Originally Posted by
tnkrdrvr
I agree that they are probably not the same thing. What we sold off was a division formed after we bought a LTL operation (I believe Coyote Logistics). The company found that it’s a cutthroat business with very low margins that didn’t integrate well with the rest of our business. They sold it for around what they paid for it. LTL has nothing to do with air freight, so unless they do more than that, it may have minimal impact on your pilot group. If it’s your whole FEDEX Ground operation, than yeah, that may negatively impact your air operation by removing filler for aircraft that aren’t filled by Express packages. That couldn’t as easily be done at Brown simply because there has never been a differentiation between ground and air. Air just makes the next day and second day products possible. The same drivers have always delivered all of our products.
The amount of FedEx pilots I have flown with who have no idea the difference between LTL shipping and parcel shipping or could even describe what those two things are on their own is mind-boggling (and don't even get me started on the myriad of services provided in the parcel sector that most pilots have no idea the differences between). This conspiracy that spinning off FedEx Freight means that the company is setting up a new parcel company to get around the scope provisions for domestic flying is on the level of believing the world is flat as a pilot. We fly very very very very little LTL domestically right now because the shipments are normally not required to be there overnight (and no one wants to pay for that) and there is a robust LTL distribution network in this country domestically via long haul trucking.
It is very clear to anyone who understands the long game happening here on why Freight is being spun off and it is to unlock a massive amount of new capital via the selling of stock in the new company. With Yellow going out of business (thanks Teamsters!) a couple years ago and UPS not being in the market anymore, it is clear FedEx Freight is going to use that massive capital to keep their rates at rock bottom for a long time to gain more market share from the likes of Old Dominion and XPO. The latest market share percentage for FedEx Freight is estimated around 15% of the domestic LTL market, and I would not be shocked if it the goal of the corporation for that to get to 30% or even more or until the Feds step in with competition protections.