That facility is just a few blocks from the airport, which is not by chance, says Mimeo.com CEO Jeff Stewart. By virtue of that proximity, Mimeo.com can accept orders much later than most printing outfits can for jobs that require next-day delivery. "Unlike a corporate copy center, which may close at 5 o'clock, we're able to take orders up to 10 o'clock," Stewart says. "That's five hours that we're open and able to service our corporate clients." In that five-hour window, says Stewart, Mimeo.com receives 37% of its orders. To pick up those packages, a FedEx courier swings by the Memphis shop as late as 11:30 p.m. each weeknight.
In fact, says Stewart, it's the superhub advantage that attracts many of Mimeo.com's customers to do business with it in the first place. Last year -- the company's first full year of operation -- its sales rocketed to the "low seven digits," in Stewart's words. By having its production and distribution facility in Memphis, Mimeo.com is able to offer its customers not only a late cutoff time for placing orders but also discounts of 50% or more on express-shipping costs to companies throughout the United States and Canada. FedEx extends superhub-related price breaks to many large-volume shippers operating out of Memphis, a benefit that Mimeo.com passes along to its customers, Stewart says.
Entering data into computers seems to rule Clevenger's life when he's working. Some items go into his handheld; others go into the computer on the truck. For starters, he enters his FedEx number (41770), route number (92), and station code ( OLVA ). Then, every time he picks up a package, he punches in more data: things like delivery time, a customer's zip code, and the type of service desired. There are codes for everything: P1 connotes next-morning priority delivery, and "haz" indicates hazardous cargo, to cite two examples. "We have all these codes. They want to know everything you're doing at every minute of the day," Clevenger says.
FedEx's tracking system lets customers know the real-time status of their cargo from the moment it's picked up until it reaches its destination. And that's especially vital to a Memphis restaurant called Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous.
Tucked away in a basement off an alley downtown, the Rendezvous is renowned locally for its piquant ribs, a perishable item that it ships to customers nationwide. During the 1980s and early 1990s, founder Charlie Vergos built a modest business in shipping ribs by air express. But he called it quits when he received a notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that meat shipped across state lines had to be cooked in a kitchen separate from the one used for a restaurant. When the overnight-mail-order business of his crosstown rival, Corky's, began to show some real promise, however, Vergos changed his mind. In 1997 he spent $330,000 to build a satellite kitchen-and-shipping facility, complete with foot-operated hand washers and vacuum-packing machines.
The superhub advantage is what attracts many of Mimeo.com's national customers.
Barbecue that's delivered by air express now accounts for $1 million of the restaurant's $7 million in revenues, according to Vergos's son, John, who's part owner of the Rendezvous and one of its managers. Even though being in Memphis offers the possibility of FedEx pickups at night, the restaurant doesn't take advantage of the service during most of the year. The exceptions are the summer and peak selling periods, especially Christmas. The ribs are frozen and packed in two kinds of coolant before shipment, so in hot weather the restaurant holds on to them longer to delay thawing during transit. Instead of calling for the restaurant's packages at 4:30 p.m., a FedEx truck stops by for them as late as 10:30 p.m. During the Christmas crunch and other holidays (which account for 30% of shipments, John Vergos estimates) nighttime pickups allow the restaurant's workers to fill orders for more hours and still make the FedEx deadline for next-morning delivery. "We like being 'priority overnight' in barbecue," Vergos says. "It's our little niche."
No one has ever assaulted Clevenger or tried to steal his cargo, although at times he has encountered late-night customers who have some urgent demands. "People sometimes flag me down late at night," he says. They often ask if he will take their packages with him on the spot. He usually accommodates them. Others have shown up at the FedEx service center a few minutes past the midnight closing time. "It's an occasional thing for someone to stand out there and bang on the door till one of our people comes around," he says.
That scenario is not unfamiliar to late-night workers at Aerospace Products International (API), whose back-door neighbor is the FedEx service center where Clevenger is based. "We can actually hand-carry packages there till midnight," boasts Jay Trees, API's vice-president for logistics and supply-chain management. The company, a subsidiary of publicly held First Aviation Services, distributes aircraft parts to its customers -- notably, airlines -- around the world. (API generated virtually all of First Aviation's sales of $100 million last year.)
At the core of API's business strategy, says CEO Jerry Schlesinger, is its proximity to the superhub. "What generally happens is, someone is tearing an aircraft apart and they find something late in the day. They don't have a part they need. They don't need it the day after tomorrow. They need it first thing tomorrow morning." Schlesinger estimates that about $15 million of API's sales stem from the company's ability to fill late-day orders for delivery the next morning. That service is one of the company's fastest growing, says Schlesinger, because it allows customers to cut back on their spare-parts inventories as a cost-saving measure.
To mesh with FedEx's final Memphis pickup each night, about 40 of API's 200 employees work a second shift, which lasts until 11:30 p.m. The company's other main "stocking" facility is at Clark International Airport, near Manila in the Philippines, which happens to be close to the home of the FedEx hub serving Asia. API ships its orders from the Philippines as late as 8 p.m., local time. That hour, not coincidentally, is also the last call for cargo by FedEx couriers, Schlesinger says. "The same set of dynamics that works for us in Memphis works for us in the Philippines for the entire Asia-Pacific region," he says.
A little after 11 p.m., Clevenger rolls into the cavernous, starkly lit FedEx service center in southeast Memphis that's his home base. He loads the evening's haul onto a giant conveyor belt, which rumbles past a row of trucks like his. That's his last duty of the night. He leaves it to larger trucks, which will depart the service center by 12:30 p.m., to transport his packages to the airport.
Joseph Rosenbloom is a senior editor at Inc.
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