THE BOOK

FEDEX RACISM, DRUGS, THEFTS & FRAUD

Since I’m sure many will ask...was I fired by Fedex? The answer is NO. I resigned after I finished working undercover in investigations with government agents of the Office of Special Investigations ( OSI ) of the Air Force in which they uncovered nationwide FRAUD by FEDEX of every CSS military shipment which they investigated . I would have resigned sooner but I was asked by OSI agents to stay on until the investigation was completed. When it was finished...I resigned. I could no longer tolerate the RACISM, ILLEGAL DRUGS, THEFT CORRUPTION ... and LIES.

INTRODUCTION

I signed on with the best intentions as I am sure it was with many. I had been told that Fred Smith was a great man and that Federal Express was a great place to work. The sad truth is ...that Fred Smith is a liar and has forged another man’s signature to get millions of dollars from a bank, and yes he was indicted for it. It is also true...that he has hit and killed a black man with his car and left him to die on the street to die like an animal. He was driving without a license and drove away without even stopping to see if the victim was alive ( he died ). When he was caught by police of course he claimed he didn’t realize he had hit anyone. Fred lives on a southern plantation with slave quarters so possibly he just thought he had killed something less than human and didn’t need to stop. History shows that if you come from money you can get away with a lot. My guess is that without his mommy’s and daddy’s money Fred Smith may have been no more than a ditch digger and possibly even a common criminal given his penchant for forgery and lying not to mention being a HIT and RUN KILLER.

AS FOR CREATING FEDEX ( Federal Express ) Fred had his parents money. IT WAS FORMER UPS MANAGEMENT ...THAT CAME IN AND MADE THE COMPANY WORK. THEY DESERVE THE REAL CREDIT, BECAUSE WITHOUT THEM, THERE WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN A FEDEX...

Fedex spends millions of dollars annually telling people how great they are and they put on a flashy picture but the truth is... THEY LIE A LOT.

Perhaps Fedex gets it’s character from their CEO Fred Smith who is nothing more than a common Liar and Forger and just another Hit and Run Killer.

While working there as a courier I was repeatedly instructed to cheat the customers and also to commit fraud against and betray the United States military. After collecting evidence which I thought would prove fraud, I went to investigators at the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and worked with them in conducting a nationwide undercover investigation of Federal Express. When the investigation with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations was completed it showed that Federal Express was committing fraud against the U.S. Military for millions of dollars with a service which didn’t exist.

I contacted the Philadelphia Inquirer. They conducted their own investigation then did two major articles concerning the FRAUD. After the first article in the Inquirer I contacted ABC’s 20-20 which also did a feature.

The 20-20 story detailed the FRAUD and CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD BY FEDEX. And also the rampant DRUG ABUSE, DRUG SHIPMENTS and THEFT of DRUGS at Federal Express and ended Federal Express’s CSS service. Fred Smith was so mad that ABC had told the TRUTH about the FRAUD, THEFTS and DRUGS that he canceled ( $100,000,000 ) one hundred million dollars of advertisements on ABC ( but he couldn’t sue them for telling the truth ). And the ABC people Laughed at Fred & Federal Express ( ha ha ). In this book you will find facts that may forever change the way you look at Fedex.

As an employee at Fedex I quickly learned that Fedex delivers millions if not billions (yes I mean billions) of dollars of illegal drugs to OUR neighborhoods everyday. And many of these illegal DRUGS ( excluding those stolen by couriers and management at Fedex for their own personal use ) wind up in the bodies of children. While employed at Fedex I went to management about the Drug Shipments and Drug abuse by Fedex employees. Management either wanted to steal the Drug shipments for themselves or wouldn’t take action. They actually wanted the illegal drug shipment business.

After years of research and talking to so many employees at Fedex. I can only believe ( and other’s have also told me ) that Fedex Management looks at the illegal Drug shipments as REVENUE. That to Fedex management the illegal Drug shipments are just another way to bring in more money. Fedex’s ‘niche‘, they have found a place in the market that UPS, Airborne, USPS and other carriers don’t want any part of. Many times I have heard a Fedex courier or member of Fedex management boast that, “we’re the NUMBER ONE shipper of illegal drugs in America”. And they seemed as proud as a peacock when they said it.

Currently I am working on a second book concerning Fedex. I would like to thank the many Fedex employees who contributed information regarding illegal drugs shipments and drug abuse there, and also the rampant theft and other wrongs within FEDEX today. { keep them coming }

SO MANY EMPLOYEES HATE FEDEX MANAGEMENT

As a side note to ALL FEDEX employees. When I worked at Fedex my manager told me that any person who even spoke pro union at Fedex ( then called Federal Express ) would be fired. Today, from regularly speaking to Fedex employees all across America I know there are a lot of employees who feel Fedex is “screwing them” and many feel that their jobs are on the line if they vote for or try to get a union in to help them get fair treatment or decent benefits and pay.

So I urge you all, MAKE COPIES of EVERY DOCUMENT and TAPE RECORD every conversation with management ( where legal) even phone conversations which you feel might help you later on should you find your job in jeopardy or that you are being harassed. (especially if you are pro union or Black)

If you are a Black or other minority, you may want to check with your local or national NAACP about how you might determine if you have been discriminated against by your manager or managers by way of your “performance review” evaluation. Or singled out for termination or harassment for doing nothing more or less than your white co-worker does everyday, but just because you have dark skin.

Talk to other Black co-workers about discrimination or harassment.

I have talked to a lot of black couriers (even their lawyers ) from different areas and many believed they were being discriminated against or held back because of their color by racist white management at Fedex. But many are too afraid to complain as individuals, feeling they would be singled out and fired by RACIST white Fedex management if they spoke up.

I was told by Fedex management that they wouldn’t have blacks ( they called them niggers ) in management positions at their stations. And that they could easily get away with it by way of “performance evaluations”. (CLUE... CLUE... CLUE)

I have to wonder how many times in how many stations all across America situations like that exist.

***** But wait...before we get into the book. As I said earlier I regularly speak with current and former Fedex employees all across America, many of them are also FED UP and disgusted by the many despicable and sometimes illegal acts by Fedex management. Many of them tell me about the Racism, Illegal Drugs, Drug Shipments and Thefts of Valuables within Fedex even today.

The following is a very recent interview with a former member of Fedex management who worked for Fedex for approximately sixteen years.

For reasons of privacy I will only refer to him as AL. Please be assured that the interview is real (even tape recorded) and that AL speaks the truth from his heart. Also realize that AL is a white married male with children.

Initially my main thoughts were to talk to Al about the drugs and thefts at Fedex. But I soon learned that having been part of “white management” at Fedex, Al had much to talk about concerning RACISM by white Racist Fedex Management. Racism, which he as a sixteen year veteran and member of management has seen and believes permeates the entire company even today. While some will say “ hey Fedex employs a lot of Blacks and has some of them in lower management positions”. I as a former “white employee of Fedex” has heard and seen things that Blacks there will never see or know about. Because they aren’t allowed to...they are NOT WHITE. I can honestly say that I NEVER knew of even one white member of Fedex management that believed Blacks were equal to whites. Never knew of even one white manager at Fedex that didn’t believe that Blacks were stupid. Now a former member of Fedex management sets the record straight. Hopefully someday even more “honest white employees” will someday tell the truth about the racism at Fedex. And hopefully a LAWSUIT...will follow....

THE INTERVIEW

Gary, “ Al, when did you start working for Fedex”?

AL, “I started in 79...1979 and I worked there for sixteen years”.

Gary, “have you seen a lot of illegal drugs shipped through Fedex”?

Al, ”yes quite a lot, at Fedex we bragged about the illegal drugs we shipped...management couriers everybody. We were the number one shipper of illegal drugs in the whole United States. Management knew, but it was considered revenue, basically everybody in the company knew especially management.”

Al, “ I remember this one young fellow who got fired for telling the police there was drugs in a shipment. It was in Arizona and the drugs were to be delivered to his neighborhood. He was married and had children living there. He told his manager that a package was a drug shipment, his manager told him not to open it but to just go ahead and deliver it to the drug dealer. He took it to the police, when the police opened the shipment they found the drugs. His manager fired him because he took the shipment to the police rather than deliver them to the drug dealer.

Gary,” sounds like Fedex looked at illegal drugs shipments as revenue”?

AL, “ yes it was looked at exactly as revenue. Fedex ships an enormous amount of illegal drugs daily. If the drug shipments were even five percent of Fedex’s total revenue and the revenue was a couple billion dollars... five percent of a couple billion dollars is a heck of a lot of money. It was almost like a BIG private account”.

Gary, “earlier you mentioned an incident about illegal drugs at the Philadelphia Airport concerning Fedex employees, could you recall that event again”?

AL, “ yeah, they were loading an airplane and they found some drugs that they thought was cocaine. They decided to get high and also that the cocaine would help them load the plane faster. There were three (3) managers and three loaders. But what they thought was cocaine was actually very strong heroin. They nearly died of heroin overdose.”

Gary, “ and these were the people responsible for loading the airplane? What were there titles? And was anything ever done to them for it”?

AL, “ They were three managers, a ramp agent and two floaters. And NO, none of them were disciplined for it”.

Gary, “Al have you seen a lot of illegal drug shipments at Fedex”?

AL, “ YES many, all the time, as a courier and as a manager. Having worked there for sixteen years I believe Fedex couriers carry millions of dollars of illegal drugs on a daily basis, in fact I know they do.

Gary, “ have you ever seen Fedex employees use illegal drugs on the job or in the station”?

AL, “ Many times. It’s an everyday thing at Fedex. A lot of times couriers or managers would take a just a portion of the drug shipment so that the drug dealers would continue to make their shipments through Fedex. That way they had a regular supply of whatever drugs were being shipped”.

Gary, “ without naming names have you ever seen Fedex management using illegal drugs on the job or in the station”?

AL, “ Yeah I have on numerous occasions”.

Gary, “ have you ever seen couriers or management steal illegal drugs from shipments”?

Al, “ Yes many times, both couriers and management at Fedex”.

Gary, “where did you go for management training while at Fedex”?

Al, “ Olive Branch Mississippi.”

Gary, “is there any incident that sticks out from that training”?

AL, “yeah there is, we were asked if we had any questions, a woman manager raised her hand and asked if our retirement package was going to improve because it wasn’t really that good as it was. Fred Smith tore into her like she was dirt, he went into a rage because someone would question Fedex’s policy. He just totally humiliated her in front of everyone. He beat her down so hard she quit. After that everyone was afraid to ask anymore questions.

Gary,” Al did you ever hear the word Nigger used while in management training in Olive Branch?”

AL,” yeah and even more racial words and phrases. If there were Blacks in the room they talked nice to them, but if none were present or it was in a private conversation, management down there implied that the Blacks were lowering the standards at Fedex and there shouldn’t be too many in management”.

Gary, “ after the training in Olive Branch did you receive any more management training anywhere else”?

AL, “ some in the King of Prussia District headquarters in Pennsylvania and often in the station where I was a manager”.

Gary, “ what were some of the things you were taught by the district director”?

AL, “ Remember, we are always right, never admit wrong. Fire ANYONE and EVERYONE who causes problems or questions managements decisions. If you can’t find a reason to fire someone...make up a reason and fire them.

Gary, “as a manager who did you report to on a daily basis”?

AL, “ a senior station manager, Mike Mitchell was my senior station manager.

Gary, “so Mike Mitchell got his orders from the District Director, who got his orders from the Eastern Region and the Eastern Region got their orders directly from Headquarters in Memphis”?

AL, “ that’s right, not a lot of a ladder at Fedex”.

Gary, “ did your senior station manager every give you orders concerning the policy on Blacks”?

AL, “yes, that I was not to hire them. Fedex didn’t want a lot of Black couriers.

Gary, “ so Mike Mitchell, the senior station manager told you straight out that you were not to hire Blacks”?

AL, “ yes...well he called them Niggers, Mike said I was not to hire any Niggers unless instructed to by him . Otherwise I was to tell them we weren’t hiring”.

Gary, “did he tell you those instructions were from district headquarters”?

AL, “He left me with no doubt they were, he certainly implied they were, and NO station manager would adopt a policy like that on his own. Orders and policy are sent down from company headquarters only. No manager makes decisions on his own, the decisions are made at the top and passed down. Of course some policies are not written on paper. So no one can follow a paper trail.

Gary, “ were you shocked or surprised at this policy against Blacks”?

AL, “ yes I was real surprised, and I didn’t like it but I was younger and I had just made manager and I had a home and a family to provide for. I didn’t like it but I was afraid of losing my job so I kept my mouth shut. Also I had worked at Fedex for a long time and I was used to seeing Blacks getting screwed and discriminated against...held back and so forth. What I think really surprised me was that it was company policy...and yet it did seem as though it always was that way.

Gary, “ did he say anything else about Blacks”?

AL, “ well, one of the main things was they wanted to avoid having too many blacks in management and absolutely none in our station. That they had to have a few as tokens...but only as few as absolutely necessary.

Gary, “ how did Fedex manage to keep the Blacks out of management”?

AL, “ easy, give them lower scores on their evaluations, usually on paperwork but it could be anything. You would overlook clerical errors on white couriers paperwork, and embellish the clerical errors and other minor things on Black couriers paperwork. Mark them down for things like having their shirt tails out, having a truck door open, numerous ways to do it”.

Gary, “ you mean they intentionally gave the Blacks lower grades compared to whites”.

AL, “ I only know what I was told. That it was company policy”.

Gary, “do you think you were the only Fedex manager told to do that Al”?

AL, “ no I don’t, I’m sure I wasn’t. And I know over the years at Fedex I’ve both seen and heard of many better performing Black couriers getting lower performance evaluations then their white counterparts who weren‘t nearly as good. Even I was promoted ahead of better performing Blacks, my paperwork was very sloppy and I did a lot of things wrong that would have kept a Black out of management. Yet I was white and they needed a manager so I was promoted ahead of more deserving and better Black couriers”.

Gary, “ when your senior station manager told you not to hire Blacks...did he warn you not to tell anyone about it”?

AL, “ it was an unwritten rule, we weren’t even to tell our wives. It was understood just like you NEVER said you liked JEWS. Certain things at Fedex just weren’t acceptable.”

Gary, “wait a minute Al, did you mean that saying you liked Jews or had Jewish friends wasn’t acceptable at Fedex?”

Al, “that’s exactly what I’m saying Gary, you worked there, did you ever see a Jew working there...no!!! Management at Fedex hated Jews and if you said you liked them or said something good about them...well it just might result in your removal from management at Fedex. They can’t always control what the couriers think, but if you’re in management and you let management know that you are pro Jewish...well chances are you’ll go out the door before you go up the ladder in management at Fedex. You’ll find very few Jews working there that’s for sure.

Gary, “ did you ever question the policy against hiring Blacks, did you ever talk to your district director about it”?

AL “ well actually I did yes, we were breaking from a meeting in King of Prussia. I asked him why Fedex didn’t hire more Blacks into management or as workers. He said that Blacks just don’t fit Fedex’s mode. That Fedex is a “young white progressive” company and that Blacks didn’t fit the mode...that they would slow down the company’s progress”.

Gary, “ did he say anything else about Blacks”?

AL, “ other things too, but what I mostly remember is his warning me about not telling anyone. He warned me that if I EVER told anyone about it that Fedex would come after me, that I would be fired and I would never work for anyone ever again. And that Fedex lawyers would come after me and ruin my reputation, it really scared me to be honest”.

Gary, “ going back to your station manager Mike Mitchell, would he be what you consider an alcoholic”?

AL, “ yeah Mike was an alcoholic, he would come to work drunk often”.

Gary, “in regard to Black employees at Fedex or even Black applicants did Mike ever ask you while you were a manager, if a Black smelled or stunk”?

AL, “ yeah he would always ask... [does that nigger smell or does the nigger speak Caucasian ] and he never asked that about white employees. It was as though all Whites smelled fine and all Blacks stunk.”

Gary, “ was it common for you to hear Fedex management refer to Blacks as Niggers”?

Al, “ yes all the time as a courier and even more as a manager. When there was a management meeting in which there were no Blacks present it almost seemed like it was more of a Klan meeting than a company meeting. It seemed that management was more concerned with putting down Blacks than anything else. It seemed they all tried to out do each other with stories about this or that “stupid nigger” or how they screwed this or that nigger. Or how there was getting to be too many niggers at Fedex etc. It was pretty disgusting to be honest. And when they went out to lunch, there seemed to be a contest to see who could use the word nigger the most, it was like the old time southern pictures when Blacks were talked about and thought of as less that human.

Gary, “ what other names did you hear management use to describe Blacks at Fedex”?

AL, “ just about all of them, Jungle Bunny, Porch Monkey, Baboon, Apes, Spear Chucker..you name it they used it and often. Just NEVER to a Blacks face. Yet... when they were in the presence of Blacks...they pretended they were their friends.

Gary, “ in your sixteen years at Fedex as a courier or as a manager did you ever hear of anyone being reprimanded for using racial slurs”?

