every day two Titans face off in a Mad Dash to move more than 25 million packages every second counts as a complex system of jaw-dropping automation it's almost like a a Willy Wonka type thing Feats an army of trucks on the ground and a fleet of planes in the sky it's the delivery Giant versus the leader in overnight in a Race Against Time and each other Coke and Pepsi is a great way to look at it with Millions at stake which company can do it faster cheaper smarter and keep up with an e-commerce Revolution I'm Brian chackman and tonight we take you inside the package War UPS and FedEx deliver nearly 65 billion packages a year practically a package for every person on the planet [Music] 1377 aircraft 265 ramp Tower FedEx made Memphis their home base dubbing the 832 acre complex the superhub FedEx has made Memphis International Airport the busiest cargo airport in America UPS is also strategically located near the heart of America Brown calls its Mega complex worldport UPS chose Louisville Kentucky as a hub because of location here you're a 2-hour plane flight from 75% of the United States what's so special about this SP CNBC went behind the scenes with both that's what's known as a unit load device to show you the amazing journey from this to this UPS might be best known for its Brown delivery trucks but it's also the world's ninth largest airline I'm inside of Boeing 757 that just came from guadal laara Mexico they're bringing all the cans out to go into the world report for sorting sorting it's what both hubs were built for routing packages from one plane to another the sort as workers at both companies call it is where you see the shipping magic at work at worldport UPS can sort up to 416,000 packages an hour and a night a million during a peak season like Christmas 1.6 million packages as for FedEx it's not just a company it's a verb you mind fedexing those bad boys just a few minutes before 11:00 p.m. on a Monday at the Hub in Memphis Tennessee for FedEx and some of the 10,000 workers are streaming in for the night s which can handle up to 2 million packages in a single night and as you can see they're in winter gear because Memphis is expecting snow it's right about midnight and all the planes are starting to stream in they have to get them all within a very tight window to make sure the S goes off on time this particular 777 came in from Charles toal airport in Paris traveling to Paris Mexico and Beyond it's staggering to think that combined the companies have about 90 billion in Revenue especially when you consider both companies humble beginnings in 1907 Jim Casey founded the American messenger company in Seattle by the time it was Ren the United Parcel Service in 199 men and brown were delivering around 2200 packages per day in 1959 da volume surge to 723000 with each generation exponential growth by 1982 UPS introduced Next Day Air Service and volume hits 6.4 million the volume just keeps growing in 1973 former Marine and Vietnam vet Fred Smith founds Federal Express on its first night in business delivering 186 packages by year two daily volume passes 10,000 20 years later shorter delivery time and a shorter name the newly coined FedEx delivers nearly 2 million packages per day in 1998 FedEx launches ground and home delivery and by 2010 FedEx is up to 8 million packages today when you combine the two delivery Giants it's almost 25 million packages a day back on the sword it's easy to see where today's growth is internet retailing hulet Packer Dell Walmart Amazon this is uh one of our many areas UPS's Mike Nepal runs worldport post to a nightly Cascade from Amazon how big are they to your business they comprise a lot of our business they're one of our strategic uh shippers how big big we'll probably do about 20 to 40% of their volume here in the air and on the ground reputations are on the line each and every night we're taking a beast and trying to find find a way to get it to his uh home so this is where the great sword happens for 4 hours every night each Next Day package travels the 155 plus miles of conveyor belt getting bagged by ZIP code apartment building even large individual customer these are going to Illinois tonight Kabir Mari covers the letter c being a c person you do a ton of Chicago yeah what's the worst thing that can happen you sent it to the wrong place uh yeah that's that's pretty bad when we visited FedEx it was Cyber Monday and the intensity became more than a virtual headache a snowstorm meant late arrivals and even more pressure inside the sort none of the planes here can take off until the sort is complete and they're loaded to go let's say about twice the freight I say about twice the stress it's pretty it's pretty intense Chuck Bryson flips between the more than 250 cameras used to Monitor and regulate the source see when iend that diverter now I'm taking Freight from two belts and putting on to one he should be done by now over 200 planes are waiting on the tarmat it's 3: in the morning what's going on in the command set okay we're wrapping up our sord of this time 40 minutes late wasn't a total smooth night though right it was not at what point in terms of lateness would it have made you nervous about getting things on time the next day well this is pretty close to that boundary with the first planes departing so late distribution centers around the country have to move even faster to make their morning deadlines but then again employees are trained to expect every possible contingency well not everyone what's the strangest thing that's happened on these monitors based on what you've done I think it might have to be the time that the uh box of fresh M lobsters broke open somewhere on the belt system and 58 lb lobsters came straight up this belt and people just scattered they were smart they have grabbed and put in their jacket whether it's lobsters on the loose or snow on the ground our customers don't care that it's leading and snowing in Memphis they want their uh package and they want