FedEx International Shipping Company
FedEx is an import/export company, founded on October 2, 1997, in Delaware. FedEx was officially established in January 1998 with the acquisition of Caliber System Inc. by Federal Express. With the purchase of Caliber, FedEx began offering additional services beyond shipping, including subsidiaries such as RS.
In the 1990s, FedEx Ground planned a joint service with British Airways to fly packages on the Concorde supersonic jet to Shannon, Ireland. FedEx would then deliver the packages individually to points across Europe. Ron Bonder, Vice President at the time, was responsible for this proposed project.
FedEx History
In January 2000, FedEx changed its name to FedEx and rebranded all subsidiaries:
- Federal Express → FedEx Express
- RS → FedEx Ground
- Roberts Express → FedEx Custom Critical
- Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology merged to form FedEx Global Logistics
A new subsidiary called FedEx Corporate Services was also established. In February 2000, FedEx acquired WorldTrac, specializing in customs and tax information, and Tower Group and World Tariff, reorganizing them into FedEx’s commercial networks.
FedEx acquired Kinko’s in February 2004 and rebranded it as FedEx Kinko’s, expanding FedEx’s retail access to the public. After the acquisition, all FedEx Kinko’s locations were dedicated exclusively to FedEx shipping.
In June 2008, FedEx announced that the Kinko’s name would be dropped from its centers, and they would be known simply as FedEx Office.
In September 2004, FedEx acquired Parcel Direct, a parcel consolidation unit, and rebranded it as FedEx SmartPost.
In December 2007, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) preliminarily assessed FedEx Ground with a tax liability of $319 million for 2002 due to misclassification of employees as independent contractors. The IRS reviewed the years 2003–2006 to assess whether similar misclassification occurred. FedEx denied any misclassification but faced legal claims from workers asserting entitlement if classified as employees.
FedEx System
FedEx operates through independent operating units, each with its own Wordmark designed in 1994 by Lyndon Leader from San Francisco. The original FedEx logo had orange on the “X” and is now used for FedEx Express. The logo contains a hidden arrow between “E” and “X,” symbolizing movement and speed.
In August 2016, FedEx announced that all operating units would transition to a purple and orange logo over five years.
🔗 More information: FedEx Turkey
