By Eleanor Boudreau
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-877214.mp3
Memphis, TN – They go out in rain, in snow, in heat, and, most importantly, in the gloom of night.
As FedEx employees poured into the Memphis World Hub on Tuesday night they were handed cookies and bottles of Gatorade (FedEx purple or FedEx orange) to help them through another barrage of packages. The season of giving is also the season of shipping, and this is the busiest time of year for express mailers.
FedEx began humbly, right here in Memphis, shipping to just 25 cities in the United States.
Now the company is worth billions. It ships to 220 countries and countless cities from nine hubs. But the Memphis hub is still the flagship, and the only hub which handles packages from all 220 countries.
Last night more than one and a half million packages whizzed through the Memphis hub. They are sorted first by size and shape. Medium-sized packages and that's most of them come through a system of more than 100 conveyer belts called "The Matrix."
An employee scans a package into the computer, then pushes it into the Matrix where the package zings along one of the upper conveyer belts, until pistons fire, and a mechanical arm pushes the package down a slide to one of the lower belts.
It is from these lower belts that the package is finally sorted by where in the country or the world it needs to go.
Over the years FedEx has evolved a complex system of safeguards to track packages, and make sure packages arrive on time; but there isn't any trick, or high-tech gadget for handling the extra volume the 7,000 employees at the hub just work longer hours and extra shifts.
Santa is just one guy on one night. How does he do it?
John Dunavant, Vice President of the Memphis World Hub said, "FedEx helps him behind the scenes."