FedEx Ground Begins FedEx Home Delivery on Sundays
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FedEx Ground has launched year-round Sunday deliveries for its residential FedEx Home Delivery service for the majority of the U.S. population, according to parent company FedEx Corp.
The Memphis, Tenn.-based carrier made the announcement Jan. 22.
FedEx said the change will help the company better serve the fast-growing e-commerce market.
“We have increased our speed advantage significantly to kick off the new year,” said Raj Subramaniam, president and chief operating officer of FedEx Corp. “This provides added value to e-commerce shippers throughout the U.S. and the 188 million online shoppers in 7,700 cities and towns where FedEx Home Delivery packages are delivered on Sundays. As more customers expect weekend delivery, this enhancement to our network means that every day is now a delivery day at FedEx.”
Subramaniam
The announcement comes days after Amazon.com on Jan. 14 lifted restrictions enacted about two weeks before Christmas that prevented third-party merchants selling goods on the site from shipping packages with the FedEx Ground service. Amazon cited concerns about speed of delivery for the move, according to Bloomberg News.
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FedEx said delivering residential packages on Sundays speeds up most shipping lanes by one or two days, an advantage that is particularly valuable for shippers and consumers of health care and perishable goods.
FedEx Ground actually began delivering residential packages on Sundays during the most recent peak holiday season, the company said. The seven-day-a-week schedule helped it manage some of the highest-volume days in its history, as it shipped nearly 38 million packages on Cyber Monday alone, Subramaniam said.
FedEx Ground experienced 42% year-over-year growth in FedEx Home Delivery package volume during December and delivered nearly 8 million FedEx Home Delivery packages on Sundays between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, the company said.
Going forward, e-commerce sales of bulkier items such as TVs and furniture are compelling FedEx Ground to build out its large package-handling capabilities. Shippers will soon be able to ship packages as heavy as 150 pounds through FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx said.
A FedEx spokesman told Transport Topics that consumer demand was the decisive factor for the move.
“E-tailers are keenly aware that more and more of their customers expect fast transit times and weekend delivery,” said Jonathan Lyons, FedEx spokesman, in an email. “As a result, our customers have been extremely positive about this service enhancement, and we continue to see growing demand for our FedEx Home Delivery service.”
The surge in e-commerce also is being felt in other industries.
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On Jan. 23, CBRE Group Inc., one of the largest commercial real estate companies in North America, reported that e-commerce companies and logistics companies accounted for 52% of the square footage in the largest 100 industrial leases in 2019. While that was down from 61% in 2018, CBRE reported that the e-commerce sector remains dominant in terms of sheer numbers.
“E-commerce and logistics remain juggernauts for warehouse leasing, accounting together for far more leases (54) and square footage (45 million) last year within the top 100 than the next-closest category — wholesalers — at 18 leases for 15.2 million square feet,” CBRE said.
FedEx ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.
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