FedEx is huge here (Memphis), will be interesting to see how things might change with his passing. No other information has been released at this point.
Was it natural causes or taken out? No news of it here.
Reported as a massive heart attack by the local news.
Fred Smith attended Yale, he wrote a paper discussing the potential of an air delivery service, he got a C on that paper. He was a Marine Pilot during the Viet Nam conflict, his idea and innovation changed this world, no doubt about that.
Rams
[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 06-22-2025).]
I bought a Schlitz neon light on E-Bay. It arrived via FedEx, broken. The owner refunded my money and blamed it on "FredEx".
Did you expect any other answer. That response could have easily been true but.........................
My new two-post lift arrived, had warning stickers on fork truck lift point and warnings on where not to use the fork truck forks. It was clearly evident that those points that weren't supposed to be used to lift and move the lift posts were used based on the torn packaging. No it wasn't FedEx shipping but, generally speaking, the guys and gals on those fork trucks don't give a damn. They have a certain amount of cargo to move in a specified time. Rarely are they held responsible.
FedEx is legendary in west GA. A couple of years ago, they were so bad that they made the news on at least two Atlanta TV stations.
Around here, we "affectionately" refer to their local hub in Austell as "Lost Hell". It's where your packages go to die.
There was a story, about the same time as the Atlanta news coverage, of a driver being arrested after an entire van-load of packages was found after having been dumped in a ditch, in Alabama. Merry Christmas, guys!
FedEx is legendary in west GA. A couple of years ago, they were so bad that they made the news on at least two Atlanta TV stations.
Around here, we "affectionately" refer to their local hub in Austell as "Lost Hell". It's where your packages go to die.
There was a story, about the same time as the Atlanta news coverage, of a driver being arrested after an entire van-load of packages was found after having been dumped in a ditch, in Alabama. Merry Christmas, guys!
Don't take this as defending Fred Smith, he was CEO and the buck stops with him but, I have to question such things, is it a reflection of company values or, a reflection of cultural values within our own population?
Don't take this as defending Fred Smith, he was CEO and the buck stops with him but, I have to question such things, is it a reflection of company values or, a reflection of cultural values within our own population?
Rams
Very likely, the latter. But a lot of it is also possibly the culture of the corporation. In other words... It's just that the caliber of the workers that the pay grade will support are worse slackers, in west Atlanta, than they are elsewhere.
Hmm. In the oil fields, to cut down accidents we were told take your time to do a task. Followed by "hurry every time you can".
, rules followed.
Personally, I see no conflict in "hurrying when you can". We've all seen employees who take their time getting from one task to another. That doesn't mean taking a "Short Cut" is safe or authorized by the employer.
I know fed-x is a big company. The drivers that deliver here can not follow directions. Packages all have the address and in the line that would be for suite/apt and so on. It'll say driveway door. It is harder to see packages from the street from there as there are always vehicles in driveway. It is all of 20 paces over dropping them at the front door. USPs and UPs manage to place the packages at the driveway door. Fed-x nope always on the front steps. The last fed-x package was a fuel tank, thankfully I have camera's. The driver placed the package on the front steps took a photo of it then picked it back up and put it back in the truck. Their app/web site tracking showed delivered and did not change. That driver is now unemployed. A few years ago another driver that route was one town over while holiday deliveries would be shipping had his buddies follow the route and the driver put orange stickers on the packages he thought was high value or easy to pawn/facebook market place sell. and they roll up a few minutes after he dropped it off with the sticker facing the street so they could tell what to grab and what to just not bother with. They had 233000.00 worth of product in a public storage unit when they finally got busted. Seems many Amazon drivers pull the same scam as the driver that had the route I'm on take a photo of it on the property. then take off with it.
I know fed-x is a big company. The drivers that deliver here can not follow directions. Packages all have the address and in the line that would be for suite/apt and so on. It'll say driveway door. It is harder to see packages from the street from there as there are always vehicles in driveway. It is all of 20 paces over dropping them at the front door. USPs and UPs manage to place the packages at the driveway door. Fed-x nope always on the front steps. The last fed-x package was a fuel tank, thankfully I have camera's. The driver placed the package on the front steps took a photo of it then picked it back up and put it back in the truck. Their app/web site tracking showed delivered and did not change. That driver is now unemployed. A few years ago another driver that route was one town over while holiday deliveries would be shipping had his buddies follow the route and the driver put orange stickers on the packages he thought was high value or easy to pawn/facebook market place sell. and they roll up a few minutes after he dropped it off with the sticker facing the street so they could tell what to grab and what to just not bother with. They had 233000.00 worth of product in a public storage unit when they finally got busted. Seems many Amazon drivers pull the same scam as the driver that had the route I'm on take a photo of it on the property. then take off with it.
I have no doubts about your issues. We have instructions for all our deliveries to put them at our back door. Normally, that's what happens regardless of the vendor. Even our USPS mail lady puts packages where requested. But I have a long driveway that's easily accessible and it's not all that hard to make it happen.
I still believe such larceny is more of a cultural problem within our country than a corporate issue but again, that's just my opinion. Memphis is a different/changed and economically viable city since Fred Smith located FedEx there. Thousands of jobs with FedEx and other associated business. Mr. Smith's decision to bring his company to Memphis was a game changer. The Memphis International Airport Board started the process to change the name in honor of Mr. Smith in the first meeting after his demise.
As stated in the original posting, this thread was started to honor Fred Smith for the changes he made not just within Memphis but to the world as a whole. Although, I'm not surprised the focus has changed to his company and some of his employees, no company has completely honest employees. BTW, the thief that stole your gas tank shouldn't not only be unemployed but incarcerated.
Rams
[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 06-27-2025).]
