FedEx postal deal mixed bag

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

The new FedEx contract with the U.S. Postal Service may be a mixed bag for Hawai'i, which gets twice as much mail as it sends.

The $6.3 billion, seven-year nationwide FedEx pact replaced a number of contracts with many cargo carriers for air transportation of mail on the Mainland on Monday.

In Hawai'i, some of the 100,000 pounds of mail sent out every week on 10 to 20 commercial airline passenger flights a day will be routed instead to two FedEx flights a day.

FedEx efficiencies may cut a day from the three- to four-day delivery time from Hawai'i to the East Coast for some pieces, Postal Service spokeswoman Felice Broglio said.

And overnight delivery of express mail from Hawai'i, now limited to a few West Coast cities, may reach further inland.

The 200,000 pounds of mail arriving in Hawai'i every week by air still will be carried on commercial passenger flights, Broglio said.

That mail already moves "faster," because of earlier time zones and the fact that it gains hours as it moves east to west, she said.

One big sender, Crazy Shirts, hopes to cut shipping time, marketing director Ginger Waters said.

Correction: The U.S. Postal Service contract with FedEx will continue during the Christmas holiday season. A previous version of this story incorrectly described FedEx's activities during the holiday season.