train see federal express passenger train . fed express redirects here . for the tennis player with this nickname see roger federer . for the baseball player with this nickname see tim federowicz . fedex corporation type public traded as nyse fdx dow jones transportation average component s & p 500 component industry courier founded 1971 ; 45 years ago 1971 as federal express corporation little rock arkansas founder frederick w. smith headquarters memphis tennessee u.s. area served worldwide key people frederick smith chairman president & ceo products post delivery express mail freight forwarding third party logistics revenue us 47.453 billion 2015 1 operating income us 4.26 billion 2015 1 net income us 2.57 billion 2015 1 total assets us 37.069 billion 2015 1 total equity us 14.990 billion 2015 1 number of employees 300 000 2012 subsidiaries office express ground freight custom critical supply chain trade networks services website fedex.com fedex corporation is a us multinational courier delivery services company headquartered in memphis tennessee . 2 the name fedex is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company s original air division federal express which was used from 1973 until 2000 . the company is known for its overnight shipping service but also for pioneering a system that could track packages and provide real time updates on package location to help in finding lost packages a feature that has now been implemented by most other carrier services . 3 contents 1 history 2 operating units and logos 2.1 scac codes 3 political donations and lobbying 4 awards and honors 5 advertising 5.1 john moschitta ad 5.2 motorsports 5.3 football 5.4 other sports 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit for the history of federal express see fedex express . fedex s first van displayed at the fedex world headquarters fedex corporation is an import export company incorporated october 2 1997 in delaware . 4 fdx corporation was founded in january 1998 with the acquisition of caliber system inc. by federal express . with the purchase of caliber fedex started offering other services besides express shipping . caliber subsidiaries included rps a small package ground service ; roberts express an expedited shipping provider ; viking freight a regional less than truckload freight carrier serving the western united states ; caribbean transportation services a provider of airfreight forwarding between the united states and the caribbean ; and caliber logistics and caliber technology providers of logistics and technology solutions . fdx corporation was founded to oversee all of the operations of those companies and its original air division federal express . 5 in the 1990s fedex ground planned but later abandoned a joint service with british airways to have ba fly a concorde supersonic jet airliner to shannon ireland with fedex packages on board and then fedex would have flown the packages subsonically to their delivery points in europe . ron ponder a vice president at the time was in charge of this proposed venture . in january 2000 fdx corporation changed its name to fedex corporation and rebranded all of its subsidiaries . federal express became fedex express rps became fedex ground roberts express became fedex custom critical and caliber logistics and caliber technology were combined to comprise fedex global logistics . a new subsidiary called fedex corporate services was formed to centralize the sales marketing and customer service for all of the subsidiaries . in february 2000 fedex acquired tower group international an international logistics company . fedex also acquired worldtariff a customs duty and tax information company ; towergroup and worldtariff were re branded to form fedex trade networks . 5 fedex corp. acquired privately held kinko s inc. in february 2004 and rebranded it fedex kinko s. the acquisition was made to expand fedex s retail access to the general public . after the acquisition all fedex kinko s locations exclusively offered only fedex shipping . 5 in june 2008 fedex announced that they would be dropping the kinko s name from their ship centers ; fedex kinko s would now be called fedex office . 6 7 in september 2004 fedex acquired parcel direct a parcel consolidator and re branded it fedex smartpost . 5 in december 2007 the u.s. internal revenue service tentatively decided the fedex ground division might be facing a tax liability of 319 million for 2002 due to misclassification of its operatives as independent contractors . reversing a 1994 decision which allowed fedex to classify its operatives that own their own vehicles as independent contractors the irs audited the years 2003 to 2006 with a view to assessing whether similar misclassification of operatives had taken place . fedex denied that any irregularities in classification had occurred but faced legal action from operatives claiming benefits that would have accrued had they been classified as employees . 8 in june 2009 fedex began a campaign against united parcel service ups and the teamsters union accusing its competitor of receiving a bailout in an advertising campaign called brown bailout . fedex claimed that signing the federal aviation administration re authorization bill which would let some of its workers unionize more easily and according to the memphis based company could expose its customers at any time to local work stoppages that interrupted the flow of their time sensitive high value shipments 9 was equivalent to giving ups a bailout . independent observers heavily criticized fedex s wording 9 claiming that it was an abuse of the term . 9 fedex express employees are regulated under the railway labor act . 10 on january 14 2013 fedex named henry maier ceo and president of fedex ground to take effect after david rebholz retired on may 31 2013 . 11 on july 17 2014 fedex was indicted for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances in cooperation with the chhabra smoley organization and superior drugs . 