Tag: FedEx

The price of sending a FedEx package overnight will take its biggest leap since 2001 when new prices go into effect in early January.

The customers who will notice it most are small businesses and walk-up customers at FedEx Kinko’s who don’t get contract discounts.

FedEx announced a 4.9 percent increase Friday on packages shipping overnight within the United States and to foreign countries.

“These rate increases will allow FedEx to continue making the necessary investments in our business so we can continue to give our customers a superior shipping service,” said FedEx executive Mike Glenn.

Increases and fuel surcharges for FedEx Ground will be announced later.

The company also said customers exporting goods to the United States will pay U.S. dollar rates, removing the uncertainties caused by currency fluctuations.

The hike was higher than analysts expected. Morgan Stanley said it signals that customers are still willing to pay a premium for overnight delivery despite a tide of rising economic concerns.

The FedEx hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport is on schedule to open in 2009, and recruiting teams will be looking for workers by next summer, a top company official said Tuesday.

FedEx is also attracting new business to the area already, said David Bronczek, President and Chief Executive officer of FedEx Express, which represents 75 percent of FedEx Corp.’s business and is responsible for the regional hub here.

PTI’s package sorting hub will be similar to the FedEx hub in Indianapolis, which is surrounded by warehouses and businesses, Bronczek told a group of business leaders at the UNCG Business Summit symposium.

Dell, for example, which operates a computer assembly plant in Forsyth County, is the “tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Many companies are eager to be near FedEx. For instance, high-end luggage maker Louis Vuitton is sure to locate here, he said.

“They’re shipping in high-value container systems and for them it really doesn’t matter what the cost is,” Bronczek said.

Bronczek, who refused media interviews at the event, said the hub is on target to open summer of 2009.

FedEx wanted to open the hub a year ago, he said, but community lawsuits seeking to block the hub and delays with environmental and noise studies held it back.

“The problem is that we were late,” Bronczek told the group. “We would like to have been here two or three years earlier and it’s never happened to us before.

Bronczek said FedEx will set up several permanent recruiting teams for workers.

“The whole system will be set up within the next 12 months,” Bronczek.