Dive Brief:
- FedEx Freight’s strategy to streamline its processes and build a business structure specific to LTL shipping has led to improvements in the company’s customer experience metrics, President and CEO John Smith said on a call with analysts June 25.
- Noting improvements in its competitive edge, Smith credited a sales team deepening relationships with longstanding customers, a sales workforce back in service centers and new customer-facing technology the company developed the past year. The upgrades came ahead of its June 1 spin-off from parent FedEx.
- “We're already seeing some early proof points of improvements across key customer experience metrics, including quarterly Mastio results,” he said of the LTL benchmarking resource. Smith added the company has experienced an 8% improvement on a quarter-over-quarter basis in overall customer experience ratings.
Dive Insight:
To fast-track revenue growth, executives previously noted how enhancing the customer experience is a key pillar of its breakout as an independent company.
That effort could be a key factor in the company's projected performance this year. The carrier anticipates revenue to grow between 4% and 6% for the remaining seven months of 2026 compared to the same time period a year ago, the company said in its earnings release.
This involves several steps, including leveraging AI across the organization to drive efficiencies, Smith said. The company is continually seeking ways to integrate AI into workflows and to educate workers on how the technology can optimize performance, according to its Q4 earnings presentation in June.
The company launched a new freight pricing system on a modern, flexible and scalable technology stack in May, Smith said. He noted this eliminated what previously required significant manual intervention.
Smith said since FedEx Freight launched its own website in May, it received nearly a half million unique visits, and approximately 250,000 online shipments have already been scheduled.
EVP and CFO Marshall Witt said on the call that the company’s transformation investments in technology will begin to play forward.
Smith referenced the carrier’s dual-service model, which generally provides one- to three-day priority shipping and lower-cost three- to six-day economy shipping, which should appeal to shippers as it is contained within its own national network.
“Our priority service is approximately 40% faster than our nearest competitor based on published transit times,” he said.
Besides technology investments, strengthening its LTL expertise also has contributed to growing relationships with existing customers and finding new business, Smith said.
“We are already seeing that investment take hold as our sales team deepen customer relationships, introduce fit-for-purpose LTL solutions and accelerate adoption of our modernized LTL-focused technology platforms,” he said. To further push toward that customer service strategy, the company invested in its workforce, growing a sales team to over 500 earlier this year.
Smith is confident the company will deliver through its straightforward and clear strategy.
“We are creating a more efficient, resilient and customer-focused company, purpose-built for the LTL market,” he said.