it delivered on time coming up on inside the package Wars engineering speed with extreme automation go ahead push it up I'll tell you when to [Music] stop up up and away well in my dreams I'm actually inside a $13 million flight simulator belonging to UPS they have eight of these 11 ton machines to keep their pilots certified trainer KO floro himself a UPS pilot shows me the ropes you don't have to be too Ginger with it it's not your dad's Cadillac besides preparing their 2600 Pilots to fly under almost any conditions it simulates taxiways and UPS gates at airports worldwide I just don't want to die okay okay so I see the runway ahe okay let's just say UPS did not offer me a job ahead pull up I do not like [Music] that FedEx and UPS make massive investments in technology using NASA light control centers and custombuilt computer programs to manage traffic in the skies both have one goal solve weather mechanical problems to get packages to their destination on time at UPS spare pilots and planes are at the ready to rescue deliveries that if late would cost between $5 and $30 a package it adds up fast considering every plane carries thousands of packages UPS uses a technology called NextGen it lands planes closer together shaving minutes from flight times and that means millions of dollars and savings is why UPS uses technology to as they put it D skilled jobs like loading delivery trucks before packages even arrive at the distribution Center UPS's preload assist system determines exactly where each one belongs and instantly blows loading info right onto the packages or on bigger ones the device simultaneously scans the barcode and prints a loading code that tells workers exactly what truck to put it on and precisely where inside UPS's Chief Information officer Dave Barnes shows us the company's global data center in Mawa New Jersey computer here use Advanced logarithms to issue drivers their daily instructions 10 years ago could you do that same thing no 10 years ago we used to do this manually we would train a number of our workers to memorize the routes of our drivers and on those routes drivers are discouraged from making left turns because models show they add more weight time in traffic and increase the risk of accidents optimizing right turns over left we save money and we have a safer work board for both companies the barcode is key at the FedEx Ground Hub in Memphis belts move boxes at 500 ft per minute and there's no need to slow down for scanning this scan tunnel you see right here Ken Spangler CIO of FedEx Ground explains we're reading all six sides of the package we're reading the barcodes on the bottom as well we also do high-speed dimensioning so we capture all the dimensions of the package the packages come off the truck and they're all clumped together by the time they get through this line there's single file they're spaced out and they're scanned the average FedEx Ground package is scanned 13 times once we unload it we really don't want to touch it again until the load point so basically we're using all automation they've even integrated scanners into gloves can I shake your bionic hand yes you can these are only the second set of hands that have touched these packages at the FedEx Ground facility and this process of loading up a truck happens more than 100,000 times throughout the entire FedEx Network while both companies have ways you can track a package in transit FedEx's Chief Information officer Robert Carter shows us how they're not just tracking the package they're tracking the contents as well an innovation targeted at the biomedical industry we actually insert it into the package it can tell us where it is it can tell us what temperature it is it can tell us how fast it's moving it can tell us whether or not light has entered into the package which means it's been open despite all the technology and Innovation the delivery is still the most important step two recent viral videos illustrate the point for FedEx it was a driver carelessly chucking a computer monitor over a fence FedEx responded quickly this goes directly against all FedEx values but replacing the monitor for free and disciplining the employee can't offset the bad press for UPS it was an obscene gesture at a security camera UPS says the seasonal employee has since been fired but from the public back lash it's clear that delivering packages and profits still requires a human touch coming up pushing packages was just the beginning see why UPS wants to grab hold of your smartphone lift when it comes to last minute delivery you might say UPS has skin in the game literally human skin what we have back here is some very time sensitive product from Louisville Kentucky Mark V leite the team of UPS employees who need to keep a freezer at negative 103° f to preserve a product made by Advanced biohealing a company based in La Hoya California what is it a skin replacement therapy used in foot surgeries made from circumcised for skin we have minutes to remove it from our freezer and seconds to place it in the um in the shipper it's shipped in a container UPS designed layered with dry ice and sent next day to operating rooms across the country and if we do not maintain the Integrity of the product from the freezer to the shipper we're compromising that patient's outcome and I I don't know how you but I don't want that to happen ever it's just one example of UPS expanding into Healthcare housed in warehouses the size of three football fields this is what UPS calls an adjacent business meaning adjacent to their gigantic superhub they call worldport in Louisville Kentucky alone healthcare related adjacent businesses have a million square fet of FDA certified warehouse space everything from pain medication to parts for x-ray machines literally blocks from a Runway so if there's an emergency they can get product out the door immediately so it's one company you're dealing with right from that source and manufacturer all the way through to that retail store or