Comments
Comment by ckd:
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FedEx’s main hub is in Memphis, but they don’t actually fly everything there these days; they have other hubs in Newark and Oakland (and probably others).
The advantage of FedEx’s model is that it actually doesn’t generate that many detours. A package from NYC to Atlanta could get sent on a direct flight, or on a connection through Memphis…but if you don’t have enough packages to fill a direct flight, but do have enough from NYC to everywhere to fill a plane and enough from everywhere to Atlanta to fill a plane.
Remember, the model is designed for overnight letters, not shipping goods from warehouses to customers. (That gets done through tricks like having your warehouse at the hub (Airborne Express does a lot of this from their Wilmington, OH facility), removing all the detours!
Memphis is also within a fairly short flight of most of the population of the US.
Comment by d.w.:
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Quite by accident, I’ve got a semi-controlled FedEx experiment happening right now. Yesterday, at about noon local time, I placed an order for a new monitor from Newegg.com, headquartered in La Puente, California. I then ordered a new Power Mac from Apple (Cupertino, California), about an hour or two later.
The computer shipped from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania late last night, and has a projected arrival date of tomorrow (Thursday.) The monitor shipped from Memphis (hah!) this morning, and is projected to arrive “Friday, before 4:30PM.”