AL, “ no...in fact I know of a Black guy, a friend of mine by the name of Kevin Brownly who got a letter of reprimand because he said something back to a white woman at the Philadelphia airport ramp. The woman was white and she called him a “LAZY NIGGER” and when he said something back to her because she called him a nigger he got a letter for it. She never got any reprimand even though there was proof that she called him a nigger. Management did nothing to her.

Gary, “ is there a lot of ‘NP’ equipment at Fedex”?

AL, “ I was told there was ‘NP’ equipment at Fedex. An engineer at Fedex told me there was ‘NP’ equipment at Fedex yes. He said that ‘NP’ stood for “Nigger Proof” meaning that if a Black person could use ‘NP’ equipment anyone could. Only he didn’t use the word Black. We had been talking about the tracker/scanners couriers use and he informed me that they were engineered to be ‘NP’ Nigger Proof”. Otherwise ( the engineer ) he said,” we’d have to fire ALL the niggers at Fedex”.

Gary, “ was that a common way of thinking by white management at Fedex”?

AL, “ well in my sixteen years at Fedex as a courier and in management...it was the ONLY way of thinking about Blacks by Fedex management. I was even told that by others in Fedex management.”.

Gary, “ a few years ago I was having a conversation with a white member of Fedex management in New Jersey, in the course of the conversation he made the statement ( BBF the niggers ). Al, what does ‘BBF’ stand for”?

AL, “ it was explained to me that BB&F had a double meaning and was to be used by white managers against Black employees. It stood for Basketball, Boxing and Football and it also stood for Bullshit the Blacks and Fuck’em.

Gary, “ could you explain to me how it worked”?

AL, “Fedex management believed that if a white manager talked to Blacks about one of those sports they would win their hearts and minds. That Blacks were easily won over and fooled if you spoke sports to them. And then they would cause less problems”.

Gary, “ when you say cause less problems what do you mean”?

AL, “ less complaints, less GFT’s , less lawsuits if they got fired etc. Get the Blacks to think the white managers were their friends and they wouldn’t cause problems”.

Gary,” did management use this BB&F tool on the whites too”?

AL, “ no, not really it was intended to use on the Blacks”.

Gary, “ what about Fedex’s GFT procedure and their personnel reps“?

Al,” the GFT is an internal grievance procedure...and it’s a joke. Let me give YOU an example...when you filed a GFT grievance against unfair treatment by management Darcell Cardwell was the ‘Personnel Rep’. You discussed details of the grievance with her. You as many other Fedex’s employees believed she was there to help you and I’m sure that you confided many things to her as one would do to their lawyer. She made you believe that some of the things you were telling her were strictly secret between you and her.

Gary,” yes that’s right. She even told me to tell her everything I knew, and that she wouldn’t tell management anything I didn’t want her to. That she was there for me not management”.

AL, “ well she would go to us ( management ) and tell us everything you said...we would even laugh about it...how foolish the couriers were and about some of the things they would tell her. Gary, she was paid by Fedex and worked for Fedex...I’m sure helping an employee was never part of her job”.

Gary, “ sounds like the personnel reps are nothing more than a tool to pump information out of the employees for management”.

AL, “ exactly ...and to keep Fedex out of lawsuits”.

Gary, “as a courier or as a member of Fedex management have you actually seen a Black person held back or not given a job just because that person was Black”?

AL, “ yes Gary LOTS of times. Numerous times I’ve seen Blacks come into the station and ask if there was any positions open or was Fedex hiring. And they were told Fedex wasn’t hiring or that the position had been filled...when in fact there were openings but they were only hiring ‘whites’. It happened ALL the time. I’m sure it still does today”.

Gary, “ what about management positions have you actually seen Blacks passed over or held back strictly because they were Black”?

AL, “ yes Blacks were passed over for promotions many times just because they were Black”. Charles Dorsey was Black, and several times he was passed over just because he was Black. He was passed over for a sales position , a managers positions. And he would have been perfect for those positions. He was very smart, clean looking, he was tall with a loud clear voice...in short, he was a sharp clean looking Black man who spoke well and clearly. A good family man too. But...he was Black and to management he was just another ‘nigger’ who didn’t fit Fedex’s mode.

It was a shame because Charles was a class guy.

Gary, “ I remember when I worked in the ILG station in Delaware and they needed a manager on the evening shift. At the time I though maybe Charles would be offered the job. But what management actually did was...they brought in a white guy from the Philadelphia area who had never even been in the station before. Did he have much experience”?

AL, “ very little if any at all. They had to teach him everything and he had to learn nearly everything. And Charles already knew everything he had years of experience and was VERY good at it. But he was Black and he never had a chance at the job”.

Gary, “ if Charles had been white would he have been considered for the position”?

AL, “ he would have had the position...he was perfect for the position ... education, knowledge, experience, excellent skills and he was clean cut...he had it ALL except ...he was Black. They wouldn’t even consider him”.

Gary, “can you give me another example”?

AL, “ Sure. There was a Black cargo handler. He had college was also clean and very well spoken. He was working full time as a sales representative for the McCormick seasoning company and doing very well. But at the time they would only hire him on to handle freight part time at night. He was a hard worker. He worked for McCormick in the daytime in sales and yet at Fedex he was only a cargo handler part time at night.

A sales position came open in the station and I know he asked management about it but they wouldn’t even consider it. Mike ( senior station manager ) said no way, I don’t care if he is in sales, there will be no niggers in management here. He was Black and he never stood a chance.

Management brought in a white guy that didn’t even work in the company. Just to make sure a Black stayed at cargo handler”. Mike said company policy didn’t want many Blacks in management and he especially didn’t want any ‘nigger’s in management in his station.”

Gary, “ so Mike would actually say to you that he wouldn’t allow Blacks in management in his station”?

AL, “ yes he did...he actually said a number of times that he didn’t want any dammed nigger managers in his station, that he didn’t want to have to deal with them or be around them. This is a common thought with white Fedex management even today. It’s just a little bit more sophisticated today. I believe even there’s a group of Black Fedex workers in Memphis that have a discrimination lawsuit against Fedex”.

Gary, “ what is the lawsuit about”?

AL, “ it’s mostly by Black cargo handlers in Memphis. It seems that Fedex keeps so many of the Blacks in the lowest paying positions and keeps them doing the hardest dirtiest work there. It’s more like ‘slave labor’ very hard work and very low pay. And they’re mostly supervised by whites. No different than the plantation days I guess. I’m surprised that Fred Smith doesn’t offer the Black workers beds in the ‘Slave Quarters’ on his plantation.

Gary, “ you know...basically, it seems that Fedex management is telling the Blacks that you are ‘too stupid’ to manage yourself. That you need to have superior white people over you to tell you what to do and how’.

AL, “ not basically, that’s exactly what they are telling them. Fedex is saying that Blacks are stupid and whites are much smarter”. A white work force which comprises approximately ten percent of the cargo handlers in Memphis is smarter than the other ninety percent of the work force (Blacks) simply because they are white”.

Gary, “ if a white manager did an unfair or biased evaluation on a Black employee, wasn’t that manager afraid that the Black employee would file a discrimination against the company”?

AL, “ well, that’s one area where the BB&F management tool came into play. Management knew that Blacks were loyal and believed they could easily be fooled. So if a white manager talked Basketball, Boxing, or Football to a Black employee and the Black believed the manager was his friend, that manager felt he could get away with giving lower evaluations to Blacks”. Although sometimes I think the Blacks knew the white manager didn’t like them, and they were just afraid of losing their jobs. Fact is the Blacks had to be better, do better and not make mistakes. Many times I made mistakes that a Black worker would have been fired for...and yet because I was white nothing happened to me. I’ve seen it happen a lot that a Black would get fired for doing the same exact thing that a white courier was getting away with and management knew it.

Gary, “ didn’t it make Blacks feel inferior when they repeatedly saw their white co- workers get better grades and promotions? They were doing their best yet it seems they always came up as being not as good as the whites.

AL, “ yeah...I guess it did but that wasn’t the intention. It was just Fedex’s way to keep Blacks out of management. And it made it easier to fire them of course...but also I think it was just thought of as a way to keep them ( Blacks ) in line. In the colonial days they used a whip to keep Blacks in line...at Fedex they used a ‘pen’ like a whip. It was a way to keep them in line...letters in your file, every little thing that might be used to keep them out of management or to fire them. The pen was the modern day whip”.

Gary, “ funny you brought that up...doesn’t Fred Smith the founder and CEO of Fedex live on a plantation that has slave quarters on it”?

AL, “ yeah I read that and others have told me that too”.

Gary, “ but doesn’t Fedex have a Black man as a top personnel guy?” Wouldn’t he look after the welfare of his fellow Blacks? Make sure they are treated fairly?

AL, “ I have no idea what he’s up to. But I do know that within the company many times he’s referred to as ‘Fred’s House Nigger’ and he was there so that Fedex wouldn’t have to fear the Blacks because they had one in a key position in personnel. Believe me, he’s no Reverend Jesse Jackson. I honestly don’t believe he cares one bit about the Blacks. He’s right there in Memphis and that’s where the discrimination lawsuit is. So what’s he doing to help his fellow Blacks?

Gary, “ so what you’re saying is that he was just a Black man bought off by a rich white man”?

AL, “ that’s exactly what I’m saying...he was bought off. They’re paying him good money”.

Gary, “ Al as a former member of Fedex management and having worked there for sixteen years, what do you think Fedex will do after they find out about this interview”?

AL, “ I guess like they do about everyone who tells the truth on them. First thing they’ll say is that I’m a disgruntled former employee, as some others will think too. Then they’ll try to sue me and or you. The threats will come as you have already found out. Maybe they’ll bring out a few loyal company Blacks and parade them around so they can say what a great company Fedex is. How they have helped so many Blacks. Fedex does have a very powerful public relations firm. In years past a lot of people believed them. But today more and more people and employees are beginning to see the truth. And the truth is Fedex treats Blacks terribly...about what you would normally expect from a southern white plantation owner. For so many years Black workers at Fedex have poured their hearts and souls into Fedex and white management has always screwed them , called them names, told jokes about them behind their backs and not only about them but also their wives and children. They even make fun of Blacks in management, all Blacks but even more so if they were dark Black...the darker a Black was the less human he was ... white management actually thought of and treated Blacks as ‘less than human’. God... it was despicable...it made me sick to my stomach. I only wish I had had more courage to speak up before.

So let Fedex bitch...let them sue me. I’ve told the truth. Hopefully I will be able to go to my grave with one less burden on my soul. One less feeling of guilt.

Gary, “ Al, did you ever come to realize that many of the same Blacks that were discriminated against and screwed by white Fedex management , were denied jobs because they were Black, were called niggers and worse, were made fun of and thought of as less than human.......were the same Blacks that went to war for America, that some were wounded perhaps crippled, that some put their lives on the line for America while serving our country”? Only to come back and be treated as less than human by racist white Fedex management?

AL, “ yes I realize it...and it’s not right”.

Gary, “ Al as a former member of Fedex management...what would you say to a Black employee of Fedex if a white manager came up to him and started talking about Basketball, Boxing, or Football”?

AL, “ I would tell the Black Fedex employee... not to trust that white manager. Because, chances are, that manager is just trying to ‘ Bullshit the Black so he can Fuck him. I would bet the white manager is BB&F’ing the Black worker. I would tell him...just remember they are NEVER your friends, NEVER. And never trust them.

The Book...

This book is about my experiences as a courier for Federal Express ( which in this book will be referred to as FEDEX ). Much of what is in this book I have seen and experienced first hand. Some is from talking to other Fedex employees and former employees. Other information was gathered from Fedex customers, the FBI, the AFOSI ( Air Force Office of Special Investigations ), and also a number of other government offices. And a variety of other sources. Even today I regularly talk to Fedex employees all across America and they tell me about the many wrongs by Fedex management and about the many thefts and drugs within the company.

While it is expected that in any work place there would be some degree of non truth, drug abuse and theft, never in my life would I have ever expected the amount of Racism, Lying, Stealing and Drug Abuse as I found at Fedex. Not only among the couriers but also within management. Many times, I had to secretly tape record conversations with others so that they wouldn’t LIE about events later on.

Some will ask...why am I writing this book? There are a lot of reasons. One is that I feel certain now that Fedex management conspired to defraud the military and other government branches, the business sector and the America people. And there are so many other lies that Fedex has told. This book is an attempt to tell...the “TRUTH” about Fedex. I realize that with Fedex spending millions annually on advertisements that I will have a very difficult time getting people to believe the “REAL TRUTH”.

The BIBLE tells us Jesus Christ had a similar problem... perhaps this book will help

Something which I would really like to know is.... How can hundreds perhaps thousands of Fedex employees all across America not only DEFRAUD but actually BETRAY America and compromise the security of classified Military shipments and the safety of it’s brave servicemen? That’s exactly what they have done. Not once but thousands of times week after week, month after month and year after year. I believe Fedex would still be betraying and cheating America out of millions if not billions of dollars today, if it weren’t for one... “honest courier.”

And what happened to those couriers and Fedex management when the truth was told? Fred Smith and Fedex didn’t have the honesty or decency to come forward and say... “yes we did something terribly bad, we knew it and were wrong to do it... and here’s all of your money back America?” “We are very sorry for betraying America because we are greedy and have no morals.”

Instead Fedex tried to intimidate and coerce an honest family man when they threatened to put him, his wife and his two small children out in the street because he dared to tell the truth. Dared to stop crimes against his country. The one man who felt it was wrong to betray America and it’s servicemen and tried to stop it. Also, why did those Fedex employees harass and threaten to KILL the one man in ALL the company that stood up and said, “that’s enough Federal Express, stop Betraying and Cheating America, it’s brave soldiers and it’s people”.

NOTE Since I exposed the Fraud , Theft and Drugs within Federal Express they have decided to change their name to FEDEX. Please realize that Fedex and Federal Express are the same company with the same CEO. A different name, but still the same despicable company that cheated America and betrayed it soldiers.

Contents of Book...

(1) What I have learned about Fred Smith. How and when he forged the signature of another man and lied to get millions of dollars. And how he was indicted for it. That while driving without a license he hit and killed a Black man. He left the Black man to die in the street like an animal. (would he have stopped if he were white?)

(2) How couriers and managers go through Federal Express shipments for illegal drugs and other valuables to steal. ( documented by tape recording )

(3) How another courier taught me to “feel” Courier pak Envelopes and Overnight letters for drugs and valuables ( to steal ) on my first day at work.

(4) I was taught by my manager to cheat customers by lying about the weight of a shipment so that the customer would be charged extra money. ( REVENUE )

(5) Read how “druggie thieving couriers” nearly get an innocent courier killed by Mafia connected drug dealer.

(6) Fedex courier Helen Wilson told of her “first” performance review with her manager. While making deliveries she told him she was getting ready to deliver a drug shipment. Helen said her manager ripped open the package and stole most of the “POT” and told her to deliver the rest to the drug dealer. Then they drove to her place and got a pipe and stayed stoned while doing deliveries. She was pissed...she said she only got a 4.0 and that she should have gotten a 7.0 for stealing drugs with her manager. She bragged of stealing many illegal drugs from Fedex shipments.

* At the time of this writing Helen is still a courier for Fedex.

7) Read how “anyone” can ship illegal drugs through Fedex safely.

(8) Read how anyone can ship through Fedex for free and not get caught.

(9) How the FBI asked me to help them find a $100,000 gold shipment that they said was stolen by someone at Federal Express. Shipped by Bank of Delaware for Sachs.

(10) How Black couriers were given “smiles” to their faces. But when they weren’t around they were called “Nigger’s and Monkeys and more” . ( on Tape )

(11) How Fedex Senior Station Manager Stephanie Seberg of the Wilmington, Delaware station had to be put under bodyguard protection to keep her alive. She was receiving death threats from within the station. Threats so serious that Liberty District Director Julio Colombo had to call in his BEST investigators and other Management personnel. Read how COLOMBO’S men BEGGED ME to help them save Stephanie Seberg. I told them how to save her life...they wouldn’t do it ...so Stephanie fled the job, fled the state, fled the region, ran for her life.

( were illegal drugs and thefts involved ?)

(12) The big CSS rip-off. I was repeatedly told by management and courier alike to defraud and betray the U.S. Military and America. I collected what evidence I could, then I went to the Military to stop it. ( REAL documents which actually show Fedex committing fraud against the United States Military ).

(13) You will see documents never before seen by the public detailing Fedex’s suspension and other investigations of CSS violations.

(14) You will see a report from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations Department of Defense detailing 100% violation of eight separate nationwide investigations of Fedex’s CSS service. (documented).

(15) A key document which shows that Fedex was lying to their customers civilian and military, about the phony CSS service as far back as 1986 and before. One document that Fedex doesn’t want anyone to see.

