Western Railroad Discussion > Fed Ex and rail?

Fed Ex now has a ground component, ore or less competing with UPS. I have a package that moved from Columbus Ohio on 2/3 to Rialto, CA on 2/5. Could rail be involved?

Fed Ex ships with trucks

FedEx Ground is the old Roadway Package Express business.

Fedex does not use rail for its ground shipments. All ground shipments via there own Fedex trucks.

I would bet if there ground business grows to the size of UPS ground service someday. They might be calling on the railroads one day.

Fed Ex does indeed ship by rail. Right now, they use BNSF and CSX both. If your box did go rail, it was trucked from Ohio to Willow Springs and road to either Hobart or San Berdoo.

I thought I read something this week about the UP building a new intermodal facility in Dallas near a new Fed Ex facility. I know I have seen a few Fed Ex trailors on our (BNSF) trains out of Chicago.

FedEx does indeed ship with both the UP/BNSF these days, although not in large quantities (yet). BNSF seems to have most of the east/west business, while UP handles some along the I-5 Corridor between LA/Portland. They use IMC-type trailers most of the time (at least on the UP). It will be interesting to see what happens when FedEx really starts getting serious about shipping via intermodal and both of the western railroad giants start vying for that business.

FedEx Express, the air freight group, ships intermodal thru their Memphis airport hub during peak season. FedEx Freight, the old American Freightways and Viking, use intermodal sometimes, and Fed Ex Ground has used intermodal in some lanes. As Boomer mentioned, the future could be interesting as they look at intermodal down the road.

gmojim