FedEx Schedules

[schmooze]

Seasons Greetings, all!


I am considering applying to Fedex sometime down the road and I was wondering if the guys and gals at Fedex could answer a couple of questions for me regarding scheduling.

1.) Holiday Schedules.
I have heard that for an extra fee, Fedex does home delivery on Christmas day. My question is as follows: Are most pilots off on Christmas day since there is little cargo activity or will they still normally move freight?


2.) Trip Reroutes.
At passenger carriers, if flight crews miss flight due to weather, Mx or ATC delays, or simple trip misconnects, they are just reassigned to another flight and reserve crews pick up their normally scheduled trips. At Fedex, will the same rule apply even though you may be flying in the middle of the night( I know that is an extreme generalization) when there are limited options available as far as jumpseating arraingments or will you continue as you normally would?

Thanks in advance.
Fly safely.
Schmooze

 

[cl-65link]

Good luck, I hope you know SEVERAL people who work there, and are willing to recommend you.

 

[Ligeirinho]

I am not really sure about major FEDEX but on the FAR121 FEDEX feeder side you don't spend any hollyday with your family always flying or overnight in somewhere mostly MEM. Unless you call sick chances are you gonna fly on those days.

 

[F18-FDX]

I'll try to give you a couple of basic answers:

1) Good news: Just about everybody has Christmas off, we don't fly a normal schedule on the holiday.

Bad news: A lot of guys working on the 24th and 26th, so their "Christamas off" will be on a layover somewhere, not necessarily at home, but could be for those who can hold layovers in their hometown. Also alot of flights that get into MEM before midnight (and Santa) Christams eve, then we start operating again on the morning of the 26th. So for guys who live in MEM, they may be off and home.

I don't think it's much different than the passenger guys (except that we don't fly on the 25th). It's a busy travel season as well as package season and the junior guys work over the holidays.

2) Without taking 30 minutes to explain the contract, I'll try to give you a generic response. Yes we have reserve crews. If you are late for Wx, Mx, etc. and you have an outbound flight from one of several HUBs, most likely you will be replaced by a reserve crew. Then come a couple of options, if you arrive in your domicile, MEM for example, and miss your outbound flight you have one of two choices - be put in "substitution" where scheduling can hold you for up to 4 hours and they can put you on another trip (must be within the same footprint as the missed one) and you get paid the greater of your old trip or new trip. If scheduling doesn't have anything for you after 4 hours, you go home and get paid for the trip you missed. Second option, you may refuse substitution and simply go home, but without pay.
If you are away from domicile and they send the standby crew, most likely you'll go to the hotel and pick back up on your trip the next day. If there are no reserve/standby crews available you may continue, but with a late departure. If, by chance you go over duty time and the freight needs to go, they may deadhead a crew to replace you and deadhead you home, or as above, just have you layover and pick up the rest of the trip after sufficient crew rest. Again, this is an answer to your question in a nutshell, there are a multitude of things that could happen depending upon where you are/availbility of standby crews/etc.

Hope this helps.

 

[GoABX]

Is the trip to Mobile (MOB) a racetrack or is it sprinkled across several lines?

 

[AlbieF15]

FDX flys to BFM, not MOB... It is usually a "pure" line, meaning no other cities mixed in.

Don't know about the Capt spot, but the FOs who hold this line have been on property 7-9 years. Several guys who are FOs could have held captain 2-3 years ago but passed it up to keep lines close to home.

If you want to stay on the panel and do the job, the wait (at least right now) is a mere 6-7 years on the property. Current SO's holding the line average 6 or more years. Don't worry, there are only 300 guys on the panel above the guy holding that line as an SO if you start tomorrow, and there aren't but probably 100 ex-Navy/AF types living on the Gulf Coast who will want to bid the line ahead of you.

Want to fly in the southeast? Apply to AirTran! If Flint Michigan or Sioux Falls or Grand Forks ND is your cup of tea...well...welcome aboard...you'll love FDX!

Not meaning to be overly negative...FDX is a great place to work. However, many at FDX forgo upgrades to fly certain line. You'll be a LOT happier here as a new hire (or even 3- 5 year guy) if you don't get too many illusions about holding a hometown line. You may get lucky, but the number of guys who camp out to hold a certain city is staggering. The benefit, however, is you may be able to upgrade to another seat sooner than you might otherwise expect.

 

[Huck]

I predict that pure lines will be "optimized" away in the future. If you want time at home between trips, move to Planet Mempho.

I bid BFM #1 and #2 every month, but as Albie says, I got two ex-Blue Angels ahead of me (among others).