(16) Many, many complaints ( government, military, and civilian ) about the phony CSS service. Stolen and tampered with CSS shipments too. ( documented )

(17) Learn how Fedex “Lied” to the Department of Defense Inspectors General (DOD/IG) attorney for the Office of Special Investigations about important evidence (documents) it was subpoenaed to supply. And how it was “caught in that lie”. (documented) and learn why they lied about documents. ( hiding the DD1907’s)

(18) General John Stanford... The commander of the Military Traffic Management Command. He was supposed to be protecting Americas classified military shipments and safeguarding their security. Yet a Fedex memo said he was

“their ally” ( documented). Did he quash an Air Force Office of Special Investigations report which documented 100% contract violations by Fedex nationwide? Who’s side was he really on and did he illegally help Fedex with their military contracts or bids?

There is just too much to list here but the book will be filled with personal accounts and documents which may change the way you look at Fedex forever.

I would like to explain now as will soon become apparent, that I am not a professional writer. So as you read my book, if you should come across a grammatical error or a misspelled word , please try to remember it is not that of a professional writer, but rather that of an “Honest Family Man” trying to get the “TRUTH OUT” as best that he can about a company that is so corrupt and unscrupulous that that they have been awarded the title...”Rottenest Most UN-American Company in America” . Just recently I have begun to receive requests for my book through Literary Agents and hopefully soon it will be in a more formal and professional manner. And in a bookstore near you.

Thank You

AND ANOTHER UPDATE.....

IN April, of 2000 the DEA ( Drug Enforcement Agency ) made a major BUST of many Fedex employees and management. It seems FEDEX EMPLOYEES had a MAJOR NATIONWIDE DRUG DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM in place and were shipping millions (if not billions ) of dollars of drugs across America. RIGHT INTO OUR NEIGHBORHOODS AND INTO THE HANDS and BODIES OF OUR CHILDREN. I don’t believe the DEA got even one ten thousandth of the Illegal Drugs delivered by Fedex couriers every day. KEEP FEDEX COURIERS OUT OF YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD THEY DELIVER ILLEGAL DRUGS TO OUR CHILDREN.

IF NOT BUSTED BY THE DEA ...IN ONLY ONE OPERATION FEDEX WOULD HAVE BROUGHT INTO OUR NEIGHBORHOODS TO OUR CHILDREN

170 TONS OF MARIJUANA JUST TO THE EAST COAST

140 MILLION DOLLARS IN VALUE

MANY FEDEX EMPLOYEES ( HOW MANY IN MANAGEMENT ? )

FEDEX WAS A DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

4000 SHIPMENTS OF DRUGS IN JUST THIS BUST

REVENUE TO FEDEX ...IF SHIPMENTS WERE PAID FOR...$500,000.00

While working at the FEDEX Philadelphia Airport I was told and soon realized that Fedex employees were flying on Fedex airplanes to meet up with drug dealers. and buying illegal drugs. By flying on Fedex airplanes they knew they could travel from city to city all across America with no fear of being caught by DEA or airport security personnel. So if you did read or hear about the major nationwide DRUG bust of Fedex employees ...realize this, the very next business day Fedex couriers were still delivering Illegal Drugs into YOUR neighborhood.

It was my first day at Federal Express and I was looking forward to starting work with a big new company. I had been told that it was a good place to work and the pay and benefits were okay. My wife had just given birth to a son and we looked forward to the security that a big company would provide.

I had met my new supervisor and he seemed nice enough. It was early afternoon

and he had asked me to wait outside the office in the freight area while he was taking

care of something. So I wandered around in the building where they parked the trucks

and handled all the incoming and out going freight. There was a courier there and he was

doing something with the freight in his van. Usually the day drivers went

out in the morning and spent the mornings delivering freight and the afternoons picking

up packages that would be driven to the airport later that night. While the evening drivers

were usually part timers that mostly did pickups, new guys like me , that worked their

way unto the daytime routes as they became available.

I walked over to a courier and introduced myself , " hi", I

said " my name is Gary and I'm starting here today".

"Hi , I'm Tony, how 're you doing" ?

"Good" I replied , "how is it here ?

"Not bad , well at times it's not too bad, but sometimes you have to be careful" .

"There's a lot of funny stuff that goes on here ".

"What do you mean " I asked.

He looked around the station as if to see who was watching or who might be there.

. "Well", he said , "lots of guys here will steal your shit , and you have to be careful”.

"They 'll go right into you're truck and take it if it's something they want or take it off the

belt before it gets to you, you just have to be careful , always", he said.

"What do you mean , steal what", I asked , not sure exactly what he was talking about.

"You know , your packages , jewelry ,money , drugs, anything that they want", he

said as he looked around the building. "man you have to watch your stuff all the time ,

these guys will steal anything not nailed down".

"But I don't do drugs”, I stated, not really sure if this was a trick test or some kind

of setup the company used to check on their new employees before they sent them on the

road.

"I mean the drugs in your shipments , there's always a lot of drugs in the

shipments and these guy take them or part of the drugs and deliver the rest, that way the

shipments keep on coming in". "You'll learn once you're here for awhile, Federal ships a

lot of illegal drugs, an awful lot”.

"Wow I never thought of that" , I said, "don't they call in the cops ?"

"Not very often, most times the guys just take them for themselves", he replied ,

"it pretty rare that they turn in what they find. Want me to teach you how to feel

packages ", he asked.

"What do you mean", I asked , I had just completed two weeks of courier school

training and no one had ever mentioned (feeling a package).

"You know, feel a package to see what's inside", Tony said as a matter of fact.

“Once you get good at it you can almost always tell what's inside. You know like if it's a

overnight letter or a courier pak envelope you just feel it and see if it's money or

jewelry or if it feels like drugs. Lots of times you can tell and you just open up the

package and take it. Lots of people do it , you can get some neat stuff that way".

"You mean , that you can tell what a package has in it just by feeling it", I asked ,

not quite sure what to make of this conversation.

"Oh yeah , look", he said as he took out his wallet and put it in a courier perk

envelope and sealed it ," now feel this letter , you know what a wallet feels like , could

this be a wallet “, he asked.

"Well yes," I said , "it does feel like a wallet now that you think about it", but

what if it's not ?"

"No problem , you just put it in another Courier pak and send it on it's way,

nobody knows and nobody cares", he replied. "Look man everybody does it , a lot of the

guys do and some of the girls here too". "And you can usually tell if it's money or

drugs too , it's easy after awhile. "I've seen some real nice jewelry come out of the

freight ".

I looked at him and I realized he was probably telling the truth, I also felt that he

too may be one of the guys stealing the freight , he had an awful lot of knowledge about

it . Just about then my new manager came out of the office and called me over to him.

He looked at me and said, "let's go check out a van and go on a safety training

ride so you can start your new adventure with Federal Express”.

"Great ", I said, anxious to get started and at the same time I felt a little uneasy.

The feeling passed after awhile . But as I look back , my first feeling and thoughts , that

maybe this isn't such a great company after all were a lot truer than I would ever have

imagined.

LESSON ...A LOT OF FEDERAL EXPRESS COURIERS FEEL PACKAGES AND STEAL VALUABLES FROM SHIPMENTS. SOMETIMES MONEY AND JEWELRY AND SOMETIMES ILLEGAL DRUGS....

The next night I reported to work I was sent out with another courier. His route

was the one I would be taking over. He was moving down to day shift to do deliveries.

His name was Tom Anglin a straight king of guy. He was very serious about his job and

he did it well. The route covered an area in the south and northeast section of

Wilmington and slightly above it running all the way to the Delaware River. The route

consisted of private residences , businesses , and even a factory or two.

During the evening we were given a pickup to do in the lower part of Wilmington. As we pulled up to the address there was a group of blacks standing on the corner and they looked at the van. Tom told me to just stay with the van as he went to do the pickup. Soon he came back without incident and put the shipment in the back of the van. As we drove away he glanced at the people on the street and said how stupid the niggers were. That when they saw “Federal “ on the van they thought it only delivered welfare checks. “Niggers are stupid and always will be”, he stated, “that’s why they’ll never get anywhere”. He went on to state how lazy they were and how they were always stealing , that’s why you had to always watch your van real close when they were around. I asked him if that was why they sent in a truck with two men in it tonight and he laughed. “No”, he replied, “ Federal wouldn’t pay two couriers to a do a single pickup no matter how many niggers were on the street”.

After we returned to the station that night I helped the others get the freight ready

for the trip up to the Philadelphia ramp. That's where the planes were that would fly the

freight down to Memphis , to be sorted.

At about 9:30pm I left the station and walked to my van which was parked

inside a fenced area . I started it then pulled out onto the roadway to go home. The wind

was coming into the truck on the passenger side. Funny, I didn't remember leaving the

window down. No I couldn't have, I had locked the doors when I got out , so the windows

must have been up. When I looked over I saw where the wind was coming from.

Someone had broken my window. I looked under my seat to check for my radar detector

and sure enough it was gone. Some first night out on a route I remember thinking. Who

could have broke my window and taken my radar detector? There was no one in the area

but my co-workers, surely they wouldn't steal from a fellow employee. Or so I thought.

The next day I asked a few guys in the station if they had any ideas of who might

have done it. A few guys said it was a bummer and that I had to be careful. One courier

just smiled at me and said it was probably just one of the guys saying, "welcome new

guy". I asked him if he honestly thought it was a courier that broke my window and stole

my radar detector and he replied that yes , probably it was. It was nothing new, that lots

of stuff was stolen from the parking lot.

LESSON........NEVER, REALLY TRUST A FEDERAL EXPRESS COURIER.

It wasn't long before I was running my own route with the other evening couriers,

going out on the run around 3:30 PM and returning around 7:30 PM . Then I would help

sort the freight with the other drivers and get it ready for the trip to the Philadelphia

airport which was about 20 miles away. From there it would be flown to Memphis for

resorting and then flown back out to the airport of the state where it was going to be

delivered.

I had learned a lot in just a few months and felt comfortable on my route but there

were just too many things going on for me to relax completely.

It seems that there was always a lot of talk about DRUGS. Mostly about

COCAINE and POT going on , not only in the station but also on the 2way radios we

carried in our vans . Sometimes I had to wait for the other couriers to finish making a

drug deal or just to finish talking about some they had tried or were going to get and try.

And since most of them were daytime couriers with a lot more time and connections than

me , I felt it was better that I just wait for the radio to clear. As I didn't want to jeopardize

my job or my health over a pickup. It was bad enough that I had to constantly check my

truck for leftover drugs or drugs paraphernalia .

Often , when I did a pretrip check on the truck I was going to be driving that night

I would find leftover joints or empty bags from cocaine or speed. And sometimes there

were whole joints and the bags were not empty at all and that really scared me as I didn't

know what to do with them. On the one hand I didn't want to piss off the courier who left

it there if I threw the stuff away, and on the other I knew I couldn't go to management

in the station as several of them had already told me that they got high and it was okay

For all I knew I could soon be out of a job . So most times I just put it in the truck in the

box where I kept the P1stickers so the owners would eventually find it the next day .

Hopefully before they got off their shift and came looking for me.

LESSON....ALWAYS CHECK YOUR FEDEX VAN FOR ILLEGAL DRUGS

Another thing that bothered me in the beginning , after I had figured out what

was going on, was that sometimes when I got into a truck to do a pretrip , there would be

a number of empty overnight letters or courier paks ( the two pound envelopes) in the

small trash cans we kept in the trucks. Sometimes when I got into a truck there would be

a half dozen or more opened and empty with just the clear plastic envelope stuck to the

side and a three letter designation code written on it. sometimes it was our (ILG) three

letter code meaning it had come to our station from someplace else or another three letter

code meaning it was going to another station. When I first saw it I didn't think too much

about it , but then one day it dawned on me that the couriers were going into the

shipments for the contents. I realized what was happening one day as I was leaving my

station on my route and was both scared and mad , thinking that I might get blamed for

stealing from the packages . But as I continued on my route and into the evening

I settled down and figured that even if I did get blamed for it I would demand a polygraph

test, both for me and the last courier to use the truck. Later on I realized just how stupid

that idea was. Still I tried to get rid of the opened packages when I did my pretrip as best

as I could. Like I said "I never could really relax" not as a courier for Federal Express.

I later learned that the United Parcel Service ( UPS ) has a separate group of people that load the trucks for the drivers that deliver the packages. These are people that come into the UPS terminals “empty handed” and when they leave they have to walk out to their personal vehicles so there is less chance to steal shipments. And at UPS the freight isn’t loaded by the drivers so the drivers can’t steal someone else’s freight.

While, at Federal Express the couriers stood by the conveyor belt when the truck is unloaded and “grab” the freight as it comes down the belt and throw it into their truck. So if for instance I was the third guy from the truck on the belt and standing at the back door of my truck ( the trucks are backed up to the conveyor belt ) and I saw a TV or a computer coming down the conveyor belt and it was supposed to be going to truck number ten which is further on down the belt. I could grab the TV, computer, jewelry etc. and no one would know it. Then drive out of the station with it and no one would know. Because the driver of truck number ten has no way of knowing what shipments he has coming in that day. And most times no one has any idea what shipments a courier puts into his truck that morning. A lot of times I have grabbed shipments and put them into another couriers truck as a favor. And many times someone else has put shipments into mine for me to deliver without my knowledge of who put them there.

One Christmas season when some of us were talking about getting our Christmas shopping finished with all the extra deliveries coming in at Christmas time and many of us being so busy. One courier bragged ... “hey , I do my best shopping right here on the belt ...the prices are great and it saves time, why go anywhere else”?. And I’m sure he wasn’t the only courier doing it.

After I was there a short while , one of the managers asked me if I would drive the

freight to the ramp at the Philadelphia airport and help them load the planes. I was

still part time and needed the money and I said yes. In time I found out that it was fun

working at the ramp and meeting other couriers from the other stations. They would

come from Philadelphia of course and New Jersey and it seems like I even saw a couple

of guys from Maryland hauling two day freight. It’s what we call P2 freight. And even

though loading the planes was a lot of work it was kind of fun too. What surprised me

most though was that you could buy almost anything there , it was almost like an open

drug market. That is, if they trusted you . At first they seemed like just a bunch of regular

guys and they are to some extent . But after they felt comfortable with me , some of them

started asking me if I got high or did I get any good stuff today (meaning drugs ) and

most times I just replied that, "no not today , but you guys know the day time guys get all

the good stuff". Lots of times I was offered free pot but told that if I wanted

cocaine I had to buy it as it costs too much. ( I didn’t do drugs ) And I can't even count how many times someone tried to sell me a watch or a radar detector "fresh off the belt" they would say , meaning the conveyor belt where the freight was loaded and unloaded . I was also offered TV's , computers, and lots and lots of jewelry , almost anything you could put in a box or wrap paper around. I even saw couriers stealing the freight at the airport and slipping away with it , and no I didn't say anything to management about it . After all who could I trust and besides just one word and I would never come back to the ramp again. I used the old , I don't see nothing, hear nothing, know nothing approach . What I saw had been going on long before I got there and I was sure it would continue long after I left.

LESSON.... THE FEDERAL EXPRESS RAMP IN PHILADELPHIA WAS A GOOD MEETING PLACE FOR DRUGGIE COURIERS, AND THIEVES.

Sometimes after I left the airport and returned to the station I would find several

of the other couriers hanging around the station . Some might be playing ping pong

while others were just hanging out. Often I would think to myself, "don't these guys have

a life”, to be hanging around your work place hours after you 'you've gotten off work

seemed pretty dumb to me. After I parked my truck , I would do my paperwork

while we all hung around the ping pong table. There was always a lot of joking going on

and the guys seemed to be in a GREAT mood.

A couple of times after I returned to the station I thought that I had smelled

marijuana but wasn't sure . Several of my co- workers on the evening shift had already

told me that they got high and had even offered to "hook- up" with me while we were

doing pickups so we could get high together. I didn’t do drugs so I usually just told them

that I was too busy and maybe next time. Other times I would say that pot got me too

messed up and I wouldn't be able to keep track of my pick ups. So smelling pot in the

station didn't really surprise me, but I do think that it surprised me that they were so

blatant about it. After a while, probably when they felt safe with me they would light up

the joints right in front of me and several times I witnessed them snorting a white powder

which one courier said was some "damn good coke, the best" he bragged. " And I can get

you a really good count if you want some, any thing you want , I can get it and I'll guarantee the count”.

I just replied that I would keep that in mind . Which seemed to satisfy him that I

was sufficiently impressed and would be a future customer.

It had been about three months now since I hired on as a courier and a job

evaluation was do. They call it a check ride and a manager rides with you on your route

to see how well you do your job. Then he gives you a rating by using the numbers (1)

through (6) in several different categories. ( the rating now goes to seven )

The first manager I had was out on disability ( so we were told ) and I had been

assigned a new one. He was a short balding guy with thick glasses and a big smile. Colin

Baines was his name and he lived in north Wilmington.