My son's father - in - law retired from FedEx in central NJ last summer. He said new management changed the culture of FedEx several years ago; he couldn't continue anymore. So he retired and became a school bus driver! Memphis! Oy! When ever I see an international shipment for my company tracked to come through Memphis, I cringe. Very rarely will the shipment make it through without some sort of customs problems. Delays can spread over days & days. Let's face it, FedEx, USPS, UPS aren't what they used to be. Maybe the culture of the work force adds into it and not just management issues, don't know.
My son's father - in - law retired from FedEx in central NJ last summer. He said new management changed the culture of FedEx several years ago; he couldn't continue anymore. So he retired and became a school bus driver! Memphis! Oy! When ever I see an international shipment for my company tracked to come through Memphis, I cringe. Very rarely will the shipment make it through without some sort of customs problems. Delays can spread over days & days. Let's face it, FedEx, USPS, UPS aren't what they used to be. Maybe the culture of the work force adds into it and not just management issues, don't know.
I have no idea about Customs but, is the shipping company responsible for Customs issues?
I have no doubts about your issues. We have instructions for all our deliveries to put them at our back door. Normally, that's what happens regardless of the vendor. Even our USPS mail lady puts packages where requested. But I have a long driveway that's easily accessible and it's not all that hard to make it happen.
I still believe such larceny is more of a cultural problem within our country than a corporate issue but again, that's just my opinion. Memphis is a different/changed and economically viable city since Fred Smith located FedEx there. Thousands of jobs with FedEx and other associated business. Mr. Smith's decision to bring his company to Memphis was a game changer. The Memphis International Airport Board started the process to change the name in honor of Mr. Smith in the first meeting after his demise.
As stated in the original posting, this thread was started to honor Fred Smith for the changes he made not just within Memphis but to the world as a whole. Although, I'm not surprised the focus has changed to his company and some of his employees, no company has completely honest employees. BTW, the thief that stole your gas tank shouldn't not only be unemployed but incarcerated.
Rams
Memphis, isn't what it seems. It is a 350% above the national avg. in crime. That's not good. Neither is being one of the top ten most dangerous cities in the country.
Memphis, isn't what it seems. It is a 350% above the national avg. in crime. That's not good. Neither is being one of the top ten most dangerous cities in the country.
You have described Memphis pretty well. I don't go into Memphis unless I absolutely have to. I have very little good to say about Memphis, when moving to this area, I made sure I bought outside of the Memphis troubled areas and in a different county. You're right, Memphis is a dangerous place. But, that has nothing to do with Fred Smith and the impact he made on not only Memphis but this country and the world as a whole.
So, this is lovely. I ordered a cheap stereo tuner off of eBay, last week.
It's been bouncing around north/central Georgia for five days, now.
Wednesday, 7/30/25 6:55 AM Shipment information sent to FedEx 5:05 PM Picked up CHICAGO, IL
Thursday, 7/31/25 3:33 PM Arrived at FedEx location CHICAGO, IL 8:44 PM Left FedEx origin facility CHICAGO, IL 11:55 PM Arrived at FedEx location CHICAGO, IL
Friday, 8/1/25 6:30 AM Departed FedEx location CHICAGO, IL 7:33 PM On the way ADAIRSVILLE, GA
Saturday, 8/2/25 9:32 PM On the way KENNESAW, GA
Sunday, 8/3/25 9:51 AM On the way KENNESAW, GA 8:10 PM Arrived at FedEx location KENNESAW, GA
Monday, 8/4/25 11:53 PM Departed FedEx location KENNESAW, GA
Tuesday, 8/5/25 2:45 AM At local FedEx facility ATLANTA, GA 2:45 AM At local FedEx facility Delivery scheduled via FedEx Ground, not US Postal Service ATLANTA, GA 2:58 AM On FedEx vehicle for delivery ATLANTA, GA 4:24 PM Delivery exception Future delivery requested ATLANTA, GA
When it posted "Adairsville GA" I Googled "FedEx Adairsville GA", it gave me an address, which cross-references to a Dollar General. (Not too surprising. When they ship stuff to rural west GA, if they can't figure out where the packages go, they drop them off at Dollar General, and let people figure it out for themselves.)
But it's apparently been in and out of Atlanta all day. All I know is that *I* certainly didn't request a "future delivery". "Yesterday" would have been preferable. Odd thing is, a FedEx truck pulled into my driveway late this morning. Opened the door and sat there for a minute or two, and then left. They can't find their own azz with both hands. Cretins.
[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 08-05-2025).]
But it's apparently been in and out of Atlanta all day. All I know is that *I* certainly didn't request a "future delivery". "Yesterday" would have been preferable. Odd thing is, a FedEx truck pulled into my driveway late this morning. Opened the door and sat there for a minute or two, and then left. They can't find their own azz with both hands. Cretins.
Had a very similar experience with my HALO two-post lift except it was lost in St. Louis for some reason. Made it from CA to St. Louis in a couple days via ground transport but departed and arrived in St. Louis three times in two days. I suspect it was loaded and then offloaded onto different trailers but that's just a guess. Wasn't FedEx but, another larger carrier. Sorry about your bad luck, next time have your package delivered to my home and then come get it here.
Rams
[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 08-05-2025).]
Sorry about your bad luck, next time have your package delivered to my home and then come get it here.
I would do that, except with how I forget about or procrastinate stuff, as you well know, you would probably get tired of looking at it.
If I'm ever in the neighborhood, I'll make it by.
=====================
On another note, my shipment is "out for delivery" again. I suppose that we shall see. (The FedEx record, here, is about 3-4 days of "out for delivery", so we're not even close yet.)
, rules followed.
