Operator Frameworks
8 field notes on operator frameworks from an active FedEx Ground operation.
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What I Love About FedEx Ground Contracting
An operator's honest list of what FedEx Ground contracting gets right: dependable pay, liquid business, secular growth, and a delegation-ready operating model.
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What You're Actually Selling FedEx
A FedEx Ground contract is an arbitrage on delivery capacity. The moment you sign, you're short a flow of stops you don't yet have the means to cover.
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Time and Space: The Only Two Constraints That Actually Govern FedEx Ground Routes
Every FedEx Ground metric derives from two constraints: time and space. The operator framework that governs every fleet decision.
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Stops Per Route Per Day: The One Number to Watch Every Day
Stops per route per day is the single best one-glance metric in FedEx Ground contracting. What it measures, how to read it, and when it lies.
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The Carve-Out Warning: How to Split Purchase Price to Protect Yourself From Bad Contract Terms
The two hidden risks every carve-out buyer faces — contract terms and adverse selection — and the pricing structure that protects you from both.
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Why Payroll Is the Best Litmus Test for Efficiency
Payroll is the largest cost in FedEx Ground contracting. If the payroll number is right, almost every other number on the P&L tends to be right.
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The SDE Trap
A $1M route with $250K SDE listed at $500K is not a 50% yield. SDE is the biggest number in the stack — and it's computed before the trucks are paid for.
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How Sellers Dress Up a Route for Sale
The fleet-refresh move: new trucks before a sale improve the books while the business spends more. How a sharp buyer defeats it, and the real multiple.