Carrier Profiles
The New CEO of FedEx Custom Critical
"Things are going well. We've been working very hard with our leadership team to ensure that we have a very solid strategy."
"I'm very happy with the direction the company is headed and I'm very pleased with the opportunities that are out there for the company and our independent contractors. The future looks very bright."
So says Ms. Virginia Albanese, the new Chief Executive Officer of FedEx Custom Critical, headquartered in Green, Ohio. Ms. Albanese, a twenty-plus year veteran of the company, replaced the now retired former CEO Jack Pickard on June 1 of this year.
During a recent phone interview with Expediters Online she stated, "I couldn't be happier and it's a joy to come to work. In June, we had our meetings to refocus the leadership teams on our strategy, where we are going and what we have to do to get there."
“There are always hard decisions to be made and hurdles to jump, but when you have an engaged work force and people are behind the ideas, trying to make them work, the enthusiasm is contagious!"
She further explains, "I've always put in a lot of hours at work because I had the operational responsibility. It's not a big surprise but rather a matter of fact that the major change for me has been: the buck stops here."
"Everything I look at, decisions have to be made. Now, the good news is that we have a very good, very strong executive leadership team and we have a tremendous amount of discussion on topics where a decision has to be made."
"The bottom line is, whatever decision is made and regardless of who makes it, we've got to be very careful about the ones we make, and I have to stand up and be responsible for every one of those. I cannot do this alone, however. Everyone has to pull their weight and we will do great things."
Ms. Albanese adds, "That is not a surprise to me after six years of being the VP of Operations and Services. I've had a lot of decision-making authority, but now I'm thinking through decisions even more."
The FedEx chief describes her typical day:
"After struggling to get my kids out the door and off to school, it all begins. There are a lot of meetings; I do conference calls with the folks in Memphis and other FedEx operating companies, I have executive team leadership meetings, I meet with employees and talk to contractors on the phone."
"Depending on the day, I may visit the orientation classes and talk to the new owner operators."
"I believe strongly in being a communicator; I like to talk to people and I like to hear the comments they have. Part of management is simply being visible and talking to our people."
Ms. Albanese says that she recently sent out an e-mail message to the FedEx independent contractors introducing her and inviting questions and comments. She says her team received a number of responses that contained great suggestions.
She continues, "Our contractor council meeting is coming up, and I'll spend a couple of days with Scott McCahan (who conducts the meeting) and Jason Frederick (our new Director of Operations) along with the members of the council."
"It's very important to me to understand the needs of our customers and our independent contractors. To get the customer perspective, I've been out on the road on sales calls. The contractor ideas and suggestions have come via the contractor council meeting, emails, telephone calls and speaking to contractors who visit our building.â€
"It's been a busy time, but it's all about asking the right questions, listening to the answers and taking feedback. Our independent contractor driving force is very, very important to our organization. We have an open door policy here and I take that very literally."
"We certainly take into consideration the owner operators’ financial investments as we're talking to customers and negotiating rates. We are constantly looking at the contractors' investment and the impact rate changes might have."
The Custom Critical CEO provides an update on several FedEx services:
"We launched FedEx Expedited Freight Services around a year and a half ago and it's done quite well. It's very important for our contractors to realize that we are seeing a lot of Surface Expedite and Air Expedite freight that comes through that portal."
"I know that our independent contractors had concerns when we launched it originally, concerns about the intent of the service, but it has been nothing but good for our surface and air expedite programs. We get some White Glove shipments through there, but the preponderance of freight is Surface Expedite."
She continues, "Also, at the beginning of the year, we launched FedEx Truckload Brokerage, a pure brokerage situation. It is a totally different model than FedEx Custom Critical, one that is not in competition with our company. These shipments are true truckload with longer delivery time frames and repeat lanes. They are not expedited moves and do not affect our independent contractors."
"Has the business changed? Yes, I think we've all seen it change over the last ten to fifteen years. That's something that as the leader of this organization, I have been keeping my eye on. Our leadership team is constantly looking at our value proposition. We must be the big value provider, the high-value offering in the expedited market."
"Although we are a smaller company within the FedEx portfolio of operating companies, we definitely have the brand value and we stand behind everything we sign with a customer. And the customers know that we will continue to do so."
"Another change in our industry is the advent of many expedited carriers. Every LTL carrier out there today has some type of expedited offering. I've been in this business for twenty-one years and I've seen it evolve over time from a couple of specialty expediters to a number of expedite companies along with many LTL and truckload companies."
"FedEx Custom Critical is very dedicated to our core businesses of Surface Expedite, Air Expedite and White Glove. That's where our commitment is and we will continue to work vigorously to improve our market share and utilize our fleet correctly so that we can get our contractors plenty of freight."
"We can go out and provide the value and we can put the freight out to our fleet but we need to have contractors who are willing to take the freight. If the fleet doesn’t take it, the customers' needs do not go away. Instead, the customer goes shopping. The contractors' availability and load acceptance are key to the success of the business."
She offers her perspective on Custom Critical’s position within the marketplace:
"I truly believe that as long as we have a value proposition and we are showing value to our customers, we can continue to be a preferred provider of expedited freight solutions. You can see in the industry there are companies that are beating down the price all the time, but there has to be a premium player in the market. FedEx Custom Critical is committed to giving great value to our customers and we need to make sure that our owner operators have access to that freight."
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