doctor's office in the [Music] US the commercials are ubiquitous and UPS actually has a president of logistics his name is Brad Mitchell and his job is to take advantage of the ever globalizing world he saves companies money while making money for UPS I get the snow suit one chilly freezer chamber after chamber after chamber at a time it's four below Fahrenheit ice packs everywhere if you're a company that makes something that has to be stored at a particular temperature UPS can do that they bundle up a bunch of different companies that have the same needs can ship all over the world saving each company money within one building we go from healthc care to high-tech and one major company that outsources the UPS is Sprint phones come from KERA Motorola and Asia they're received customized packaged and then shipped to businesses and individuals this facility can manage 5 to 6,000 units per hour all with UPS technology all with UPS Personnel UPS is sorting shipping and storage Cuts Sprints Ware W housing costs by 30% the shipping business is huge but it isn't showing huge growth not the case with opportunities to do more for more companies the investment Community saying what's your next opportunity for growth and we really saw that moving up the supply chain the analyst Community agrees and also sees a difference here between FedEx and UPS gets delivered to or dur covers both companies for Lazard Capital Management it's a business and its youth globally uh UPS does seem to have a bit of lead there you see how they're advertising and it's going to be the dominant way that the company markets itself uh as it goes forward it's more than shipping skin it's reducing Customs delays processing returns customer invoices as well as what you see here the doit all approach explain to me how big this business is within the framework of UPS that's getting close to 20% of the total revenue based in the company it's one of the priciest cars in the planet and brown actually has a hand in Bentley's business too we will handle anything from the smallest branded nuton boat up to an engine Bentley is based in crew England since 1994 UPS has been their parts people for all of North America Carl North manages their evolving relationship we had a little issue with the windscreens these are hard to ship because the damage prone we were able to design a special box that actually helps reduce these damages to near zero then there are what you might call Partnerships of convenience UPS says at least 140 companies have relocated their distribution facilities to Louisville Kentucky benefiting from what they call end of Runway Services zapo can take orders until 11:30 p.m. and still get the shoes to customers by 8:00 a.m. the next morning meanwhile in Memphis FedEx is making huge strides and doing the very same thing Pro Flowers is as close as possible to planes at FedEx superhub to service all those emergency flower orders imp perishables speed is everything Clark Howard helped create the strategy so if an order comes in in another part of the country and it's too late to fulfill it that's what this is for yeah the really the proflow cility here in Memphis since it's right next to the FedEx Hub is really the safety net for all of our orders for fulfillment the next day now did you have that in mind when you decided to open up here [Music] absolutely The Amazing Story of whether bovine heart can make it from Australia to a US lab to a patient in time for surgery FedEx is also selling its heroic Feats when it comes to Healthcare Logistics what's in here well these are samples that we would typically receive from say a clinical site Lisa Jennings CEO and president of cirquest labs is a coldblooded shipper literally the company conducts lab work for clinical trials and its proximity to the FedEx superhub helps secure a recent deal with the American Heart Association they kind of relaxed a little bit and thought well gee you know Memphis May really be the spot that we want to place this trial because of FedEx headquarters FedEx looks like it will try and match UPS's adjacent business strategy this facility used to repair their own field scanners and equipment is opening its doors to outside business Carrie papis is president of FedEx Tech connect if you're a manufacturer of PCS or handheld devices scanning equipment um servers those kind of things those would be definitely in in our target audience for what we' be looking for papis admits FedEx is new to the concept we have a handful of customers that we've just signed again we're probably four or five months and so we're in our infancy at this point but we're working hard the delivery challenge is on the package Wars can get wet and wild with the delivery Giants clawing for the great PR that comes with the most unusual deliveries FedEx created pandemonium delivering two giant pandas from China to Edinburgh Scotland the 8-year-olds arrived on a Boeing trip 7 dubbed the Panda Express but UPS had been there done that over a decade earlier Brown even called it the Panda Express when the company delivered a pair to the Atlanta Zoo only after the Zookeeper signed for them of course FedEx got us Feathering its cap for safely delivering nine bald eagles from the San Francisco Zoo to a sanctuary in Tennessee and after the gulf oil spill 70,000 endangered sea turtle eggs were fedexed out of Harm's Way to Florida's Atlantic Coast have a whale of a delivery both companies have handled that the largest fish in the sea took flight with UPS when the company shipped two female 14ft whale sharks from taipe Taiwan to Atlanta Georgia not to be out swam FedEx up the ante shipping not one but seven Beluga Wales they needed a temporary vacation spot while Chicago's Shed Aquarium was being renovated PR events aside these oversized deliveries require expertise and both companies want you to see the big guys trust them to get the package there on time no matter what's inside millions of people rely on both Brands every package is a person