FedEx, UPS Begin The Great Last-Mile Delivery Divergence - Freightwaves
Anyone who works in the parcel delivery business knows that life holds three certainties – death, taxes, and UPS Inc. (NYSE: UPS) and FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) moving in lockstep on almost everything. The first two are immutable. The third one, though, perhaps not so much.
To be sure, the tag team still exists. Both launched seven-day-a-week deliveries within a few months of each other. UPS followed FedEx’s lead earlier this year and dropped holiday peak season residential delivery surcharges, though it took UPS about two years longer to act. Yet 2020 will likely see increasing divergences between the two, though the smoke will not clear until UPS announces its rate schedule (FedEx already has).
Nowhere will the separation be more profound than in the hot-button segment of last-mile residential delivery. For years, FedEx and UPS have relied on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for final-mile delivery of parcels that the two companies have inserted deep into the postal infrastructure. Deliveries are typically made in one to five days, depending on various factors.
Anyone who works in the parcel delivery business knows that life holds three certainties – death, taxes, and UPS Inc. (NYSE: UPS) and FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) moving in lockstep on almost everything. The first two are immutable. The third one, though, perhaps not so much.
To be sure, the tag team still exists. Both launched seven-day-a-week deliveries within a few months of each other. UPS followed FedEx’s lead earlier this year and dropped holiday peak season residential delivery surcharges, though it took UPS about two years longer to act. Yet 2020 will likely see increasing divergences between the two, though the smoke will not clear until UPS announces its rate schedule (FedEx already has).
Nowhere will the separation be more profound than in the hot-button segment of last-mile residential delivery. For years, FedEx and UPS have relied on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for final-mile delivery of parcels that the two companies have inserted deep into the postal infrastructure. Deliveries are typically made in one to five days, depending on various factors.