Before we left the station he had asked me if I had checked the van to be sure all

the necessary supplies were in it so that I wouldn't run out that evening. And as we started

out of the station he asked me if I knew where my first stop was. To which I replied yes

and we proceeded to it. I had worked hard to learn my route and be a good courier and

dealing with the customers came easy. As we rode along my route my manager began to

open up about his employment with Federal Express and his family. His wife had just

given birth to their first child and he was as proud as could be. And it just so happened

that his house was located within my route. Maybe if we had time we could stop by his

house and do a joint he said.

"You do get high don't you Gary" he asked after he made that statement. I wanted

to say "not really" , but what the hell, he was my supervisor and I didn't want to say

anything that he didn't like, at least not while he was doing my evaluation and besides I

was new there and didn't want to rock the boat. So I just said something like, “ I'm

usually too busy on my route to ".

"Well we'll see how busy we are tonight, maybe we'll have time to stop by my

house for a few minutes", he said.

And fortunately, we were busy that night, at least too busy to stop by his house

and get high. Thank God.

We were almost halfway into my shift and were at a private residence. The

customer , an older woman was shipping a small box about the size of a shoe box. It

weighed about one pound maybe a little over but less than two pounds for sure. "Did you

weigh the box ma’am ," I asked.

"No" she replied, "how much do you think it weighs"?

I picked up the box and held it for a moment trying to be as accurate a possible.

When you handle a lot of small packages as a courier does , you get to be pretty good.

Probably like a butcher weighing meats in the grocery store.

"About one pound to one and a half " I replied. "I'll have to charge you for two pounds ".

"I thought about a pound" she said ,"but if you say more I'll pay it"

"Well I think it is a little over a pound , but if you have a scale we can weigh it" I

said as I started to write up the airbill. And she responded that she would accept my

estimate.

After we left her house and were putting the package in the back door of the van I

handed Colin the small box and asked him how much he thought it weighed. He held it

for a moment and replied that yes it was about a pound and a half,. "But you could have

told her it was over three pounds and she would have to pay for four,” Colin said.

"But Colin, it wasn't even two pounds " I responded .

"It doesn't matter what it weighs, it how much you can get." "If you told her that it

weighed four pounds and she paid it , that would have been more money that Federal

Express made and the more Federal makes ... the more we get in bonuses."

"Got it " he asked ," remember revenue... bring in all the money you can every time".

"Yeah I got it," I said.

LESSON ...IF YOU ARE A COURIER FOR FEDERAL EXPRESS..... CHEAT

THE CUSTOMER FOR EVERY PENNY YOU CAN. YOU MAY GET A BIGGER

BONUS.

It was becoming clearer everyday, put up a good front then steal and cheat all you

can. I had worked for companies before where I had disagreed with some of the ways that

they did things, but never anything like this. At least the management in those companies

thought they were doing what was right and for the right reasons, they at least had some

integrity. But at Federal Express it seemed like they thought everybody was fair game

and Federal Express was the 'great white hunter '.

I got a dispatch to go to Mercantile Press a printing company on Bellevue avenue

in Wilmington, it was a pickup that I did about once a week when they called. They were

friendly there and you could tell they were very particular about their work. It was a good

stop because they always had their packages and paperwork done correctly and it was

ready to go when I got there.

But tonight along with their usual shipments they had a CSS shipment for me. I

had never handled a CSS package before, but while I was in courier school we had gone

over how they were to be processed and handled. At that time I had thought that I had

heard the instructor wrong. It seemed like we were told two different ways of how they

were handled and since the second way contradicted the first I had assumed that I had

heard wrong the second time. Because the second time I was told that CSS shipments

were to be handled no different then P1 freight. Tonight I would learn from my manager

that I had heard the instructor correctly both times . One way was the way you told the

customers you would handle they’re CSS shipments and the second way was how you

really would do it.

The owner of Mercantile Press came over to me and after saying hi to both of us,

asked me about the handling of the CSS ( Constant Surveillance Service ) package. He

wanted to know if every person who had possession of the package would be signing for

it and would it be attended or locked up at all times as the girl on the phone had told him.

I knew what the manual said about the proper handling of a CSS shipment

and I assured him it would be .

He said that he had complained to our sales people about our couriers losing his shipments and they had suggested that he use our CSS service. He asked me to explain

exactly how a CSS shipment was handled differently from a Priority 1 shipment.

My manager was standing right next to me and I knew I had to get it right the

first time as there is a section in my evaluation that deals with product knowledge. So I

didn't want to screw up.

"Well" I started , after I fill out the airbill , I sign this CSS tally record to show

that I have possession of it and what time it is. I'm not allowed to let it out of my sight

and unsecured so when I leave here I have to take the package directly back to my

station, because I have more stops on my route, and give it to a customer service agent

( we didn’t have a CSS custodian at the station ) or someone else. And that person will sign the CSS tally sheet to show that they have taken possession of it. That person in the station will lock it in a secure area to maintain it's security. Then tonight a courier will sign for the package and take it directly to the airport where he will give it to a CSS person there that will sign for the package and then place it in a secure area until it's flight to Memphis for sorting. When it gets to the airport in the city where it's going , a CSS driver will sign for it before taking it to the station from where it is going to be delivered . Once it arrives at the station , the courier that will be delivering it has to sign for it before he takes it and delivers it. And finally, the person who receives the package must sign for it. So you see, every person who has possession of that package has to sign a CSS tally sheet when they receive the package. And that person has to keep the package secure in his sight or locked in a secure area."

"Okay" he said ,"please don't lose this one , it's important", and he turned and

walked away.

"Well, how did I do with the CSS ", I asked, hoping I had said what I was

supposed to.

"You did fine", Colin replied , "you answer was perfect".

After I finished filling out the other airbills we went out back to my van. I put the

packages in the back of the van and started coding them for the cities to which they

would be going.

"Do you know where your next stop is Gary", Colin asked, trying to keep me on track.

"Sure I do , I replied, "back to the station to drop off this CSS package".

"No , your next stop is up the road to your next customer" he said.

"What about the CSS package ", I asked .

"Don't worry about it", he responded "just handle it like a regular P1 shipment" .

"Then , what's the difference between a priority one package and a CSS package,"

I asked.

"There is no difference between CSS and priority one shipments... well about

{ 5 to 10 million dollars extra for Fred's pockets} and when Fred's pockets are full , what

falls out ... we get in the way of profit sharing,” Colin said.

I didn't take the CSS shipment back to the station like I was supposed to that

night, nor any other time that I picked up a CSS shipment. Instead I continued on my

route as I was instructed by my manager Colin Baines that night. And yes there were many times that the CSS package’s were left unsecured and unprotected. In time I would learn that tens of thousands of other CSS packages were left unsecured and unsigned for with no real system of tracking who had handled these sometimes valuable shipments. Many were sensitive classified military shipments and were important to our military’s defense.

These so called and CSS shipments were handled with almost no

difference than common freight. Yet Federal was telling it's customers that it was

providing a “special security” and signature service which didn't exist , and were making

millions of dollars from it. It’s not an opinion or a belief, not even a claim, it is just

pure fact. Fedex management conspired to commit fraud against all of America.

Many of the customers included the government and the U.S. military .

They were defrauding their customers and betraying America. They knew what they

were doing and for all I knew they were laughing there asses off about it. They had found

thousands of customers who would pay them millions of dollars for a service that didn't

exist. And hundreds if not thousands of Federal Express employees were in on the

conspiracy.

We finished up my route about the regular time and returned to the station . After

I backed up to the conveyor belt to unload my freight we got out of the van and walked to

the back of the van.

"Who do I give the CSS shipment to ", I asked Colin.

"Just throw it on the belt with the rest of the freight", he replied .

I did just as I was told. Later that night after helping load the trucks for the

run up to the airport, a courier took it to the ramp and didn’t even know it was there and

just threw it on the conveyor belt at the airport ramp along with the other common

freight .

And no, he didn't sign for the CSS shipment and no one else at the ramp signed

for it before he threw it on the belt either. He could have given it to someone along the

road or even sold it to someone if it had been valuables or money or maybe gold. And

who would have known that he didn't take it to the ramp. Who would even

have known that he had it in the first place.

LESSON....IF YOU DON’T GET HIGH WITH YOUR MANAGER... AT LEAST

LEARN HOW TO DEFRAUD THE CUSTOMER and BETRAY AMERICA.

FEDERAL EXPRESS MANAGEMENT AND COURIERS WERE INVOLVED

IN NATIONWIDE CONSPIRACY OF FRAUD.

In the months that followed I would drive many CSS shipments to the

airport in Philadelphia and most times (unless I found out by accident) I wouldn't even

know that I was carrying them on my truck, because certainly no one ever took the time

to tell me or have me sign off on the signature sheet as I was supposed to.

We got on a new courier, he was from Louisiana he said. He also had a brother

that worked for Federal he told me. He was a black guy named Ted Autry and he also

drove the CTV ( tractor trailer ) up to the Philadelphia ramp at the end of the night . He

used to be a courier in Louisiana according to him but I was never sure why he

transferred up north and he never said.

He was a quick learner and it didn't take him long to learn his new route. He was

also a very fast driver, at times too fast . At least I thought so.

He also seemed to be high all the time. But I always felt that was a plus at our

station. And he did seem to get along well with the other couriers when he was in their presence, but when he wasn’t around and his name came up , they referred to him as “that nigger from Jersey” and made racial remarks about him .While always being nice to him in person. It wasn’t unusual , I had seen it many times at Federal. There seemed to be an unspoken belief that blacks were hired for appearance and quotas to make the company “look good” while in reality it seemed they were considered never quite as good as a white courier or manager. One manager told me that they wouldn’t let a black be a senior station manager because ...who would be there to keep them in line? Senior Station Manager Mike Mitchell had expressed his beliefs many times that there should always be a white man over the blacks to keep them from fucking up.

He had made that statement one day as he stopped to ask me how the evening route was going. Several of the evening routes were getting busier and no extra couriers were being hired to pick up the extra stops. And some of the couriers were grumbling. Evidently it was getting back to him. I said something to the effect that yes it was getting busy out there but as long as they ( management ) didn’t mind me getting back a little later I didn’t care, it only meant more hours for me. I did say something about the cargo handler having a hard time keeping up with all the freight coming in at the last minute.

That’s when Mike went into his philosophy about blacks ( the cargo handler was black) and how they wanted the titles but couldn’t do the job. He said that the cargo handler had been bugging him about a sales position with the company and how he kept blowing him off. That even though he (the cargo handler) had gone to college and was currently working in sales for the “McCormick” spice company he would never be anything but a part time cargo handler in “his station”. He said that he would NEVER let a nigger in management in “his station”. They were too stupid and had no discipline he said. And he wasn’t going to put up with it.

Evidently Mike was serious about his beliefs because I later heard that the cargo handler did finally get a position in sales with Federal Express but that he had to transfer out of the station and I believe the state to get it. And I don’t believe he ever allowed a black in management while he was in charge of the Wilmington station.

As a white man who grew up in a mixed neighborhood I had learned that there were good and bad in all races. I had played and fought with blacks ...and against them. They were people who had their good ways and their bad ways ... just like the whites.

Yet at Federal it seemed that many times the white couriers could get away with a lot of stuff that the blacks in the station and even at the Philadelphia Ramp couldn’t. It was just some kind of unwritten rule. And who could the blacks complain to, certainly not their white superior in the station. A complaint like that and management could be looking at every single piece of paperwork that they handled and every delivery and pickup. I’ve had management watching my every step and it’s no fun.

I’ve worked at other major companies and it seems that the blacks were treated much fairer by management and even their white co-workers, but in the Federal Express stations where I worked it definitely seemed like they weren’t treated equally or fairly.

Many times they weren’t even thought of or considered to be human.

Ted’s route ran next to mine and many times we would do pickups inside each

others routes. That's how I came to know he drove too fast . And how I also found out

some of his other bad habits. The first time I saw him getting high was about a month

after he came to work at our station .

We were running routes in the same area and I happened to see him pull off the

road . We always monitor our radios and I hadn't heard him tell anyone that he was

having road problems yet he was pulled off the side of the road where there was no

buildings and certainly no pickups. So I pulled up behind his truck and walked up to his

door to make sure he was all right. I asked him if he was alright.

But even as I asked, I realized what he was doing . He had a joint in his hand and

the truck reeked of marijuana smoke.

He just smiled and replied," want a hit man"?

I replied no thanks... and asked if he was okay.

He said he was fine and told me to go ahead that he would catch up with me later.

I went back to my truck and headed to my next pickup. I remember thinking

about how unfair it was that I was running around like a wild man trying to do all my

stops and sometimes being asked by dispatch to help Ted out and get a couple of his

stops for him.

And the truth of the matter was probably that he was too stoned to get them himself. In

the coming months I would see Ted getting high a lot. His van would be pulled off on the

side of the road or in a dark parking area, a joint in his hand with his radio blaring.

Sometimes I would hear him making drug deals on the 2way radio with the other

couriers. And it was not unusual to see a bag of pot in his possession when he got in the

CTV truck to drive it to the airport.

I was also a regular driver to the airport ramp now. It seemed the other couriers

didn't want to be stuck with having to drive up there every night after finishing their

route. I needed the money and besides nothing was going on at that time of the night for

me anyway. I drove an IVECO truck to the airport , it was German I think. A little bigger

than a van and awkward to drive but it got the job done and that's all that counted.

At the ramp I would empty my truck onto the conveyor belt and pull it out of the

way of the other incoming trucks so they could get to the bay doors . Then I would either

help unload the other incoming trucks or load the freight off the belt to the cans,( large

metal containers about the size of a small storage shed ) along the conveyor belt. When

the cans got full they were weighed and taken out to the plane and loaded . They were

then flown to Memphis where the freight was resorted..

It was a hectic pace in which we worked but if everybody was working

together it was okay and sometimes it seemed like fun. There were couriers coming in

from all the surrounding stations and with their freight they brought great stories.

On some occasions I failed to see the humor though. Once, just after I had helped

some of the guys pull a couple of cans off a CTV truck from one of the Philadelphia

stations, I looked back to see them looking at something . As I stood there one of them

made a comment and they all began to laugh. Not sure just what it was they were looking

at but curious enough to want to know , I walked back into the trailer and asked what was

so funny, "what did I miss ", I asked.

"Show Gary ", one of them said , he'll get a kick out of it. So the guy reached

into his pocket and pulled out two Polaroid pictures of a nude girl and held them

out for me to see.

"Nice", I said, "one of your girlfriends?"

"Nah , just one of my pickups", he replied.

"She sent four of them to her husband, he’s in the marines, in California".

He continued, "When I went to do the pickup, this real nice looking girl answered

the door, she asked me three times if anybody ever opened the Overnight Letters".

He said that he told her no one ever goes into Federal’s mail. That's

why everybody uses us, because their mail goes through every time and no one ever

messes with it. That's why so many drug dealers use Federal Express.

At that everybody busted out laughing, even I had to chuckle at that.

He said she took the overnight envelope into another room and put something in

it and had it sealed before she brought it back to him. Then she even asked him again if

he was (sure) that no one would open her mail and he told her no way.

After he left her place he pulled over and opened the O.L. to see

what was in it. She had sent her husband four pictures of herself (nude) and a letter

telling him how much she missed him . And how she was going to make love to him

when he came home. She said it all in her letter he said. So after he read the letter he

picked out the best two pictures for himself and put the other two in another O.L. and

sent it to her husband , the lucky bastard."

I looked at him standing there with a big smile on his face and just couldn't hold

back. I didn't even think about , it was wrong to go into someone else's mail . Here was a

soldiers wife sending him something personal between the two of them. Hell the marine

could die tomorrow fighting to save our asses and this clown who probably had never

even been in the service was going through his mail . Mail that his wife had sent to him ,

she had trusted a courier who promised her privacy and then betrayed her. He was a

bastard a real low life bastard.

"Do you really think that was cool man, to go into her mail? She was sending it to

her husband who was a soldier, that's protecting your ass?"

They all looked at me like I had made a big deal out of nothing. Like it was

nothing at all.

"All come on man", one of them said , "she'll never know".

"Yeah Gary, it's no big deal what's it going to hurt?"

"It's not the point , stealing shit is one thing but stealing a soldiers pictures of his

wife is pretty low. Don't you guys have any friends or relatives in the service?"

None of them said anything more and soon we were all back at work loading

freight into the cans. They were still friendly with me, at least they said hi and made

small talk, but it seems like I was left out of a lot of conversations after that. And if there

was a couple of guys in a group talking , the talk seemed to change as I got close enough

to hear. At first I thought that maybe I should have just looked at the pictures and kept

quiet but after awhile I just took the attitude of 'so what it's no big deal' either way there

was nothing I could do.

If I went to management at the ramp the courier would just deny having any

pictures and the other guys would stand behind him. Nothing would happen to him and I

would never be allowed to work at the ramp. Oh I'm sure management wouldn't officially

tell me I couldn't , but it would be made clear to me that I couldn't be trusted to keep

secrets. And word would get around that I squealed on a co-worker and no one would want to work with me. Besides there were lots of things happening at the ramp that I thought was wrong and if I went to management every time I saw someone doing something wrong they would come after me for sure.

