Tag: FedEx

ATA Airlines sues FedEx over military charter deal

Posted by | Jun 12, 2008 | |

ATA Airlines is suing FedEx Corp. over its decision to end a military charter business, a move the airline says forced it to seek bankruptcy protection and left it financially destroyed.

ATA accused FedEx of breaking a written agreement when it told the airline
in January it would no longer receive military passenger service for the
government fiscal year ending in 2009, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.

FedEx notified ATA of the cancellation in a letter that came “out of the
blue,” said Kenneth Broughton, a Houston-based attorney representing ATA. He said ATA was counting on the military charters to be a “significant
profit center.”

The charter flights of military personnel and their families generated more
than USD 400 million in annual revenue and were expected to remain a “cornerstone” of the airline’s future business, the lawsuit states.

ATA filed for bankruptcy April 2 and abruptly ceased operations the next
Day. FedEx spokeswoman Sandra Munoz said her company had no contractual
obligation to ATA beyond the current fiscal year, which ends in September.

The military contracts commercial airlines for charter flights organized
through two teams of companies. ATA had flown military charter flights as a member of the FedEx team for more than 20 years. In late 2006, it spent more than USD 50 million to buy seven DC-10 planes from Northwest Airlines.

Broughton said the airline bought the planes and then spent additional money on hiring and training, because the military prefers wide-body aircraft. He said ATA did this after receiving a written commitment from FedEx that it would continue to receive military charter business through the fiscal year ending in 2009.

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FedEx files suit on Washington State Department of Labor & Industries

Posted by | Jun 12, 2008 | |

FedEx Corp unit FedEx Ground has filed a lawsuit against the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries seeking to gain control of an unedited copy of a report on the company’s use of contractors to deliver packages.

The lawsuit, filed with the Superior Court of Washington for Thurston County on Monday, is the latest chapter in a broad-ranging battle between FedEx Ground and a number of critics of its contractor model, including the Teamsters union.

FedEx Ground uses some 15,000 independent contractors as drivers whom the company describes as entrepreneurs.

FedEx Ground states in the lawsuit that it was contacted by an employee of the labor department in late 2006 or early 2007 who stated that the department had received a report addressing FedEx Ground’s classification of “pick-up and delivery drivers” from an entity named Clark Consulting.

In February 2007 FedEx Ground said it issued a Public Disclosure Act request to the labor department seeking a copy of the report and information about who compiled it. The labor department originally refused to release the report, FedEx Ground said in its filing.

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German CEP operators expect moderate growth

Posted by | Jun 11, 2008 | |

Express and parcel delivery companies in Germany expect only moderate growth this year after 5 pct growth in 2007, according to an industry association.

Gunnar Uldall, former Hamburg economics senator and new president of the German International Express and Courier Services Association (BIEK), said that the CEP sector generated volume growth of nearly 5 pct and revenue growth of over 5 pct last year. Further moderate growth is expected for 2008. The association represents DPD, FedEx, Go!, Hermes, TNT and UPS.

The CEP industry was a key services sector with growing importance for the German economy, with its strong export focus, Uldall told a news conference. BIEK members had taken on about 3,000 more employees last year, and there is currently a need for qualified drivers, he noted. BIEK members employ about 65,000 staff directly or as self-employed drivers. There are about 173,500 people working in the German CEP sector as a whole.

Addressing key issues for the association, Uldall criticised Deutsche Post’s VAT exemption for letters up to 2kg and parcels up to 20kg which was a competitive distortion in the formally liberalised German mail market.

Since neither option was likely, however, BIEK proposed a compromise, with deliveries of up to 50 letters, including individual private letters, remaining VAT-exempt, and all other items, including bulk mail, parcels and added-value mail, being VAT-chargeable. This would not lead to a price increase for customers due to intense competition between Deutsche Post and private operators, Uldall said.

BIEK will also hold talks with Deutsche Bahn over opportunities to transport more express and parcel shipments by rail, and continue to promote the use of alternative fuels and motors to reduce CO2 emissions, he added.

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FedEx Facebook: Sending 'virtual gifts' in a company box was top download last week

Posted by | Jun 8, 2008 | |

FedEx Corp. is bouncing off the walls in the walled garden called Facebook.

In just over a week, 270,000 users have downloaded its Launchapackage.com application for sending virtual gifts, all wrapped up in a FedEx box, of course.

What you might not expect are the sounds of jet engines as the package zooms into your space, bouncing off the parameters and landing with a cool-sounding thud on the bottom of your screen.

“A year ago, we decided we wanted to see if could own virtual delivery in the social community,” said Steve Pacheco, FedEx director of advertising and the guy who helps mastermind the company’s award-winning Super Bowl ads.

“You can put anything you want in it and fling it to family and friends.”

Last week, Launchapackage was the No. 1 download out of Facebook’s 40,000 applications.

The feed is a key part of the viral spread. Because it includes news about people you’ve admitted to your site, it tends to be of high interest, he said.

“We’re able to see what times of day it is being used. And what people are sending in their packages is really great information. We’re learning more about how people socially engage,” Pacheco said.

What FedEx already knows is that the average Facebook user is plugged in 20 minutes a day. Multiply that by its 70 million active users and you have a space “where we think we need to play,” Pacheco said.

Users get the download for free. To give them reason to wrap their text, photos or video in a FedEx box, FedEx provides technology-cool interactive visuals, like the giant rubber band that stretches across your screen to send your message into the next realm.

The concept was developed with Atmosphere BBDO, the interactive arm of FedEx New York advertising agency BBDO.

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FedEx expects to win market share from Deutsche Post's DHL in the U.S.

Posted by | Jun 4, 2008 | |

FedEx Corp expects to win substantial market share from Deutsche Post World Net AG. Express unit DHL in the United States after its German peer decided to quit air-freight shipments and cut down on its ground capacities.

‘We really act on the assumption that customers will feel it when DHL scraps a third of its network,’ Michael Muehlberger, deputy head of FedEx’s Central and Eastern European operations told Financial Times Deutschland.

FedEx holds some 30 percent market share in the U.S. express market, compared with DHL’s 6 percent, according to estimates.

DHL’s loss-making U.S. operations are to tie up in domestic and international airfreight shipments with United Parcel Service Inc.

It will also reduce excess capacities of its U.S. express ground infrastructure by some 30 percent to adapt it to shipment volumes, and will expand cooperation with the U.S. Postal Service in sparsely-populated areas.

Muehlberger confirmed FedEx was in talks with Deutsche Post over a possible tie-up, but declined to provide details on why talks failed.

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