And it's not just their performance that I'm frustrated with. It's the philosophy that you should never cancel IFR in a FedEx feeder. It could be 10 and clear in the entire western US, and they'd still hold on to their IFR all the way down to the visual approach into the hub.
If it's hard VFR, ok, their loss. All the Beeches, Metros, MU2s, 402s etc. will take the short cuts on the VFR transitions and get into the hub quicker.
On the other hand, in my case, my routing is typically mountainous with high MEA's until about 70 miles out, at which point I can easily accept a 4000ish foot ceiling to get in VFR. The problem is that ATC likes to assign holds, vectors and restrictions at about 90 miles out to provide spacing with the "infernal" caravans up ahead holding on to their IFR clearance, even in good VFR conditons.
To give my opinion the other question, yes, I could see some larger planes in the future, in fact I'm a big fan of the EMB 120's and ATR's in the feeder realm.
Seems like one of the biggest problems in the feeder world is aircraft aquisiton, and Beeches and Metros are in short supply. The only newer small feeder on the market is the Caravan (correct me if I'm wrong), I'd much rather see consolidation and larger turboprop aquisition.
Unfortunately, again on the other hand, another trend I see with UPS in particular is that every time they get enough cargo to upgrade to a larger plane (like the ATR or EMB), they just branch out to more destinations flying into smaller airports (often less than 30 miles down the road), and continue flying the smaller planes.
I am a manager at fredex; the not cancelling IFR rule is a fredex rule. you must understand the fastest way to get in trouble at fredex is not following procedures or orders. no exceptions ever or you will be sorry.