Also I was only getting four to five hours an evening doing pickups and the additional four hours a night at the ramp was needed to make forty hours a week which I needed to pay bills and support my family.

There was a job posting on the bulletin board. It was for a couple of back-up tractor trailer drivers for when the regular driver went on vacation or was sick. Usually when a new position comes open in the station anyone who is interested checks around to see who is interested, and what their chances are to get it. Another courier had signed the posting and after a week when no one else did I added my name.

I had a good bit of experience driving trailers and still held my CDL license and knew that the two weeks of schooling would be no problem. The other courier was a younger black guy who had never driven a tractor trailer but wanted to give it a try.

His name was Anthony and he was a very likeable guy. I had often heard the

other white couriers and management make fun of him and tell black jokes about him and even his mother. I think he knew it and was trying to gain some respect by becoming a truck driver. But the fact is, he was BLACK and he would never think of him as equal or deserving no matter how well he did his job.

We were told to report to the Philadelphia Ramp at the airport to begin CDL classes. The instructor was an older Italian guy by the name of Anthony and he told us to call him Tony. He had previously worked for Roadway Trucking. There was also one other courier there for classes a woman. She was, I think in her late twenties ( I never asked ) and she was out to prove she was as good as any man. Fact is, she was pretty dammed good and gutsy as hell.

It was obvious right from the start that Tony didn’t like Blacks, especially young Blacks with a “Catholic Italian” name like ANTHONY.

Anthony (the courier) could tell right away. He asked me if I thought Tony didn’t like him because his name was “ANTHONY” and he was Black, the same name as the instructor who was Italian. While I tried to assure him not to worry about it I explained to him that I probably knew more about driving trucks then Tony and that I would make sure he got through school okay.

It was obvious that Anthony felt the dislike and hatred that Tony felt for him and I know it made him nervous to be in a situation like that. But I knew I could get him through it, I had trained others before.

It didn’t take Tony long to make his feelings about Blacks known to me. On the first day when Anthony the courier wasn’t around Tony came over to me and asked... “don’t you have any other white guys at your station who want to drive a truck?”

Then he went into a tirade about how “Niggers” can’t drive as good as whites and how he didn’t like training them or even being around them didn‘t like the smell of niggers. He especially didn’t like having to train a young black ( he called him a young buck nigger ) who had an “Italian Catholic” name like him. He said that he would make it as difficult for Anthony as possible. Then he walked away grumbling some about ...“dammed niggers”.

I knew Anthony (the courier) would have a tough time making it through schooling. I also knew I would make sure he did...unless Tony made it so hard on him that he quit.

There were classes with text books and also driving instruction. I had been around tractor trailers for many years so most of it was old hat to me and several times I showed Tony that what he was teaching wasn’t correct. And after arguing with me for a few minutes even he had to admit that on those occasions it was I who knew more. But there were times when I saw that Anthony didn’t understand what Tony was saying and was too embarrassed to ask questions. When I saw that I would ask Tony to go over it again so that we “ALL” understood. It wasn’t Anthony’s fault...what I think was actually happening was that Tony would sometimes ‘rush’ through some material and if someone wasn’t familiar with it...they might not get it all.

Other times I would notice that Tony would have us do certain maneuvers with the tractor trailer and while he made sure that the other woman and I knew what he wanted us to do and he would explain it to us....often he wouldn’t give Anthony enough details to do the exercise correctly often leaving out vital points. It made Anthony look bad and I can only imaging how he felt inside.

Then Tony would make comments to me about how stupid Niggers were. I was white, had a Italian name ( Rullo ) and I’m sure he felt comfortable letting me know his true thoughts about blacks.

One day we were told that we would meet at the ILG station in Wilmington Delaware to practice. It was fine with Anthony and I as it was our station and closer to home.

Tony explained that we would practice backing up to the loading docks. Since our station manager Mike Mitchell had come out to watch ( and surprise...he may have been partially sober) Tony told me to back up to the dock first. He knew it was an easy exercise for me and I guess he wanted to look good in front of Mike.

I got in, backed up the trailer to the loading dock door and had it centered perfectly like I had done it a thousand times before. Fact is I had done far more complicated backing than this and in far worse conditions. Afterwards I pulled the truck back to the starting position and got out.

Mike Mitchell motioned me over to where he was standing. When I got there he asked me how it was going and I said something like “no problem I’ve driven trucks before”.

Then he said, “ how’s my nigger doing?”

“You mean Anthony,” I asked.

“Yeah the nigger, how’s he doing...do you think he‘ll make it to the ramp and back without wrecking my truck.”

“Yeah Anthony will do fine, he’s a fast learner, he‘ll be okay,” I said.

“A fucking Nigger tractor trailer driver, just what I need...first time he scratches it and I’ll fire his Black ASS,” Mike replied.

He hated blacks and hated to see them do good. But then so did every other white man in management that I talked to. It was almost like it was a rite of passage for management at Fedex.

Or was there some “secret white club within the company that even I didn’t know of.

The rest of the training was spent at and around the Philadelphia ramp .

One day Tony set out cones and said we had to back up like a snake between them. Then he turned to me and said, “go ahead Gary show them how to do it.”

He had me do it first because he couldn’t and didn’t want to look bad.

It was really no big deal, I had backed up in much worse areas, in far more difficult situations. I just got in and back through the cones. Then I parked the truck for the next driver. Even Tony was impressed but it wasn’t really that big a deal.

When it was Anthony’s turn to try it Tony began telling him how to do it and what to look for. But it was the wrong instructions. When Anthony tried it he couldn’t do it the way Tony told him to. So I climbed up to the door and told Anthony the “right way” and what mirrors to look at. Anthony said that Tony told him another way to back up. And I told him to just do what I said and it would work. Anthony did as I said and he made it through okay.

Later, Anthony asked me why Tony told him to do it wrong. And I just replied that maybe Tony wasn’t that good.

What I didn’t say was that the whole time Anthony was trying to back up the way Tony told him to, Tony was laughing at him and calling him a stupid nigger. And saying how he’d never pass his training course.

There was several times Tony did that to Anthony and every time Tony would laugh at him and make fun of Anthony while Anthony was doing his best.

Well Anthony did get through (CTV) tractor trailer driving school and I think he would have made a great driver for Fedex. But as I recall, he didn’t drive a CTV truck much or even at all. Maybe he got wind of Mike’s threats or maybe he just felt so intimidated by the Racist atmosphere at Fedex that he was afraid.

Oh and just to let you know...I was trained to drive a Tractor Trailer by a guy named Willie Burl. He was a trainer at ICI Americas and he was good, real good. He was better than most Fedex tractor trailer drivers ....OH YEAH HE WAS ALSO BLACK.

It was about 7:00 PM and I was nearly finished with my route . "Since you're

almost done tonight I need you to help Carol ( not her real name) she’s a little backed

up tonight. Can you do that for me Gary", Larry the dispatch asked.

I told him I would and that I had one more stop then I would call him.

He said thanks and something about always being able to count on me to help.

He was getting the help he needed and so he was saying nice things. Larry knew

all the routes at the station better than anybody. He also knew how to work the couriers ,

to get them to do their best. He had been a dispatch for awhile now and had gotten good

at it.

After I finished doing ‘Alloy Surfaces’ which was my last stop I got a Pepsi then

called Larry on the radio.

He told me the extra stop was at 1210 market street, on about the 5th or 6th

floor. That it was a law firm and that he appreciated me helping out.

It only took me about ten minutes to get there and a few more to find the right

floor. When I got off the elevator I saw why the courier needed help , there were about 30

or 40 courier pak envelopes (the big two pound ones). There was no one in the office

area and the envelopes were just left on the floor. This is a common practice when the

stop is a regularly pickup. Especially if the pickup is after office hours.

All of the shipments were courier pak envelopes. Normally they are

for shipments up to two pounds at a cost of $25.00. And for each pound after that you

were charged extra. I grabbed a couple of them and started writing up the

airbills. The contents inside generally weighed about one pound and some a little more, it

was just some legal paperwork. When I had finished about ten of them the other courier

arrived.. "Hi", she said, "been here long?"

"Just a couple of minutes, do you get this many every night,” I asked.

"Sometimes more, sometimes a little less but as a last stop it's a lot,” she

answered as she started in on the pile. "It's crazy the way they make us run around like

this, I don't mind working but to do this route I have to speed all over town. And one of

these times I going to have an accident Carol said."

I replied that I also had to speed to make my route work.

"Well anyway how is the wife and kids" she asked . She was always so nice and

considerate. I often wondered how she managed to put up with all the stuff going on

with the drugs and stealing in the station. She didn't go to the ramp very often if at all so I

doubted she was aware of what went on there. She was in her second marriage , this time

to an older man that appreciated what a good woman she was We would often talk about

our kids and spouses. She had a daughter, by her first husband I think, and she was very

proud of her. And she was determined to do well in her life, she wanted to go to daytime

where the money was better and also so she could spend more time with her daughter.

And she knew that she would have to hang in there to make it to daytime.

We chatted back and forth as we worked on the envelopes trying to get them done

and get back to the station as quick as possible. Finally we were done writing up the

airbills and I started coding up the envelopes which had been thrown together into one

pile.. As I began to read the airbill for the zip code so that I could write on the three letter

code of the destination station the package would going to. When I noticed that she had

written (4) and (5) pounds in the spaces where you marked the weight on the airbill and

hadn’t seen any that weighed over two pounds. I thought she had made a mistake and

said to her ,"Carol this courier pak is only about a pound , you marked it at (4) pounds

and it’s definitely less than two and there's a lot more like that too."

"Oh Gary, you know what they tell you about marking up the packages heavier

than they are. Everybody does it, you know that."

"Yeah I know , Colin told me to do that too but I don't do it ... it doesn't affect

me either way. I just write in what it weighs nothing more."

'Yeah but you know what they say... make all the money for Fred that you can

and some may come back to you someday, or something like that." she said.

"Suppose these guys catch you writing up more than the envelopes weigh ", I said.

"Oh they won't know , nobody checks the airbills, I've been doing it since I've

been doing this pickup and no one's said anything about it yet. The managers know it

and the courier that trained me taught me to do it,” she said.

And she probably was right , for as far as I know she kept doing it and no one

ever raised a stink about it . In fact after that night I would occasionally check the

packages coming down the conveyor belt at the station and at the airport ramp. And

many times I would see the airbills on packages written up at a much higher weight than

the package actually weighed. It was easy to do, many times the customer wasn't even

there when the package was picked up so the courier would put down as much weight as

he or she thought they could get away with. And even if the customer did complain all

the courier had to say was "oh sorry I must have made a mistake" and he or she was in

the clear. And the money just kept rolling in....

LESSON....MANY TIMES COURIERS CHEAT CUSTOMERS BY WRITING

IN HEAVIER WEIGHTS THEN A PACKAGE REALLY WEIGHS.....REVENUE!!!

We headed back into the station and unloaded the freight on the belt. Then, we

would load our bigger packages into the cans for the tractor trailer that Ted would drive

and the Overnight Letters and Courier Paks would go into large plastic bags that I would

drive to the airport ramp along with some miscellaneous freight. It would be just another

night at the ramp for me. But tonight was Friday night and everyone would be in high

spirits because the weekend was here. And some would be high because of good drugs.

Things were going okay for me at Federal. That is to say that no one had

called me in for any problems I was having at the station. John, the manager at the

Philadelphia Ramp had told me several times that he liked the way that I jumped in and

busted butt to help get the planes off in time. Except for all the theft and drug activity

going on it was an okay place to work.

I was working near the belt unloading the evening freight when a Federal van

comes barreling through the doors. The driver slams on the brakes and slides

about five feet coming to a stop a foot from the conveyor belt. His van was

pointing towards the belt, not backed up to it like it’s supposed to be so that the freight

can be unloaded out the back. And it stopped at an angle to the belt not even straight.

Several people working near the belt with me had looked up startled to see Al Ferrier

make just another drunk or stoned entrance into the station. It was hard to imagine how

he hadn’t killed anyone yet.

I had seen him many times in the station looking like a drunk on skid row. His

pants usually looked like he had been in them for a month and his shirt often had food or

beverage stains on them. I don’t believe I ever saw Al with a clean or neat uniform on.

And he usually wore dirty sneakers “not Federal Express issue” which never had the

laces tied and often fell off his feet if he walked fast. And it seemed that nobody wanted

to stand near him because of his odor. Several of the couriers told me that his paperwork

was unreadable and he often had to borrow money because he would lose or spend the

money he had been given by customers for their shipments if they paid in cash. He even

tried to borrow money from me several times.

Supposedly he had had more accidents than any six couriers in the station. And

several times I would see him do drugs while there. He was an unbelievable mess. And

numerous times I had heard the dispatcher give Al’s pickups to another courier because

he couldn’t find them or was too messed up to keep up with them even though he had

been doing them for years.

Things on my route seemed smooth, the customers were great and my pickup

times were getting better all the time. Yet when I was first asked if I wanted to come in to

do some daytime deliveries it caught me off guard.

I was about an hour into my evening shift one evening and my dispatch told me

to call into the station because my manager at that time, Colin Baines had wanted to talk

to me. When I got to the next stop I asked to use their phone. I dialed up the station and

asked to speak to Colin. He said." hi Gary how is it going tonight ?"

"Not bad ", I replied , “is there something you wanted?"

"Yes there is, how would you like to come in tomorrow and do deliveries," Colin

asked.

"Sure I said, where is it ?"

"Well it's in your area mostly, the guy on day work has a doctors appointment ",he

said. and usually I ask the nighttime courier in the same area to come in when the

daytime courier is going to be out".

"Great what time do you want me in ?" I said

"Well, come in a little after seven to get your truck ready and loaded, and are you

still taking the freight up to the ramp," he asked , "I don't want you to be up there all

night."

"Yes I'm still running it up, but I can probably just run it up and not stay to load

the planes if you prefer," I said.

"Yes that would be good Gary. And remember no failures, the regular

Courier doesn't have failures... got it"?

"I got it Colin, I wont let you down", I said.

I knew he was probably more concerned with my hours than he was my being

tired. Because several times before he had voiced concern about the hours that others

were working, who knows maybe they held it against him in his evaluation if he had too

many hours in his work group. At any rate he seemed pleased at my suggestion because

he said he thought was a good idea but to check with John at the ramp to make sure I

wasn't leaving him short handed , but to be sure to mention that I had to come in

tomorrow morning to do deliveries. I wound up staying for an hour to help load freight

which wasn't too bad.

I came into the station before seven (a little early) to be sure all was well with my

truck and make sure it had gas in it. Then the mail came down from the ramp and

everybody was busy sorting out the mail for the routes. The freight would arrive soon

afterwards. And it did , the other couriers helped me get my freight off the belt because

some of the deliveries were a little different then my route.

When the freight was sorted and I was trying to set up how I was going to deliver

my packages Colin came over to the belt and told everybody to come over to the

side away from the belt.

"Look you guys I got a call yesterday, a woman called in here to say that she

saw a courier smoking a joint at 10th and King street around eleven o'clock am", he said.

And at that everybody started to laugh.

"Go ahead and laugh, but you guys know you don't want a urine test and I

certainly don't, I have a family . I don't need to have a call come down from district

headquarters asking me questions. So I'm telling you guys now , it's stupid to light up a

joint in midday or any other time in the middle of town certainly not at 10th and King,

that's all I'm going to say... you guys are big boys so act like it". And he turned away and

left.

I walked over to my truck thinking, are these guys nuts smoking a joint in front

of city hall in the middle of the day. That's where the courts houses are and where a lot of

cops go in and out all day long. I turned to a courier whose truck was next to mine and

said to him, " is that crazy or what", expecting him to agree with me.

"Ah, no big deal", was all he said.

I got into my truck and left the station , I had deliveries to make and I was going

to be busy enough doing that . No time to worry about who it was because it could be

anybody and apparently none of the other couriers were concerned. Oh well , this

daytime stuff was sure different than any place else I'd ever worked.

I was running my ass off trying to get all my P1 freight delivered before 10:30 am

to meet my commitments and not have any failures. A failures is when you didn't deliver

a package by the time the package was promised to be delivered by. In my area all the

P1 packages had to be delivered 10:30 Am. or they would be failures. When 10:30

passed and I still had about ten stops to go I realized the other courier knew his route a

lot better than I did. Oh I knew he should have been better than me . After all he had been

doing this route a lot longer then me and so should be better. But not by ten stops , and I

had really done pretty good I thought , I knew where all but two or three stops were and I

got them right away.

I pulled up to my next delivery stop and ran inside, " sorry I'm late" I said to the

receptionist.

"You're not late, the other guy rarely gets here before 11:00 ", she answered back.

"You mean he's not here before 10:30 ", I asked dumfounded.

