FedEx Freight top exec Logue to retire at end of year

Transportation and logistics titan FedEx said today that Bill Logue, president and CEO of FedEx Freight, its less-than-truckload subsidiary, will retire from his position, effective December 31, 2014.

FedEx officials said Logue cited health concerns as the reason for retirement.

Logue was appointed president FedEx Freight in late 2009, when he replaced Doug Duncan, and subsequently named CEO in spring 2010. Prior to his current position at FedEx Freight, Logue was executive vice president and chief operating officer of FedEx Express, and he previously held various senior management positions, including senior vice president of Domestic Ground Operations and senior vice president of Air Ground Freight Service. He joined the company in 1989.

Logue will be replaced as the top executive of FedEx Freight by Michael L. Drucker, who currently serves as chief operating officer of FedEx Express on January 1, 2015. Drucker has been with FedEx for 40 years and spearheaded the company’s build out of the FedEx Express global air-ground network and its international business as well.

“Bill Logue has led FedEx Freight to significant growth, success and a leading position in the LTL industry,” said Frederick W. Smith, Chairman and CEO of FedEx Corporation, in a statement. “He navigated some of the worst economic conditions the industry has ever seen and delivered outstanding results while positioning FedEx Freight for long-term success. He has established himself as an all-time great leader during his 25 years at FedEx, and while we are sorry to see Bill retire, he has our gratitude, support and best wishes.”

During his time at FedEx Freight, Logue was instrumental in rolling out its FedEx Freight Priority and FedEx Freight Economy service offerings, which were key components of a FedEx Freight network redesign in early 2011.

The impetus for this was to offer shippers the choice of two levels of service from a single company. Both services, FedEx Freight Priority and FedEx Freight Economy, are designed to meet the needs of today’s LTL shippers.
 
“This is a growth strategy,” FEF President and CEO Bill Logue told LM at the time. “It is about growing our business profitably and for the long term, which is part of a growth strategy.”
 
Logue called the initiative, which was nearly a year and a-half in planning, a “game-changer” designed to simplify what FedEx officials determined was a too complicated LTL shipping process. The idea, he said, was to give LTL shippers two options, based on speed of delivery and price.

Fast-forward nearly two years later at the TransComp event in Houston in November 2013, Logue said the offerings have been very well received, with 87 percent of FedEx Freight’s volume coming from customers using both.

“That is really important as they see the value between the two, and it is important that they see that in negotiations,” he told LM. “In a bigger picture, though, we are [nearly three] years into putting our sales force together (for office and Freight) so now we have a sales force of 2,000 that is really good at selling Express, Ground, and Freight in a bundled services type of format and can target small and medium accounts. Parcel is selling LTL and LTL is selling parcel so that is really exciting. With 500 Freight reps nationwide, it can be difficult to target that type of customer.”

Not long after Logue took over at FedEx Freight, he said these aforementioned efforts were rolled out in part to apply some of the same principals used in air freight to simply LTL shipping.
 
“LTL is complicated with long haul, short haul and different business types,” he said “We are trying to simplify the carrier selection process for the customer. We also want to give customers the choice of a fast service or an economical service within one network. If we can accomplish those two objectives, then there is no reason for the LTL shipper to pick up the phone and call someone else—if it is fast, we can handle it; if it is an economical move or strictly inventory replenishment, they can handle it as well.”