FedEx Ground goes to six-day per week service to handle growing load of e-commerce

Leading delivery company says the extended service aims to handle increasing volume of e-commerce coming through hubs

FedEx says it retail (NYSE: FDX) parcel delivery service will go to six-day service thanks to growth in e-commerce demand.

FedEx Ground, the service that competes with UPS and USPS for last-mile delivery, will once again run six- and seven-day operations through the holiday season

This time, though, it will continue six-day operations throughout its U.S. network year-round, the company said in a statement.

“FedEx Ground has operated six- and seven-day operations during the holidays for several years as e-commerce has grown, and thanks to strategic investments in our network, we are now well-positioned to operate six days a week in the U.S. all year to best serve the rapidly growing demand,” said Raj Subramaniam, executive vice president for FedEx.

He added that FedEx Ground added 36 million square feet to its distribution network, including the opening of nine new hubs and 58 automated stations.

The Memphis-based company is also investing heavily in technology to help speed its distribution process.

That include “driverless tugger technologies” to more effectively handle large, non-conveyable packages; robotic trailer unloading systems with bulk unloading techniques; trailer load analytics in hubs and automated stations to provide performance monitoring of trailer load quality and utilization; and yard management systems, which interact with GPS tags on each trailer, to notify when a trailer arrives and departs.

“These significant facility and automation investments have been taking place for many years, but are now largely complete. This expanded capacity and increased efficiency will create margin and profitability benefits at the same time that FedEx Ground capital investment will be decreasing,” Subramanian said.

FedEx anticipates a record amount of volume through its network again this holiday season. To cope, FedEx will increase hours for some existing employees, and hire for approximately 55,000 positions during the holiday season.