub it gets there the next day anyway.
What you’re essentially doing is giving them up to 2 days to deliver. If they get a heavy load of packages this helps them decide which to load first. If it’s a light shipping day, they’ll put everything on the plane/truck/whatever.
So, Fed Ex loads stuff in the following order:
First Thing (gets there before anything else
Next Business Morning (a.m. delivery)
Overnight (afternoon delivery)
2 day
3 day
If they can move your package up in priority they will (they have no desire to store things, after all). For some reason, when I send stuff “regular overnight” to Atlanta from Chicago it usually gets there around 9-10 am, but to DC it gets there around 4 pm. Maybe DC gets more stuff? And nowadays there’s probably more security on it.
I’ve also had 3-day packages arrive overnight instead of 3 days, too. And if there’s a blizzard or other weirdness, your overnight box might not arrive for 2 days. Like with the recent storm out east.
I know UPS’s 2 Day Service goes by any combination of plane, train, and truck. Is it possible that FedEx also uses trains?