Supply Chain Satire
FedEx Pauses Network Overhaul To Deliver Things
Network 2.0 rests during the holiday peak, then heads to Los Angeles, Oklahoma City and Charlotte. In between, packages.
Based on real news: FedEx Network 2.0 headed to Los Angeles, other markets post-holidays (Supply Chain Dive)
MEMPHIS, Tenn.—FedEx will pause its Network 2.0 rollout during the holiday peak. It will resume after the holidays. In between, it will deliver packages. Officials described this as the plan.
Network 2.0 merges the Express and Ground networks. It is complete in Dallas, San Francisco, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., Supply Chain Dive reported. About 65% of eligible volume now moves through roughly 630 optimized stations, up from 45% and about 490 stations in June. Los Angeles, Oklahoma City and Charlotte are next. The work wraps in 2027.
FedEx has closed more than 260 stations and aims for more than 475. It reports $2 billion in cumulative savings. It expects revenue growth of about 12%, roughly 4 points of it from fuel surcharges.
You do not repaint the runway while the planes are landing…
"You do not repaint the runway while the planes are landing," said Mel Carrow, a fictional parcel consultant in Memphis. "You wait until January. Then you repaint it while the planes are landing."
I toured a merged station. Two belts came in. One belt went out. The shrink wrap on pallet 14 was a cast film, 70 gauge, tightly applied, with notes of diesel and resolve. It will age well.
I checked Container DSKU 401177-3 at 5:37 a.m. Day 939. In transit. FedEx has merged two networks in the time it has spent in one. The Walmart distribution center in Cibolo, Texas, is due Aug. 1, 2029. I still think the building will get there first.
One more item. At 4:10 a.m. a $4 caster ordered by Wendell Wheelwright, a shopping cart and a colleague, received a tracking number. I did not tell him. He has decided not to ask.
At press time the pause was on schedule. It is the first thing in this story to be on schedule.
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Riffing on: FedEx Network 2.0 headed to Los Angeles, other markets post-holidays, Supply Chain Dive