12 according to the u.s. department of justice fedex is alleged to have knowingly and intentionally conspired to distribute controlled substances and prescription drugs including phendimetrazine schedule iii ; ambien phentermine diazepam and alprazolam schedule iv to customers who had no legitimate medical need for them based on invalid prescriptions issued by doctors who were acting outside the usual course of professional practice . 13 a representative for the company contested these claims stating that it would violate personal rights of customers to deny service and that we are a transportation company we are not law enforcement . 14 on july 17 2016 the the doj u.s. attorney s office confirmed in a statement that it had asked u.s. district court judge charles breyer to dismiss the indictment but also did not say why . 15 16 17 in april 2015 fedex acquired their rival firm tnt express for 4.4 bn 4.8 bn ; 3.2 bn as it looks to expand their operations in europe . 18 19 operating units and logos edit fedex is organized into operating units each of which has its own version of the wordmark designed in 1994 by lindon leader of landor associates of san francisco . 20 the fed is always purple and the ex is in a different color for each division and platinum for the overall corporation use . the original fedex logo had the ex in orange ; it is now used as the fedex express wordmark . the fedex wordmark is notable for containing a subliminal right pointing arrow in the negative space between the e and the x which was achieved by designing a proprietary font based on univers and futura to emphasize the arrow shape . 20 in august 2016 fedex announced that all operating units will switch over to the purple and orange color logo over the next 5 years . fedex express mcdonnell douglas md 11 landing in hong kong on august 11 2010 . fedex express orange ex the original overnight courier services providing next day air service within the united states and time definite international service . fedex express operates one of the largest civil aircraft fleets in the world and the largest fleet of wide bodied civil aircraft ; it also carries more freight than any other airline . 21 caribbean transport services until 2008 a part of fedex freight . provides airfreight forwarding services between the us mainland puerto rico the dominican republic and other caribbean islands . fedex trade networks platinum ex formerly yellow provides services relating to customs insurance and transportation advice . formerly c.j. tower & sons then tower group international . fedex supplychain orange ex provides logistics services including critical inventory logistics transportation management services fulfillment services etc. formerly roadway logistics system then caliber logistics . fedex ground delivery van fedex ground green ex guaranteed day definite delivery within canada and the united states at a cost savings as compared to time definite fedex express . uses a large fleet of trucks which are owned by the independent owner operators and drivers are independent contractors who control individual delivery routes and territories . formerly roadway package system rps . 22 fedex home delivery a division of fedex ground fedex home delivery specializes in residential delivery tuesday through saturday and offers delivery options to provide more flexibility for residential recipients . the logo includes a drawing of a dog carrying a package . fedex home delivery only operates in the united states . in the us it is not uncommon for home delivery packages to be delivered by standard ground trucks supplying no additional services for the up charge . to make up the difference fedex ground in canada performs the business deliveries and residential deliveries . 23 fedex smartpost green ex consolidates parcels from merchants such as e commerce and catalog companies and uses the united states postal service for the final delivery . formerly the independent company parcel direct until fedex acquired it for 120m in 2004 . 24 fedex freight red ex less than truckload ltl and other freight services . the largest ltl carrier in the united states with 4.5 billion in revenue for 2008 . 25 fedex freight inc formerly american freightways viking freight and watkins motor lines . fedex freight canada formerly watkins canada express . fedex custom critical red ex delivers urgent valuable or hazardous items using trucks and chartered aircraft . freight not accepted for transport includes perishable food alcohol livestock household goods hazardous waste and money . 26 drivers are independent contractors who own their vehicles . service in mexico uses interline carriers . formerly roberts cartage or roberts express . fedex services platinum ex provides global marketing planning and information technology it services for the other fedex operating companies . fedex techconnect platinum ex offering a customer service toll free telephone line for customer questions . it is operated by an automated operator then will prompt the user to a live agent for uses of tracking claims scheduling pick ups express ground same day custom critical freight express and freight ltl compliments and complaints locations both staffed counter locations and drop boxes ordering supplies setting up fedex accounts billing etc. formerly fcis or fedex customer information services . fedex office formerly fedex kinko s blue ex the retail arm of the corporation offers copying and digital printing professional finishing document creation internet access computer rentals signs and graphics direct mail web based printing and fedex shipping . formerly an independent company known as kinko s until it was acquired by fedex in 2004 and rebranded to fedex kinko s. in june 2008 the company was finally rebranded as fedex office . 27 fedex office and print centers provides services such as copying printing internet access and fedex shipping . fedex ship centers provides a central location for fedex customers to deposit their packages for shipping also offering a self service photocopy and fax machine office products for packing and shipping boxes and packaging services . formerly these locations were called fedex world service centers . both fedex office and print