FedEx to deliver 7 days a week to satisfy online shoppers
(AP) – FedEx plans to deliver packages seven days a week starting next January as it tries to keep up with the continuing boom in online shopping.
The company is also taking back nearly 2 million daily deliveries to homes that are currently handled by the post office in a move it says will increase the efficiency of its own network.
The Memphis, Tennessee-based company announced the changes Thursday.
It was just last September that FedEx expanded to six days a week for most of the year, although it had previously run on some Saturdays and Sundays around Christmas. Company officials said FedEx will add year-round Sunday service in urban and suburban areas that account for the bulk of U.S. population.
With the growth in online shopping, FedEx expects shipments of small parcels in the U.S. to double by 2026. That could strain delivery networks.
Meanwhile, FedEx will stop using the post office for dropping off SmartPost packages at customer’s houses. SmartPost is a longtime deal between FedEx and the post office, where FedEx ships packages most of the way, but the post office delivers it to your door.
FedEx said that since 2016 it has already taken back about 20% of SmartPost parcels when technology helped the company spot instances in which a FedEx driver was scheduled to take another package to the same address or one nearby.
The company plans to step up the shift away from the U.S. Postal Service this fall and handle the “vast majority” of SmartPost deliveries itself by the end of next year.
