FedEx CEO Stares Down Threat From Amazon's Own Delivery Network
FedEx CEO Stares Down Threat From Amazon's Own Delivery Network
(Bloomberg) -- FedEx Corp. Chief Executive Officer Fred Smith isn’t sweating Amazon.com Inc.’s move to expand its own delivery network, saying the e-commerce giant is likely to take more business from the post office than the package courier.
“Amazon is a good customer. We think they’ll be a bigger customer in years to come if they continue to grow and they certainly should,” Smith said in an interview Tuesday in Singapore, where he was attending the Bloomberg New Economy Forum. “The biggest single entity that will lose traffic as Amazon puts out its contractor delivery force is U.S. Postal Service.”
To gain more control over deliveries, Amazon this year began forming its own network by supplying vehicles, uniforms, technology and packages to third-party contractors it calls Delivery Service Partners. Most Amazon volume now is handled by the post office, FedEx and United Parcel Service Inc.
The bulk of the new program is for residential customers. Those are less profitable for couriers than businesses, which typically receive multiple packages for each delivery. The growth in online retailing has forced FedEx and UPS to invest more in automation to preserve profit margins. The Postal Service will raise prices for package deliveries between 5 percent and 10 percent starting in January.
Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx meanwhile is assessing how it might be affected if the Trump administration carries through with a threat to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports.
“A lot of our customers are telling us they’re looking to shift some of their supply chains to Vietnam and Thailand, away from China. Some of them are trying to ship a lot of product in advance of the peak season so they avoid tariffs,” Smith said. That, however, is easier said than done.
“You can’t just move a factory to Vietnam,” Smith said. “I think at the moment there’s more talk about it and advanced planning and everybody’s hoping the tariff dispute will get resolved.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Black in Dallas at tblack@bloomberg.net;Erik Schatzker in New York at eschatzker@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Case at bcase4@bloomberg.net, Tony Robinson
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