"No , he usually gets here between 11:00 and 11:20 sometimes later ", she said,"

so you're doing fine". She signed off the package and I ran back to the truck. So maybe

I'm not doing too bad after all I thought . But it was too late to fudge the times on my

delivery sheet. The delivery times I had already written in would show that I had lied. I

did however mark up the next nine deliveries in about (15) minutes according to my

delivery sheet. Of course it wasn't true and it was obvious to anybody who saw the times

that they couldn't be correct. But when Colin looked at them he said something like,

"your last nine looked good". I got the point.

I ran deliveries on that route several times after that and put down false times

every time I got close to the 10:30 a.m. commitment time, I'm not really into lying ,

especially over something as simple as that . But that was what they wanted , either lie

about the times or no day work...no failures no matter what. And I did have an occasional

failure but nothing like the real amount.

And as my manager Colin said, "make Federal Express look good at any cost".

I was back on my regular evening route doing pickups and was in the middle of

my route when I got a call from my dispatcher. He said he was having a problem

with a customer on Ted’s route and could I help him out.

I told him I could.

He then proceeded to tell me that there was a customer up on Philadelphia Pike

that was pissed off at Ted Autry because he kept coming in stoned and would give the

customer a hard time for no reason at all. He said that he knew I was busy but that the

customer didn't want Ted back there again and could I make the pickup for him. That it

was a little out of my way but that he would try to get me help if I got into trouble doing

pickups later. Of course I did the pickup for him. Larry remembered favors and besides I

might need help out there some time and it was better to have Larry on your side if you

did.

When I got to the customer, a lady began explaining to me why she didn't want

Ted back there again. She said that he always came in reeking of marijuana and would

cuss at them if the shipment wasn't ready. She said it was the third time she had

complained to the station about him and no one seemed to care and worse yet they kept

sending him back to do her pickup. I told her something like "I understand" and made the

pickup. Later on that night I saw Ted and he asked me about the pickup, "what did

the lady say about me", he asked. I told him she didn't say much just that there was a

misunderstanding of some kind. He seemed to accept that as an okay explanation and let

it go at that. Yet later that very night when he was getting ready to get into the CTV to

drive it to the Philadelphia ramp I saw a plastic bag with what looked to be about two

ounces of pot with his stuff and a pack of rolling papers inside the bag. They were laying

on the conveyor belt for all the world to see. He didn't seem to be worried in the least that

everyone could see the bag. Because after he sat it on the belt, he went into the office for

about 10 minutes to talk to someone while leaving the bag out in the open for all the

world to see.

When he came back out to the CTV he grabbed his stuff including the bag of pot

and put it in the truck. When he saw me watching him he said something like "hey Rullo,

what's happening". His eyes were blood shot and his pupils were dilated. Later that night

I would see him up at the ramp laughing and joking with the guys. His behavior blended

in well with the rest of the guys because his were not the only eyes that were dilated and

red there. I didn't think Ted was a bad guy, just a guy with a problem. It just seemed

that most times he was high as a kite or down in the dumps with no middle ground.

There were some odd jobs to be done in the station and since no one else on the

evening shift wanted to do them I was asked if I wanted to. Of course I did, it was more

hours for me so I said yes.

I came in around 9:00a.m and was working by the conveyor belt putting together

some shelving. There was a pile of freight setting on the belt and at first I thought it was

from a missort that had come to our station by mistake which sometimes happens. But

when I looked closer I saw that it had our station ID letters on it. They were marked ILG

and were P2 freight. which meant they didn’t have to be delivered till 5:00 PM.

At about 9:45 another courier walked through the big bay doors. She

put her bag on the belt and said hi. Her name was Aileen. I had heard that she had a bad

reputation but didn’t really know her that well. As she began putting the freight in a

van I realized that it was her freight and that someone in management had apparently set

her up with a “special route” of P2 freight just so that she could come in at 9:00a.m.

everyday. It was the only P2 route in the station and I may have found out why that day.

When she had almost all her freight in her van Mike Mitchell came over to the

belt and he seemed very mad at her. He asked her why she didn’t call dispatch to tell him

she would be late. She just kind of shrugged at him. And Mike told her to come into his

office when her truck was loaded. After he left I said to her that he looked pretty pissed.

Aileen said something like ... “yeah I shoulda called Larry”. ( the dispatcher )

Then she shocked me when she said, “it’s okay, Mike’s easy, I’ll just get him

high and give him a quick blowjob and he’ll settle down”.

Was she serious I don’t know, because she closed his door when she went to see him.

Things were always changing in the station, the black cargo handler was gone

and had been replaced by another.

Then that cargo handler moved to another position. His name was Buck Miller

and though he was moved up to sometimes dispatcher and I guess all around whatever

came up for him to do. I often wondered why he was moved up. He only had a high

school education as did most of the other couriers there, but he was moved up ahead of

other couriers with much more time and experience and some with more education.

So now we were to have a new cargo handler. Tom was his name and he was

coming down from the Philadelphia area. His had a brother who was in sales for Federal

and worked out of our station in Wilmington, Delaware.

Tom seemed like a nice enough guy and also had a lot of savvy so it came as no

surprise that he settled into his job quickly. What did come as a surprise though was that

he was a convicted felon and was on parole or probation I was never sure. According to

him, he had served about five years in a federal penitentiary for selling cocaine. He said

he had been running a big time cocaine operation and had been busted by the feds for

selling it by the kilos. I had always known there was a tremendous amount of

illegal drugs coming into and through our station and the thought occurred to me that

maybe some of those in management in our station had hired him because of his contacts

in the drug world.

He was a very out going guy and he would tell you most anything about himself

if you hung around him long enough. I mostly saw him when we were handling freight so

we did our share of talking. Frankly I enjoyed talking to him. He had led a very exciting

lifestyle and he was never too embarrassed to talk about any aspect of it. He said he was

married and had five kids. Several times he asked me if I wanted to buy cocaine and that

he could get me kilos real cheap. When I would decline he would ask if I knew

anyone who did.

He bragged that he could even ship it out safely through Federal if they wanted ,

that is as long as he got his money first. I had never thought about that and so I asked him

how was that done. I was curious.

"Well" , he said, you can drop the drugs off in a drop box, that way no one can catch you

shipping it. You mark it bill recipient, or third party, or use a phony credit card number.

By the time Federal sends out the bill the shipment will already be delivered. When you

address the shipment for the recipient, you use the address of a neighbor or a vacant

house near the person you’re sending it to. Send it to any house where no one is home in

the daytime. Mark the 'Airbill' to be dropped off by the courier so no one has to sign for

it. Then have the person your sending the drugs to watch the house for the drop off, and

when the courier drives away he just walks over and picks up the shipment.

And even if the cops should be following the shipment, the buyer just has to say that he

was picking up the package for a neighbor so it wouldn't be stolen. So they get their drugs

fast , free, and safe."

I asked him if it really worked and he replied that he had done it that way before.

"I've done it, yeah it works," Tom replied.

Well I guess you learn something new everyday I thought.

Tom also told me how he almost killed a guy in prison over a pack of cigarettes ,

“hit him over the head with an iron that he had put in a pillow case,” he bragged. He said

they took the guy out in an ambulance and that he thought he had killed they guy.

You had to believe that a lot of stuff that Tom said was somewhere near the truth.

He was working at Federal as a cargo handler at around ( $8.00 ) an hour and only

working about 25 hours a week. Yet he had just bought a Mercedes Benz , a Rolex watch

and a big wad of money all the time since starting. All that and a wife and five kids to

support.

But Tom did do a good job otherwise. When City Bank , ( a credit card company I believe ) moved into our complex. They had just become a new customer and because they shipped a large volume we were trying hard to please them. Many times their shipments ( mostly Courier Pak Envelopes ) weren’t ready to go until late in the evening, sometimes even after the shuttle to the ramp, had left the station. A lot of times Tom, who lived in the Philadelphia area , would load the Courier Paks into the trunk of his Mercedes and race to the ramp. He used to brag that he would be going 130 MPH up I-95 to the ramp with kilos of Cocaine and City Banks shipments in his trunk.

After Tom had been at Federal as a cargo handler for awhile he decided that he wanted to go out on the road as a courier. And I guess someone within the company thought it was okay to have a convicted drug felon on parole as a courier. So after putting in time as a cargo handler Tom was given the okay to go to courier school which was located in the Liberty District Headquarters in Pennsylvania before becoming a courier.

But while there he ran into some problems. There were several rumors as to what actually happened there. One was that he was bragging about being a convicted drug felon. And another was that he had tried to sell some cocaine to another trainee and the “new” trainee turned him in. And I guess on that one I will never know. But whatever did happen , it seems that for some reason after he was there for awhile, they decided to give him a drug test and he failed. Since he was up at the Liberty District Headquarters and had no connections there...he was terminated. However I truly feel that if a similar situation had come up in the Wilmington station or another one like it, he would have “somehow” gotten out of his problems without a REAL DRUG TEST.

We had been loading freight that night and in our usual hurry when the driver

from Dover came through the doors, her name was Helen. She was late and almost didn't

make it in time for unloading the freight from Dover for the run to the airport.

"Sorry," she said. It was something about one of the couriers getting in late. We were

scrambling to do her freight so I didn't get it all. Something I did notice though was that

she smelled of pot a lot, she was reeking of the smell. I had thought at the time , that

maybe if she hadn't gotten so damn high she might have been on time. She just grabbed

her paperwork and personal stuff and walked away.

One of the couriers said that she worked over fifty hours a week when she

ran the Dover route. And I thought at the time that it would be great to get in that many

hours every week and how I could use the money. Little did I know that one day I would

have that same Dover route, but not for the right reasons. I would see Helen often after

that night and many times she would smell of pot or be on some other kind of illegal

drugs usually cocaine or speed. She did them “all” she often bragged and it was evident.

Many times she didn’t even seem to know what she was doing or saying but just kept

moving and talking till she got it right.

On several occasions when I was working in Wilmington she offered to sell me

drugs and I would use one excuse or another to not buy any until she finally gave up on

me. But we still talked when we met and she would give me the scoop on who was doing

what drugs and who to buy what drugs from. She had done, in her words "just about

every drug there is on the street with just about everybody in the station". When I asked

her if everybody in the station did drugs, she said yes almost all of them do. She once

said, "Gary , didn't they tell you that Federal Express was the number one shipper of

illegal drugs in America? There are so many couriers and managers at Federal that do

drugs that almost nobody turns in the drugs that they find. That's why so

many drug dealers use us". "Hell ", she said, " I've even stolen drugs out of shipments

and got high with a manager while he was giving me an evaluation, during deliveries". I’d heard that before so nothing she had said was new to me, more of affirming that which I had already learned.

LESSON....FEDERAL EXPRESS IS THE NUMBER ONE SHIPPER OF ILLEGAL DRUGS IN AMERICA...THAT’S WHAT MY MANAGERS AND OTHERS HAD SAID AND I BELIEVE IT.

Well I guess Helen and some of the others were right. I felt that some

of my customers on the evening shift were sending illegal drugs through Federal . But I

had gotten used to it and just tried not to make a big deal about it. because when I

mentioned it to a couple of managers at the station , they only wanted me to bring

it in for them to use for themselves not to call in the police. Jerry Salomone said to bring

in the next shipment so they could sample it and be sure that it was "good enough to be

shipped through Federal Express". "After all", he said with a laugh, " they didn't want

any cheap drugs to be shipped though Federal Express, only the best”, he would say with

a smile.

Helen wasn’t the only courier who drove to the Dover station. Sometimes it was Charles. I believe that he had the route before Helen and that she filled in for him while he was on vacation or wanted a break from the Dover route. Whoever had the run that day started at the Wilmington station and took the freight to Dover to be delivered. There the other couriers would separate the freight into different areas and deliver it.

One evening I was helping to load the freight in Wilmington and Jerry Salomone came over to the conveyor belt. He wasn’t the regular night time manager, but he had been in the station for awhile just hanging around. He was talking to several of us about nothing in particular when Charles came rolling in with the freight from Dover. He was running a little late but not enough to hurt. He looked tired and I asked him if he’d had a hard day. He shook his head and said something about how it was crazy down there today and walked away to do his paperwork as we began unloading the freight from his truck onto the belt. After he had gone into the office Jerry said, “that fucking nigger, if he did ten stops a day, he’d say he had a hard day”. “That’s all they do whine and complain, a hard days work would kill them.” I didn’t know Charles well as I’d only seen him in the station a few times. So I asked Jerry ,”is he lazy?” He replied.” they’re all lazy , I’ve never seen a nigger that knew how to work hard yet.” Then he walked away.

In time I got to know Charles. Though we were never close. I even got to run his route in Dover. I learned that he wasn’t lazy at all. In fact I often thought that he worked as hard or harder than most of the whites in the station. In time I learned to like him and respected him. He was just a regular guy, a hard working family man. He was smart and did his job well. And in fact he did all that they asked of him and more. If it weren’t for that damn skin problem I think he would have made a great manager. You know ...the “Black” skin problem. I guess it was a problem he couldn’t fix.

After all, how did they figure to make Al Ferrier a manager with his record. Or

even Buck Miller. How could they even begin to compare the experience and knowledge

of a new guy like Buck Miller who had done only a few ( if any ) deliveries with that of

Charles , when Charles was a seasoned veteran who had seen it all and learned it all. And

who had countless times come through when it counted. I guess Charles was destined to

be a driver simply because he was Black..

One day I got a call to do a pickup at Vinnies Pizza in Claymont. It was a small

pizza shop in the Northtown Plaza shopping center. Vinnie was the owner, a small

Italian guy. He seemed like a nice enough guy. I learned that he usually shipped out an

Overnight Letter and most times it wasn't ready when I got there so he would offer me a

soda while I waited for him. Sometimes when he wasn't busy we would talk. The talk

was small talk about family and what I did for fun. I began to think that Vinnie was

involved with illegal drugs. I also got the feeling that Vinnie was feeling me out , trying

to get an idea of what kind of person I was. Maybe he was trying to decide if his

shipment was safe with me or maybe he was considering whether or not

he wanted to bring me in on his drug activities, I can't say for sure but he did ask a lot of

question about my personal life and habits.

He would send it to Brooklyn, New York and he stapled the entire edge of the

Overnight Letter. and I mean entire. He would take a staple gun and staple every half

inch around the Overnight Letter. And several times he asked me if they X rayed the

shipments in Memphis where the sort was. I had heard the question many times before.

The customer would imply that they were shipping picture film, but you knew why they

were asking. Most times they had drugs in their shipments and were afraid the x-ray scan

would pick it up. I replied that no they didn't. That made him feel more comfortable, you

could see it in his eyes. Vinnie called for a pickup about once a week and on occasion

twice. It was always the same he’d wait till I got there, then he would get the O.L. ready .

Vinnie kept a 357 revolver and a shotgun in the back of his restaurant near an

area where he wrote up the airbill. One time I was kidding him about the stapling on the

O.L. and he picked up the pistol and said," nobody messes with my stuff ". I think he was

trying to tell me something.

As I continued to do the weekly pickups at Vinnies I began noticing several hard

core looking guys there. They were definitely Mafia types, I could've been wrong but they

looked and behaved every bit like most of us perceive Mafia characters to be. When I

went there, they would just be sitting or standing around, not working and not eating

just kind of eyeballing the people as they came through the door. One a big Italian guy

had on a big golden necklace and looked right out of the God Father.

Evidently someone else from Federal was also taking a good look at the

overnight letters with the staples all around them. One day when I came in do the pickup

Vinnie motioned me into the back, which was normal , and when I got there he stuck the

357 revolver in my stomach and said," Gary, you tell your motherfucking druggie

couriers to keep they're fucking hands off my shipments. Cause if they don't they're going

to wind up dead." He was mad, evidently someone at Federal was ripping him off.

I explained to him that I never messed with anybody's shipments and I didn't even

use drugs. I could see that Vinnie was serious, someone had been ripping off his

shipments , all or part I didn’t know. He’d had enough of it. It seemed really stupid that

a courier would steal from the Mafia but I think that they were so used to stealing from

shipments that they just felt like they would never get caught. Anyway I told Vinnie that

I would spread the word back at the station that he was pissed and somebody was going

to get hurt if they didn't leave his stuff alone . And that I would take special care of his

shipments so that at least no one in the station would get a chance to steal them or

anything inside. Somehow I think he believed me. I was scared , but not nearly as scared

as I would have been if I had been the one who had stolen his shipments. And I think it

showed on my face. Because after he looked at my eyes for a few seconds, he said

something like, okay Gary ... you handle that for me, tell those thieving couriers to

keep their fucking hands off my shit and to steal from somebody else. Or I will kill them.

Of course I didn't tell anyone at the station about his shipments. I didn't want to

draw anymore attention to the O.L.s than necessary. That's all I would need to do, let

everyone at the station know that there were large shipments of drugs and money going

back and forth from Vinnies and New York. No, this one I would keep quiet about, I

wasn't going to alert the boys that there was big money and drugs to be had on my route .

