Post by : Jyoti Gupta

Photo:AP

Fred Smith, the man who started the global delivery company FedEx, has passed away at the age of 80. He founded the company in 1973 after serving in the US Marine Corps. At first, the company had just 389 workers and 14 small planes. On the first night of service, they delivered only 186 packages to 25 cities in the US.

Today, FedEx is a huge company with over 500,000 employees around the world. Every day, it delivers millions of packages. The company now uses 705 airplanes and 200,000 vehicles to move packages.

Fred Smith came up with the idea of using a central hub to sort and send packages — a system called the "hub and spoke" model. He thought of this while studying at Yale University. Memphis, Tennessee, became the main hub for FedEx and still is today.

Before starting FedEx, Smith joined the Marines and served two tours in Vietnam. He was honored for his bravery and injuries in battle, leaving the Marines as a captain.

Fred Smith stayed out of the public spotlight most of his life, but he did appear briefly in the movie Cast Away, which was about a FedEx worker stranded on an island.

The current head of FedEx said Fred Smith was not only a business leader but also a mentor, father, husband, and friend. His vision changed the way the world moves packages.