Working as a delivery driver is an easy path to a long dark night of the soul. Eight hours of folks wondering why their package wasn't delivered earlier, miserable traffic conditions and heavy carrying heavy stuff up flights of stairs or wheeling boxes around tight corridors on a dolly and people that won't get the hell out of the way is enough to wear anyone down.

And that's before bringing racists into the equation.

From The Washington Post:

Timothy Warren was driving his FedEx truck through a verdant Portland, Ore., neighborhood when the man he would soon kill screamed that Warren was going too fast.

Warren stopped his truck. He was exhausted, he tried to explain to Joseph Magnuson that night in late September, and just wanted to get done with his work.

Magnuson was unrelenting and hurled numerous aggressive insults and racist slurs toward him.

That was something Warren, who is black, could not abide.

He stepped out of the truck, and both men yelled at one another.

Magnuson took a swing. Warren swung back, connecting a single blow above Magnuson’s left eye that sent him tumbling to the ground.

Magnuson, 55, briefly lost consciousness, then died later that evening.

When police began the task of piecing together what the hell had happened, they had plenty to work with. Six people witnessed Magnuson's racist rant. Three of the six had seen the whole thing go down, from soup to nuts. Everyone the cops spoke with said that Warren had been driving safely. Read the rest

Fedex acquired a company called Bongo International in 2014; Bongo specialized in helping North American companies sell overseas and after the acquisition, Fedex renamed the company FedEx Cross-Border International. Read the rest

A passenger train crashed into a FedEx truck, smashing it right in half during a snow storm last Saturday in North Salt Lake, Utah. With such dramatic dashcam footage, it's a wonder nobody was hurt.

According to CNN:

In a statement to CNN affiliate WJW, the transit authority said the crossing gates weren't working properly because of the weather conditions. Nor were the flashing lights and bells that warn of an approaching train. Onlookers said the crossing arms didn't come down until after the train was coming through.

"In the event of a power outage or lack of signal, crossing gates are programmed to default to the 'down and active'position as a safety precaution." the statement said. "Preliminary information indicates the gates were affected by the severe ice and snow conditions at the time and were in the default 'down and active' position, as they are programmed..."

A spokeswoman for FedEx told CNN: "We are aware of the incident in Salt Lake City and are grateful that no one was seriously injured. We worked with authorities during their investigation to quickly clean up the scene and minimize the impact on customers."

Convenience always carries costs. In the case of e-commerce, the surge in residential deliveries is causing in urban gridlock. Citylab goes out on delivery routes for their interesting report: Read the rest

Yesterday I went to FedEx.com to order some printed fliers from my desktop. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. Along with other idiots committed to proprietary Flash UI, FedEx is one of the last holdouts who won't let customers give them money unless they install Flash. So VistaPrint got my business. Read the rest

Walead Beshty created laminated glass boxes the fit exactly inside standard FedEx boxes, then shipped them to varying destinations. The resulting damage and the original box are then paired and displayed, like FedEx® Large Box, LA to NYC, 2007. Read the rest