Fedex to cut thousands from workforce

France24.com ^ | Oct. 10th 2012 | nonwe listed

[Mad Dawgg]

AFP - Fedex, the global delivery company, said Wednesday it was planning to cut "several thousand" people from its workforce via a voluntary departure program beginning early next year.

Company chairman Fred Smith said at an investment conference in Memphis, Tennessee, that the cuts would come in the company's Fedex Express global express delivery service, and in the US unit, Fedex Services.

[Mad Dawgg]

FedEx cutting jobs to improve financial numbers by 2016 tells me things are not as rosy as Obama wants us to believe.

[albie]

This will help unemployment numbers go to under 4.0%!!! Huraaay!

[uncitizen]

Lol

[Eleutheria5]

“Those evil corporations are doing something corporate with their corporate mindset.” - old South Park episode

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Wow Fred Smith is still CO?? One of my first jobs in 1980 was working for Fedex, but back then it was called the full name Federal Express. I remember he came to our branch one day and gave a speech and told us when he was trying to start the company he was short some money so he went to Vegas and won the extra cash LOL! Great guy and a great company. I remember when I left I was making something like $16 an hour and time and a half for OT and that was back in 1984 which was a fortune back then especially for a non-union job, but sadly it seems Obamanomics has put this company on the spot.

[PowderMonkey]

And, advancements in technology won't help either. Given the growing acceptance of electronic messaging and signatures, all these express courier services will eventually go the way of the U.S. Postal Service. There are fewer and fewer reasons with each passing day to spend $15 in sending a one page hard copy document over night, when it can be done instantaneously for nothing. What remains is parcel delivery service. And, with more states proposing sales and Internet taxes on out of state purchases, that market will probably shrink as well.

[Gilbo_3]

well since UPS didnt build that, maybe bambam can shovel a couple billion into solar powered aircraft...wait, what ???

[radioone]

You can bet, even though it’s never mentioned, FedEx accountants have “run the numbers” on Obamacare.

[ThunderSleeps]

More of the obama economy. Of course hussein will claim to have saved several thousand jobs that FedEx didn’t cut. The workers that are cut well be unceremoniously dropped from accounting, and the unemployment percentage well be lowered. Not a joke, that’s how it goes down in obamaland.

[dennisw]

Good analysis. Internet sales taxes are slowing becoming reality and will cut into the online bushiness models so will reduce deliveries by FedEx

[HollyB]

If it’s the Express side, It’s voluntary, meaning they will probably offer early retirement deals. They have done this before.

[Caipirabob]

Terrible news. Even worse if O gets re-ordained.

OTOH, if Romney wins and truly exhibits his intent to get our economy with results in congress, we'll be seeing an astounding amount of new hiring by 2nd quarter next year.

[txrefugee]

No doubt the Oct. employment number will find that these ex-Fed-Ex workers have dropped out of the workforce. The percentage of unemployed will be down to 7:5% right before Election Day....another miracle courtesy of the BLS. (To be accurate, they should drop the “L”.)

[C210N]

Even worse if O gets re-ordained...

The only way to be rid of this O-hole if it is re-ordained, will be if it abdicates.

[Coldwater Creek]

This isn't the first massive voluntary cutback for FedEx. I don't think we can blame this one on Obama.

[IslamE]

Also, aren’t Walmart and Amazon doing same day delivery now? Seeing as how those stores have their own businesses in every major city, it seems they can bypass freight alltogethor.

[dennisw]

A lot of Amazon shipping is done by a delivery service that employs independent contractors who (I presume) own their own vehicles. I was outside the other day when one came by and gave me the package. His van was not FedEx or anything

So Amazon tries to cheap out by bypassing UPS, FedEx etc

[bert]

The real problem is e mail

Yesterday I transmitted a large report via Fedex. I discovered it was the first such transmission in two years. Such transmissions were several a week years ago but now all is scanned and emailed. This report contained original documents that had to be saved.

The rise of e mail/scanner usage has saved my client very big bucks by eliminating physical (Fedex) transmittal.

[mellow velo]

This announcement, or at least *an* announcement, has been in the hopper for months. In fact, dating back to at least this past spring, something was going to be announced on October 9th (so the original "inside" reports were a day off). Speculation was it would be another early-retirement package, although the last time it was offered (early 2000s) more people took it than was anticipated.

The global economy has hurt FedEx, but so has Obama's mess. While there is still a need for original documents/original signatures, a good portion of the overnight document delivery service can now be handled via computer data transfers. Online purchases by consumers are down, which also means inventories don't have to be replenished as often. Another big bottom-line issue is the modal shift from overnight to deferred. People aren't paying the higher premium rates; instead, they can wait another day or two for it to get there later, and more cheaply. A good bit of the Express volume has moved to FedEx Ground, so FDX is still keeping some of the volume, but at a lower margin.

Another factor is FedEx self-funds their health insurance, which is administered by one of a few companies depending on one's state of residence. The administrative & cost nightmare that is Obamacare surely doesn't help the bottom line, either.

Fred Smith has generally been kind to Obama with his public comments. I wouldn't call him an O-bot, but some of his remarks have caused me to shake my head.

[Wurlitzer]

Anytime you want to know how the economy is doing, simply look at what FedEx, UPS and the cardboard industry looks like. They are great economic indicators.