Speaking of combined dispatch, guess what I saw today?! We have a long overdue expansion going on in the building. I saw this odd looking piece about 10ft by 5ft with what appear to be about 2 inch diameter ball bearings geometrically spaced on it. I didn't realize it 'til just now, but isn't that used to move the express" pods"?
I'm not going to come right out and state a "told you all so" (regarding movement of delivery of volume over to Ground), but I'm damn close to now... Too much is happening just too quickly.
For a location to operate caster/roller decking efficiently, there needs to be about 1000 sq ft
minimum of decking, with provision for rapidly removing empty cargo containers to either a roller bed trailer, or dollies equipped for transporting cargo containers.
If there are at least 20 of those 10x5 foot sections present at the location, then this will be the final proof positive that FedEx is pulling the trigger on moving the delivery of non overnight volume over to Ground. There has NEVER been any use by Ground of cargo containers for movement of volume within the lower 48, so having a sort facility in the middle of the country (Moline, Davenport, Rock Island, Bettendorf) having caster/roller decking installed can't be explained away with any other possibility.
If anyone is really interested in persuing this further, find out what equipment Express flies into MLI (aircraft equipment). The type of equipment will tell how much volume is moving into the Quad Cities area. Would also need to know if there is a CTV moving non-overnight volume into MLI from MEM and IND to accurately gauge the volume.
With this data, determining the square footage of decking needed to handle the volume would be quite easy.
What is uncertain is whether Express plans to still perform PM ramp sorts (to break volume down to specific Ground terminal) or to institute new ASTRA coding to enable the hubs to build cans specifically tailored to each Ground terminal. I suspect that Express would start off by continuing to have PM ramp sorts utilized to break out volume to Ground terminals that will be "served" by the Express ramp. Time is of the essence at the hubs - the PM ramp sorts have plenty of time to play around with - can't have the hubs get jammed up trying to work with splitting out cargo even more finely than they already do.
On a completely unrelated topic, I'm finding that either BC or my browser is having extreme difficulty of late in functioning. I suspect that either my anti-virus is having issues (I've had my browser session close down on accessing BC of late) or that BC is having issues. I've had no like issues with other web sites. If no one else is having issues, then it is my anti-virus - if others are experiencing the same issues, then BC is having some problems.