The best thing to do I felt, was to just keep it as quiet as possible and not let Vinnies

O.L.s be left out in the open. And as for calling in the cops... no thanks, I figured that in

time Vinnie would get caught. And hopefully in a way that would not involve me, I didn't

need to have any problems with the Mafia. All I wanted was to do my job as best as I

could and go home to my family.

LESSON...EVEN THE MAFIA COULDN’T ESCAPE THIEVING COURIERS

AT FEDERAL EXPRESS...

Although Vinnie kept making his regular once a week shipments on my route for awhile, there was a time when he stopped. I didn’t realize it as I was busy with other things. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere he puts in a call for me to do a pickup for him. When I went to his pizza shop I asked him what had happened because I hadn’t heard from him for awhile. Vinnie looked like he was near death. He was pale and had lost a lot of weight. I asked him if he was sick. He hesitated for a moment then replied that yes he had been sick. He said that he had a case of pneumonia. And he looked like it. I asked him if he was okay and he said yeah he was okay now.

It didn’t occur to me then but his shotgun and pistol were gone and he had always kept them out in the open where they easily accessible and could be seen by anyone coming into the back of his store.

Things seems to quiet down at the station for awhile and I was settling into a

regular routine and building up my route.

One afternoon my supervisor Colin came out and passed out a bunch of trinkets

to the couriers getting ready to go out on pickups. I was handed about two dozen small

mirrors in velour type cases with the name Federal Express on them. Hand them out to

your best customers I was told. They were about 2"X4" and looked like the little cocaine

type mirrors you see on TV shows when the drug users did their cocaine while in a car.

One of the couriers joked that it was Federal Express’s way of saying it was okay to do

cocaine.

Other couriers were saying they were going to keep theirs for souvenirs. And I

thought that was a good idea so I kept a few and gave out the rest to a few regular stops

that I had since I had started my route. The girls at the Mercedes Benz Credit Corp.

would have to have some and the receptionist at the Dentist office on Foulk road of

course and maybe another stop or two.

That evening I had a few free minutes so I drove through the Macdonald’s on

Philadelphia Pike in North Wilmington. I ordered a Cheeseburger and a strawberry

shake, my regular if I had time. When I pulled up to the window to pay for my meal the

girl at the counter, who looked all of sixteen asked for a mirror.

I looked at her and wondered how she knew about the mirrors, and figured that

she or her friends had gotten some from one of the daytime couriers. I thought well she's

not a customer of mine but what the hell and reached into my bag and handed her one

while I was waiting for my sandwich.

She looked into the velour case at the mirror and then looked at me and said .

"where's the rest"?

"What ", I said. I didn’t understand what she meant..

You know, she said, the other guy put some coke (cocaine) in with the mirror.

The other guy put cocaine in the pouch with your mirror, I said in disbelief.

Yeah, she said, then she went on to say that she had gotten cocaine from a another

courier before.

"Well I don't have any and I certainly wouldn't give you any if I did , you can't be

much more then sixteen”, I said.

"I am sixteen", she said as she handed me the my bag and shake. I just shook my

head and drove away. I didn't want to know any more. For all I knew he was also having

sex with her and I didn't want to find that out either. And I really didn't want to know who

the courier was, though I had a pretty good idea that it had to be a courier whose route

was either within mine or pretty close to it.

The Making of a Federal Express Manager...

As I said earlier, Al Ferrier was probably the “worst” example for a courier that I

have seen. And many times I had wondered how he managed to keep his job, on a

number of occasions I had even heard the dispatch complain that Al had been out of

contact for a number of hours. It would usually happen in the afternoon when he was

needed to do pickups for customers who had called in. And many times the dispatch

would have to give the pickup to another courier on the route next to Al’s because

Al was nowhere to be found and the other couriers either didn’t know or wouldn’t say

where he was.

I was coming in on the evening shift and some of the guys were talking about Al.

He had had another accident. Some said he had about a dozen or more . It was

unusual because it was thought that you were gone after about three. It was believed that

a number of Al’s accidents were somehow covered up by Jerry and Mike. But there was

only so many times you can get away with it.

One of the couriers said that if Al couldn’t drive as a courier that management

would probably make him a manager and everybody busted out laughing. I thought it

was funniest thing I had heard in a while. Al couldn’t even tie his shoe laces

or buckle his belt and they would make him a manager....NEVER. Not even at Federal

Express.

WRONG... it was announced that AL would be moving up to manager. Everyone

in the station got a hoot out of that. And when I told the guys at the airport ramp, those

that knew Al shook their heads in disbelief. They said they knew Al as the courier who

came to the ramp stoned or drunk out of his head and always wore sun glasses at

night. Several said he couldn’t even tie his shoes, he was the sloppiest person they knew

they said.

Another handler said that he remembered some of the guys finding Al passed out

in the cargo area of a plane. It was in the tail of a 727 where they loaded the bags of

envelopes and if no one had saw him and woke him up, he probably would have died

there. Because they believed there was no oxygen in that section of the cargo area. When

the plane went above ten thousand feet Al would be dead.

Many said they couldn’t believe how he kept his job at Federal, and that they

made him a manager was just ....unbelievable.

I was by the conveyor belt at the Wilmington station when Jerry came over to

me, he had a shit eating smile on his face. “Hey did you hear” he asked. I knew what he

was talking about , because bad news travels fast, but I pretended I didn’t know that Ted

Autry had been fired . “Hear what”, I asked.

“I finally fired that fucking nigger, it took me awhile but I got him, and in time

I’ll fire all of them”, Jerry replied.

“Who do you mean “, I asked.

“You know, that fucking nigger Ted Autry”, Jerry said.

Then he went into how he was glad that he fired Ted because he was a nigger and

he hated niggers. He called them niggers ( when they weren’t around ). He went on to say

that he would fire every one of them if he could. That he didn’t even like to be around

them.

I had known that Jerry hated blacks from past conversations with him He said

that, “he didn’t want any damn niggers in his station”. He said they were too stupid and

lazy to work for Federal Express, and that most managers felt that way too. That’s why

they only hired as few as they could. Sometimes there were other managers present

when the subject came up and they always seemed in agreement with his beliefs. Once

another manager said that blacks were okay sometimes if you kept them apart , but if

you put two or three of them together they started acting like niggers. And then they got

lazy and caused problems. That’s why they kept as few as possible at the stations. And as

“few” as possible in management. It was easy to do, just give them lower evaluation

scores in the “right areas” of their performance reviews and play down certain skills or

good points they might have. Could this be going on across the country, I wondered.

Similar thoughts were expressed at the Philadelphia Ramp where the freight was

flown in and out. Several times I had been told that they try to keep it as white as

possible because they didn’t want the (niggers) to come in and mess it up. Usually

the black freight handlers at the Newark, NJ station were referred to as ( monkeys or

baboons ) and used as a reference to what happens when you get too many “niggers”

together. That’s why there were so many problems and thefts there. I had heard this

reference about the Newark, New Jersey ramp a number of times and one winter night

while I was working at the Philadelphia ramp around Christmas and a driver came in

with the news that they had ( fired a bunch of niggers at the Newark ramp for stealing).

Funny thing was , a lot of thefts went on at the Philadelphia ramp too but it was almost 100% whites working there so little was said or done about it.

One night while I was working the conveyor belt one of the cargo handlers I was working next to , a small Italian girl, started hollering and jumping around. “ I smell POT”, she yelled, “ I smell POT, I know it, I can smell it a mile away.” Then she jumped up on top of the conveyor belt and started walking around smelling the packages. One of the supervisors yelled at her to get down and she yelled back that “aw come on you guys got the last ones , come on let me have it, I found it first” At that , every body close by laughed. “Come on”, she begged. And all the time she was sniffing the packages on the belt, she looked like a beagle sniffing for rabbits, it was really quite funny. Finally the supervisor nodded his head up and down to indicate it was okay. But others were also trying to figure which package the POT was in. In just a little while , less than a minute, she yelled, ”jackpot.” It was a small box about the size of an 8” cube. She held it to her nose and took a deep sniff then yelled ,”ALL RIGHT”, and began tearing open the box. Others ran over to her and when she opened the flaps, they all got quiet. I was about thirty feet away and was watching, fascinated by her skills at smelling pot and watching the commotion. Then she got down off the belt and walked away carrying the box and accompanied by several of the others went into the back.

Then one day...

I was pulling into a parking spot in my personal vehicle at the station in

Wilmington when I accidentally hit a co worker’s car bumper. I was coming in to work.

The hit was so slight that there wasn’t even a scratch on my vehicle but the other car’s bumper which had previously been hit in another accident and repaired was knocked loose. And it would have to go to a repair shop to be repaired. Since there was no damage to my vehicle and no one was in the parking lot to see what happened I could have easily parked somewhere else and the car’s owner would never have known it was me that hit him. There were no marks or scrapes of any kind on my vehicle so it would have been easy. But I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t want anyone to do that to me and I just couldn’t do it to someone else whether I knew them or not. I went into the station and told Larry our dispatcher that I had hit one of the guys cars but didn’t know whose car it was. When I described it he knew immediately and called the courier to let him know. I waited in the station with my insurance papers so we could get it straightened out. The owner of the car was a daytime courier named Leto.

I knew him and had talked to him casually several times, even driven his delivery van on the evening shift a few times but I always tried to use another delivery van then his. The reason was simple, many times I had found cocaine baggies in the truck he had used that day. And several times he had offered to sell me cocaine while we were in the station. Good stuff and a good count he said. You can ask the guys in the station he bragged. It happened while he was getting his paperwork and freight out of the van at the end of his day and I was getting it ready to do pickups for the evening shift.

Though his car was drivable it would have to go into the shop to be repaired.

He put his car in a repair shop and I thought it would be simple to get the car repaired and my insurance would take care of it . But it wasn’t.

The insurance company had told him that they would pay for a rental car similar

to his. But he rented out a bigger nicer car for much more money anyway.

Then he tried to get my insurance company to pay the extra money. When they wouldn’t ,

he tried to extort it from me. Funny thing was he only threatened me at work. ( well

maybe not so funny ) At first he would come up to me at the conveyor belt and threaten

to beat me up if I didn’t pay for the car rental. At first I thought he must be out of his

mind. He was a big guy but I wasn’t afraid of him physically. Though I must admit that because he was a day worker and seemed to be well connected in the station I did have reservations about having problems with him at work. Hell, I was still considered a “New Guy” who was still part time on the evening shift. And I didn’t do drugs with the regulars and wasn’t into selling or buying stolen freight in the station. So I knew that I was pretty much on my own if any problems came up. And in case I didn’t already know that, he made it perfectly clear to me. He said that the managers wouldn’t help me because they were “his “ friends and that he supplied and did cocaine to them. So don’t even bother going to them for help,” he bragged.

I remember thinking ...this is great, here I am trying to do the right thing about hitting his car when I could have easily gotten away with it, and this bastard is trying to extort money from me. And I was certain the managers wouldn’t help me. I just hoped that if there was a problem , that it wouldn’t happen in the station.

Then one night while I was working at the Philadelphia Ramp they were talking about two guys that got fired for fighting. One had said that the other guy hit him first but they were both fired anyway.

Later that night on the way back to the station I thought about the two guys that got fired. I had two kids at home, a wife and a mortgage payment. I had worked hard to do a good job at work. I didn’t need to be fired for fighting with some Dumb Ass druggie courier. I decided to go to my manager, who at that time, was Jim Herestofa. I had concerns about going to him because he had already told me in past conversations that he did drugs and I thought that he might be connected to Leto, but I felt that I had no choice. My wife was having serious back problems so I couldn’t afford to lose my job. I not only needed the paycheck, I also needed the Medical insurance.

I told him the whole story about hitting Leto’s car and how he was trying to extort money from me while I was in the station. That he was harassing and threatening me at work and threatening to cripple me up. I told him that I fully understood that if something happens away from the work place , that it was between Leto and me. But that I felt certain that he was going to come after me in the station because all of the threats had happened there. And I couldn’t afford to lose my job for fighting because I had a wife and kids at home and a mortgage payment.

He seemed to listen and said that he would “talk” to Leto about it and get back to me, but he never did. And the threats continued so I went to him again and asked if he had done anything. He didn’t seem to want to talk about it, but finally said that yes he had mentioned it to Leto. That was it. Nothing more, and to be honest , that’s about as far as I thought it would go. I realized then that just as Leto had said...I was on my own in the station and had to hope it blew over. I just tried to keep my distance from Leto.

Of course it never works like that in “real life”, Leto’s threats continued. Until one day in the station. I had gone into the bathroom to wash my hands after pretriping my van and Leto followed me in. He again demanded money from me. I told him that though I was sorry I hit his car, it had been repaired and paid for by my insurance company and that he had no more money coming. That he may as well forget about trying to get extra money out of me because it wasn’t going to happen. He got very angry and threatened me again and then he left the bathroom.

I finished drying off my hands and left the bathroom. But as I was walking down the hallway Leto came up and attacked me with no warning. At times when he had threatened me before I had felt that he would attack me and kept my guard up , but this time he said nothing and I thought he was just going to walk past me. In fact it was ...as he passed me that he attacked. And I was totally unprepared for it and found myself on the floor.

Later in the hospital I would be told that I had a concussion and a badly injured shoulder and I was sent home. My manager Jim Herestofa wasn’t in the station at the time, but he called me later that evening at home. After I told him what happened he said that since it was Friday to just come back in Monday and they would take care of it then.

WELCOME TO FEDERAL EXPRESS...

When I reported to work Monday a different manager by the name of AL Ferrier handled the assault. He told me that Leto had said that ... “I must have fallen, and that he never even saw me”. Then Al Ferrier hands me a letter and tells me that the managers decided to give me a letter for “disruptive behavior”.

I asked Al , “ what is this letter for”?

“Well, the managers all talked it over and decided to give it to you,” he said.

“But what did I do to get a letter,” I asked.

“Well we just thought that you should have it,” he replied again.

“ But what did I do... that I get a letter for”, I again asked.

“What disruptive behavior did I do” I asked again.

“ Well I dunno”, was all he said.

“Was Mike Mitchell ( the senior station manager ) in on the decision to give me a letter,” I asked?

Al said that yes Mike knew all about it, and that he agreed with the other managers.

I couldn’t believe it. Leto had bragged that he was connected with the other managers (through drugs) and that they would take care of him, but this was unbelievable.

I said to Al, “ you mean that after Leto has threatened me right here in this station repeatedly for months, and after I went to my manager Herestofa about Leto’s threats, and he “supposedly” talked to Leto about them... Now when Leto jumps me in the station and I wind up in the hospital...that I am the one to get a write up for “disruptive Behavior’?

“Well yeah,” that’s what we decided to do,” Al answered.

“But even Leto said I didn’t do anything wrong”, I stated.

Al just looked at me.

“Did Leto get a “letter for disruptive behavior” too,” I asked him.

“No” he said, “only you.”

“So I’m asking you again Al, what did I do to get this letter for disruptive behavior” ?

“Look,” he finally said, “you can file a GFT ( guaranteed fair treatment ) grievance if you like”. “But I can tell you ...it won’t change anything, management at Federal basically does what it wants” he continued.

The last line about management should have been an “alarm” to my ears, but I was so mad at the time I wasn’t thinking straight.

I had previously worked in company’s where they had unions to protect workers from this kind of shit. I just couldn’t believe they were doing this to me. I knew that without a union I would have a hard time with this. Evidently it was ALL of management in the station together. And I stood little chance to beat them together.

But there was no way I was going to let them do this to me without a fight.

“Well I’m going to file a GFT ( Guaranteed Fair Treatment ) complaint”, I stated and walked out.

The next day I handed Al a GFT ( which is a kind of grievance letter ) . And when I didn’t get a response from it a week later I asked him about it.

“Oh that”, he said, I threw it in the trash can”.

“You’re not allowed to”, I said, “ isn’t it supposed to go to district headquarters”?

“Well I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere,” he replied.

So I filed another one and I never got a response from it either. Then I wrote directly to District Headquarters and included the GFT letter and explained that Al Ferrier had thrown away the first ones. I also included a complaint about the managers in the station . That they were using drugs and should be given drug tests. That maybe the whole station should be given drug tests. I had talked to a friend at Federal and he expressed doubts that I would get any justice from management. And that I could forget about a station wide drug test. He told me once before in Atlanta, Federal Express had so many complaints and stolen shipments that they did a station wide drug test and lost nearly the whole station. And they would NEVER do that again. He wished me luck but had little confidence that Federal’s management would ever be honest. And he was right ...nothing was done. I talked to my so called personnel representative who came down from the district. Boy was that a waste of time. No wonder Fedex doesn’t want a union. He couldn’t have been less help if he had been Leto’s father. I’m surprised he didn’t tell me to pay Leto the money and apologize. I even wrote to the Eastern Regional Director. And guess what....they referred it back to District Headquarters. It seemed to me that there was no way Federal was going to disrupt it’s operations at a station no matter what was going on there. I even contacted Headquarters in Memphis. I was desperate I felt that my job at Federal would be taken away from me and I hoped that just maybe someone in company headquarters would give a damn about decency and the safety of their employees. But I never found a single person in Personnel that gave a shit.

