FEDEX Ground “routes” are all sub-contracted to smaller regional delivery companies, in my state.
Unmarked vans, or surplus former FEDEX trucks are the usual delivery vehicles now for FEDEX ground, and few of the drivers are “regular” anymore. Even fewer speak English as their first language.
There has been no reduction in price to the shipper.
I don't ship via FEDEX anymore, unless it's via overnight. And even then, I don't ship to certain areas of the state via FEDEX.
FEDEX still retains direct employees for Overnight business to business services.
Problems in the shipping/freight industry have escalated exponentially in the past three to five years.
Scams are everywhere, and anything that was ever warehoused enroute, needs to be triple checked.
I don’t use FedEx much myself.
UPS as a rule had done better for me and I like my UPS Store box. Cheap security but they know me and sign for my stuff.
FedEx is a mess. At least coming from the east coast and in my local community. If I have a shipment coming FedEx, I know it will be lost entirely, mis-delivered, or they will claim they delivered it, but it doesn’t show up for several days. They need to fix their issues. I trust USPS much more than FedEx. And that is not saying a lot.