FedEx vs UPS | Kick the Tire, Light the Fires | 1

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s the early 1970s, and 27-year-old Fred Smith has an idea for a new kind of package delivery service, one that uses its own planes to deliver packages in under 24 hours. Skeptics tell him the start-up costs are too high and the demand too low, but Smith thinks he’s found a way to make it work. He invests millions of his own money to get the new company started.

But when one thing after another goes wrong, it looks like Smith might have made a big mistake. And that’s before he’s even had a chance to challenge one of the most respected companies in America: UPS.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
0:16.6	It's a Tuesday morning in August 1974. Memphis, Tennessee.
0:21.9	John is busy sorting packages through the night at the hub of the newly launched shipping company Federal Express.
0:27.8	They've been open just over a year. It keeps his eyes glued to the destination city on the mailing labels,
0:34.8	depositing the boxes and the appropriate bins so they get placed on the right planes. It's a crucial job.
0:40.8	If a package gets into the wrong bin and ends up in the wrong city, Federal Express's reputation will take a hit.
0:47.8	And right now, in these early days, reputation is everything.
0:53.8	John's vision becomes blurry. He's been working nonstop for the past four hours.
1:00.8	He quickly takes off his gloves and rubs his eyes hoping that it'll help them refocus.
1:05.8	He's not due for a break for another 20 minutes. His colleague notices.
1:11.8	Crazy today, right?
1:13.8	John nods and grabs a package from the conveyor belt just before it passes him by.
1:19.8	I've been here almost a year and I've never seen anything like this before.
1:23.8	Bosses say they've been adding customers, but this is 10 times busier than it was just last week.
1:30.8	Yeah.
1:31.8	John heaves a large box into the bin. By law, they're only allowed to ship packages weighing 50 pounds or less,
1:37.8	but John's pretty sure that sometimes the scales are a little light.
1:42.8	Something else must be going on. There's no way we added this many customers that fast.
1:47.8	Do you notice most of these packages are coming from New York?
1:51.8	John looks at him confused. He's been so focused on the destination he had noticed where they're coming from.
1:57.8	But now he realizes his colleague is right. Package after package after package has been sent from New York.
2:04.8	What on earth's happening in New York?
	...

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