The results are in, and FedEx came in a disappointing second place in this year’s Great Package Race.
The contest is put on by Georgia Tech’s Supply Chain & Logistics Institute to challenge the world’s big three package delivery companies — FedEx, UPS, and DHL. The winner: The German-based DHL, delivering all five packages to exotic locations such as Tikrit, Iraq; Apia, Samoa; and Florianopolis, an island off the coast of Brazil.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, “Professor John Bartholdi, who runs the contest, picks locales that will poke carriers at some of their weakest points. ‘We are pushing each of these organizations’ processes out at the fringes,’ he said. There, carriers usually rely on subcontractors to make the final delivery, Bartholdi added. ‘You can’t have guys in brown shorts driving through downtown Tikrit.’”