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FedEx is conducting more layoffs and facility closures to close out 2024, shuttering a ship center in Durham, N.C. and cutting headcount at a similar facility in neighboring Raleigh.
The delivery company will lay off 218 employees at the Raleigh ship center, which will remain open. The Durham closure will impact 123 employees.
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The Memphis, Tenn.-based logistics giant filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notices in North Carolina on Tuesday. According to the notices, the effective date for both the layoffs and the closure is Feb. 3, 2025.
According to a Thursday report from local news affiliate KAIT News in Jonesboro, Ark., some layoffs will also occur at a shipping center in the town “early next year.”
“FedEx regularly evaluates its network and makes adjustments to align with the evolving needs of the business,” said a FedEx spokesperson in a statement, alluding to the company’s Drive consolidation plan and integration of its ground, express and services units.
The Drive framework is designed to save the logistics provider $6 billion by 2027 and includes the Network 2.0 strategy, which is designed to consolidate the FedEx delivery network with fewer stations and routes and increase shipping efficiency.
In a September earnings call, Raj Subramaniam, president and CEO of FedEx, said the company has reduced pickup and delivery costs roughly 10 percent in markets where it has fully rolled out Network 2.0.
“Decisions of this nature are the result of much thought and consideration for maintaining the high level of service expected from our customers and other needs of our business,” the spokesperson said.
Certain team members will be offered opportunities at other FedEx locations and receive relocation assistance, or get severance pay as part of the layoff, according to the rep.
The North Carolina and Arkansas staff cuts are the latest of many across FedEx amid the ongoing reorganization, with a reported 300 employees being let go in November, and hundreds more prior to that with the closure of various other ship centers in the U.S.
Chief financial officer John Dietrich signaled in the September earnings call that there would be more job cuts, noting that FedEx would “continue to optimize our staffing and enhance efficiencies across all our segments.”
Overall employment has dwindled as the reorganization since Network 2.0 was first established in June 2022. As of May 31, the logistics giant had approximately 505,000 full-time and part-time employees, down 7.7 percent from 547,000 employees on that date two years prior.