FedEx SameDay Bot and Freight LTL Home Delivery

With eCommerce now a dominant part of the retail consumer experience, logistics companies such as FedEx are always looking for better ways to service their customers.

The Memphis Business Journal unearthed a Trademark filing from FedEx that seems to show the company is at least looking offering same day delivery service using robots.

In the filing for the trademark name “FedEx Sameday Bot” the company claims this service is for “Robots for document and package delivery” and “Shipping and delivery services, namely, pick-up, transportation and delivery of documents and packages.”

When asked by the MBJ, FedEx said “Per company policy, we do not comment on specifics of projects in the developmental phase.”

Does this mean this is actually a project in development? Unlike many other patent and trademark filings that have been unearthed from Amazon that seem strange and bizzare, this one might be real?

It certainly is intriguing and fits with the general push in the logistics business toward automation. Let’s see what happens.

FedEx Freight LTL Home Delivery

FedEx Freight LTL home delivery has been around for years, but the company never advertised it much.

While many of its trailers have lift gates, maneuvering a large truck through subdivisions was probably not very time efficient.

But according to a new story by FreightWaves, FedEx is experimenting with 20-foot straight trucks to deliver larger shipments to residences.

The program is called “FedEx Freight Direct” and is currently in a pilot program in the Dallas, TX market with Atlanta, GA, Tulsa and Oklahoma City, OK, and Omaha, NE being added early next year.

Freightwaves states in its story that is based on an internal FedEx memo the website reviewed:

“The program will be available as a “standard” product where drivers bring the shipment into the first point of entry of a residence, and as a “premium” product which involves carrying the shipment to the room of choice, unboxing the product and performing light assembly if necessary, according to the memo.”

The “FedEx Freight Direct” program aims to compete in the growing bulky delivery segment that UPS reportedly is considering too.

READ MORE: Report: UPS Considering Delivering Bulky Goods

However, unlike UPS, which reportedly is working with another trucking partner, the FedEx pilot program is an in-house project using its own branded trucks.

It looks like even for small businesses, shipping large bulky products may become easier if parcel companies like UPS and FedEx will expand this segment to offer residential delivery services.

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Richard Meldner

Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.

To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.