Meanwhile back home I had received a letter from “guess who” sent by U.S.mail. It was a letter with threats of death and newspapers clippings about people that had been crippled and killed. Also their were clippings of people getting fired from their jobs. The letter told me to pay the money or else I would wind up like the people in the clippings. I was so upset at the time that I couldn’t even tell my wife. I was just holding out hope that somehow someone in management would stand up and say ...”hold on this has gone far enough”. But they never did.

To be honest I just couldn’t believe that a major company like Federal Express would let a bunch of druggies get away with this and do nothing about it. I had heard so much about Federal and how fair they were with their workers .And yet they never did answer my GFT complaint , they refused to acknowledge that it even existed. And the letter for disruptive behavior would be in my personnel file forever. On top of all this I was in serious pain from the Leto’s assault. The injuries to my head passed but the shoulder injury turned out to be a torn rotor cuff. It was a very depressing time.

Then Leto struck again...

It was my son’s third Birthday and I was in Wilmington with my brother. I had taken along my son because it was his birthday and he wanted to be with Dad. We had parked the truck and as we started to cross the street I reached back to get my son’s hand. My brother had seen the Fedex van approaching and thought nothing about it.

( I had never told him about Leto and all the trouble, I was too embarrassed to tell anyone but my wife). Never in my life had I ever let anyone give me a hard time much less hit me and get away with it. But being married and having children to support sometimes forces you to put up with more shit than you normally would. As I turned around to face the street with my son’s hand in mine Leto veered his van towards me and struck my leg and ran over my foot leaving his tire print on my sneaker. He also brushed my surprised brother as he sped away. Fortunately no one was seriously injured though he missed my son by less than two feet.

We called the police and went to the hospital to get treated. When the cops got there they took the report and examined the injuries. They told us that they would arrest and prosecute Leto.

My wife arrived at the hospital extremely upset. After all not only her husband but also her only son was nearly killed by an ASSHOLE that had already caused me injury and both of us a lot of grief.

While we were at the hospital two Federal Express managers showed up. It was Jerry Salamone and Al Ferrier It was obvious they weren’t concerned about me or my son. . Jerry actually had a smirk on his face and Al looked like he was so stoned that he didn’t even know where he was. For all I know they both might have just done a line of cocaine. Al just stood there looking stupid with a blank look on his face like he wasn’t even there, or didn’t know he was there. Jerry said little and my wife who was very upset started screaming at him to get rid of that asshole Leto. Jerry just got a bigger smirk on his face and he and Al walked away.

It should have been a simple trial. But when money is involved it never is.. Instead of staying out of it like they had promised and letting it be settled in court between the police, Leto and me Federal Express hired the most expensive Law firm with the BEST lawyer in the entire state of Delaware. And I’ll always believe that they also influenced the judge. Though I have no way of proving it. Looking back over the years , there is no way that an HONEST judge could have found Leto not guilty. His log book showed that he was there at that time, there were two witnesses with injuries and his tire tread was on the top of my sneaker. That coupled with the past attack should have resulted in a conviction .

But Wilmington is a dirty little city with dirty little judges and it wouldn’t have been the first time that I had heard of a judge being bought in Wilmington. Nor would it be the first time that a major corporation had bought a judge. Especially if the CEO of that corporation was a man like FRED SMITH who had himself hit and KILLED a pedestrian and fled the scene without reporting the accident or stopping to see if the victim was alive or not and he got away with it..

Was that the “SMITH SYSTEM “ of defensive driving?

If you hit someone while driving just keep driving,...and get big lawyers to get you out of it.

IT certainly worked for him ...and for LETO too.

After the trial, just like Magic there was a job opening in Dover, Delaware for a courier. And I was asked to take it. I knew I was branded as a “non druggie and no thief” in the Wilmington station and that they were worried because I wouldn’t back down. I may not have won but I wouldn’t quit or back down and that bothered them. They wanted to be free to do their drugs and steal from the packages without looking over their shoulders. I knew that but for the sake of my family and keeping my job I did take the transfer to Dover .

The catch was...always before, the courier was paid for the long drive to and from Dover and you did it in a company van. It was a Forty-five mile ride which took about an hour to drive. And I had to do it in my own vehicle on my own time. It wasn’t right or fair but at least I had my job and I could pay my bills.

It was a small station in Dover and the couriers were more country like. Oh they may have done a little drugs but it was nothing like the open market in the other stations I had seen. And I doubt that they stole much if at all. They were basically good people that didn’t mind hard work and they worked together. They welcomed me in saying they knew all about the drugs and games that were played in Wilmington and other stations.

AND THEN...

I was trained to defraud the government and betray my country

As I said earlier , my manager COLIN BAINES instructed me to commit my first act of fraud. When he told me to treat a CSS shipment like common freight even though he was well aware that the customer was paying extra for special handling. But I never realized how much FRAUD was going on and I never would have guessed that Federal Express was committing FRAUD against the United States Government on a nationwide scale. Most of these shipments were classified sensitive military shipments . This was BETRAYING AMERICA and our MILITARY DEFENSES. Couldn’t you be shot for that I wondered or at least put in jail for a long time ?

It was Helen Wilson who trained me and showed me how they DEFRAUDED the MILITARY and the UNITED STATES.

She was training me on my new route in Dover, it was to include the Dover Air Force Base which shipped a lot of sensitive classified military shipments.

We were in the Dover Air force Base Bldg. 505 and there were CSS ( Constant Surveillance Shipments ) which meant that the shipments were CLASSIFIED and needed special surveillance and handling.

After we signed the paperwork and loaded the van ( it was like a large bread truck). She left the base and headed south away from our station. I asked her why we weren’t taking the classified ( CSS ) military shipments back to the station like we were supposed to. And she replied that “we” never do , that no one does. I was truly shocked. What if we get caught I asked. “Isn’t that a federal offense ? To which she replied ,” look , everybody does it all over the country don’t you think FRED has it covered? Those FUCKING IDIOTS in the military don’t have a clue of what’s going on. You see how stupid they are at the base, it’s that way all over America.”

“Besides,” she added, “that’s the way I was trained to do it and I’ve done it with managers and that’s the way they want it done. And it’s not going to change now”. She said every body at Federal Express does it, it’s no big deal, “so just do it like this.”

Helen also told me how She had sent items through Federal for free just by using a phony billing account number and a fictitious name for the sender and the recipient. Then she realized that it was easier and safer to just put an “express manifest” sticker on the package with a Priority One sticker”. “That way there was no way they could catch it,” Helen Explained, “that way, you could ship anything for free and it would still get there the next day . And according to her a lot of people at Federal Express were doing it for the same reasons.

. And we continued on our way NOT back to the station as Federal Express had

contracted with the military and other government branches to do and NOT as they were

being paid by the government to do, but instead we headed south to

do other pickups and deliveries. We NEVER went back to the station with CSS military shipments instead we would always leave these sensitive classified military shipments unguarded and out of our sight for periods of up to an hour. No wonder there was always so much stuff stolen at Federal Express. It seemed no one gave a shit about all the lost and stolen shipments. Many times they just lied to their customers about what happened to their valuables and other stuff.

When I was in the Wilmington station and my manager had told me to defraud Mercantile Press I did as I was told. But this was the military , this was the United States Government. This was crazy. I just couldn’t believe that Federal Express would commit fraud against the United States. Of course I didn’t know as much about Federal at that time, as I would later find out. Even then I had thought at first that maybe just maybe Fred Smith and top management in Memphis didn’t know that the CSS service was a sham. Maybe they didn’t know the Military was being ripped off. But in time I came to realize they knew quite well their CSS service was a rip-off and a fraud. This was without a doubt a conspiracy to commit fraud against the United States Government.

By staying out on a route and doing pickups and or deliveries the courier leaves the shipment unguarded and out of sight many times. Thus in this way it is handled like “common freight” and not given the constant surveillance the customer paid for. And which Federal Express contracted for and promised to provide to the government. These military shipments could be sabotaged or stolen or anything and Federal Express didn’t give a shit except for the money they were stealing from America. They were GREEDY BASTARDS with no morals or scruples, it just took time to realize it

Also each government CSS shipment had a DD1907 signature tally sheet ( Department of Defense ) attached to it. Which had to be signed by every person who handled the shipment Many times when the courier did finally return to his or her station, the CSS shipment was just thrown on the belt with the common freight. Rarely someone would sign for it but not often.. The DD1907 tally sheet shows this and also it shows that the person who takes the CSS shipment to the Ramp doesn’t sign for it either but hauls it up the road just like “common freight” which results in it being thrown on the belt along with the rest of the other common freight and then unto the plane again unsigned and unaccounted for.

Then it is taken to Memphis where someone “rarely” signs for the CSS shipment but most times doesn’t which again, was a violation of government regulations.

Then it is flown out to the airport of the state where it is to be delivered and most times perhaps always, again thrown in with the common freight and taken to the station where some courier will get the CSS shipment off the same belt ( where he will also get the other common freight ) and sometimes he will sign for it and sometimes not. But rarely if ever will there be someone to make him sign for the CSS shipment before he gets it.

Then he will mix it in with the “common freight” and deliver it where ever it comes up on his route and it is left out of his line of sight and he or she winds up being more than 150 feet away from it Again violating military and government regulations

Thus from the time it is picked up to the time it has been delivered...it has pretty much been handled like a common freight shipment. With no true constant visual contact and certainly no constant chain of signatures of the people who had custody of the shipment. Millions of dollars paid by the government for nothing...

A multi-million dollar fraud committed by Federal Express...against America There was much that I would learn from Helen, some would be stuff that I already knew and some came as a shock or at least as a surprise if that was possible. On about the second day of training while we on a lunch time break she went into her bag and removed a small case which held cocaine. As she opened it up she turned to me and asked if I wanted to “do a line” to which I declined. And at that she chided me saying something like” aw what’s the matter, are you scared ?” I tried to explain to her ...not on the job ( I didn’t do drugs at all and a number of times I had used that excuse to get out of being ostracized by the other couriers and management ) Then she went on to state that she had done cocaine with “ ALL “ the managers at ILG except the station manager Mike Mitchell. But that she knew he did cocaine with his girlfriend Aileen a courier in Wilmington. And, she explained, when she did drugs with the managers it was almost always on the job or at the station.

Then she went on to tell about her FIRST PERFORMANCE REVIEW at Federal Express. She had been there about five months and it was time for her review. Her manager was JERRY SALOMONE and they were out on her route. She was delivering in the Newark area on Baltimore Pike when she pulled up to this apartment house. SHE REACHES INTO THE BACK OF HER TRUCK AND PULLS OUT AN OVERNIGHT LETTER , THIS IS POT SHE SAYS TO JERRY, I DELIVER IT ALL THE TIME. SHE SAYS THE NEXT THING SHE KNOWS, JERRY SALOMONE IS RIPPING THE OVERNIGHT LETTER APART TO GET THE POT. SHE SAYS THERE IS ONLY TWO OUNCES OF POT IN THE OVERNIGHT LETTER THIS TIME AND JERRY STEALS ABOUT ONE AND A HALF OUNCES OF IT. THEN HE PUTS THE REST IN ANOTHER OVERNIGHT LETTER AND TELLS HER TO GO UPSTAIRS AND DELIVER THE REST TO THE DRUG DEALER. WHICH SHE DOES. THEN THEY DRIVE OVER TO HER APARTMENT AND GET HER POT PIPE AND SPEND THE REST OF THE DAY DOING HER ROUTE WHILE BEING STONED. TO TOP IT OFF SHE ONLY GOT A 4.0 ON HER PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND SHE WAS PISSED. SHE THOUGHT SHE WOULD GET A 7.0 FOR STEALING DRUGS WITH HER MANAGER. SHE SAID SOMETHING LIKE, “ BOY DID I GET FUCKED I SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN A 7.0

Little did she know that Jerry had already told me the same story and others at times when he was trying to convince me to bring him drug shipments for his personal use. I had been doing pickups in North Wilmington and had a customers sending out drugs in Overnight Letters. I hadn’t personally seen the drugs but I knew they were in the shipments and had gone to Jerry to tell him about it and see what I should do. His response was to bring it to him to try out. And in the conversation he mentioned that maybe he should go out on my route with me so he could see if any others were shipping drugs through Federal. He said that when he was out with Helen he had gotten some great pot. And that he had shown her and other couriers how to look for drugs in the shipments.

SHE LATER BRAGGED ABOUT STEALING COCAINE FROM ANOTHER OVERNIGHT LETTER GOING TO A STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE. SHE SAID THAT AL FERRIER HAD ALREADY TAKEN SOME BEFORE HER. AND THAT SHE OFTEN GOT HIGH IN THE FEDEX PARKING LOT IN THE MORNING WITH MANAGERS AND COURIERS.

It was not even surprising to me that it had happened. I believed the story. Because Jerry and Al Ferrier had tried to get me to bring them shipments of illegal drugs several times. And several times I had watched Al as he went through Overnight Letters and Courier Paks looking to find drugs and other valuables while we were in the station. And if nothing was in the packages he just put the mail into another container and switch the Airbills. And no one knew the difference. And Al left no doubt the drugs were for “HIS” personal use.

Often I would hear the couriers making drug deals on our two way radios in the trucks, Helen wasn’t lying , she was bragging and besides Helen was too dumb to lie.

She said that she had never STOLEN DRUGS before that time with JERRY but that since then she had done it many times and had gotten some very good drugs that way, and some other articles but she wouldn’t say what. She said every body does it, it’s no big deal.

With that SHE SNORTED UP THE COCAINE LIKE SHE HAD DONE IT A THOUSAND TIMES. As soon as she put the rest of the coke away she wanted to walk the Blue Hen Mall.. So off we went to walk I watched Helen do cocaine several times while she was training me on the route and a few times she would smoke a joint as she rode with me while I drove up to the Wilmington station at the end of the day. I didn’t feel too comfortable driving up the road while she smoked pot but she was well connected to Jerry and I realized nothing would happen to her. Most likely the best I could have done was get myself fired somehow. My thought’s at that time was to just stay as far away from management as possible. Besides I was more afraid that she would STEAL something out of the shipments and then blame me if there was any problems. She had told me how she would regularly go through Overnight Letters and Courier Paks looking for drugs and other stuff to steal. She said that sometimes she went into the shipments to see “just what” a particular customer was sending through Federal Express. The way she talked , she and many other couriers stole from shipments whenever she felt like it, which was often.

I finished my training on the route with Helen and took over to run it just as I was instructed to. But I would later come up with a plan to stop the fraud or at least slow it down somewhat. At least that was my plan.

On the following page is a drawing which demonstrates how a CSS shipment changes hands during transit and shows just how many signatures should be on a properly signed DD1907 signature tally sheet.

Later in the book I will show a number of DD1907 tally sheets from around the country and you will be able to see just how well the Federal Express CSS service actually did work. Or should I say how it “didn’t work”.

***THERE WILL BE A HARD COPY OF THIS DOCUMENT IN THE BOOK

As you can see when a CSS shipment is properly handled in transport there should be at least ( 8 ) signatures of the people who had possession and responsibility of the shipment and as many as ( 10 ) counting the signature of the shipper.. Also the shipment and the truck carrying it is NOT supposed to be out of the courier’s sight and more than 150 feet away from the courier. Most of the CSS shipments would have only one or two signatures on them. Which means they were being treated like common freight.

When a courier picks up a CSS shipment the only way to keep constant surveillance of the shipment is to take it directly back to the station. Otherwise the courier would lose sight of his truck when he goes into a building to make deliveries or other pickups. Or if the CSS shipment is a delivery the courier should make the CSS shipment his or her first stop for the same reasons.

It is a very simple thing to do. Just bring the CSS shipment back to the station after picking it up. Or if it is being delivered , just deliver it first. And have ALL responsible persons sign for it. Of course that would add cost to the shipment.

But by looking at the CSS DD1907 tally sheets a person can tell, just about every time ... the courier just keeps doing his or her route while making deliveries and or pickups while the CSS shipments are in his truck. You can tell that by the large gap in time between the sign offs on the DD1907 tally sheets ( not counting the signature of the Memphis hub if there is one ) , plus the different code letters which indicate the locations of the next person who did sign.

When a courier is out on his or her route doing pickups or deliveries the time between each stop should be about fifteen minutes or less and very rarely more than one half hour. So if a courier did pick up a CSS shipment the next signature should be within fifteen to thirty minutes later. And the courier who delivers a CSS shipment would normally have it delivered and signed off within 15-30 minutes after leaving the station

Of course doing it that way would cost Fedex extra money for the gas and the couriers time. And by ignoring the contract regulations Fedex could save millions of dollars. Just handle it like common freight...equals stolen money ...equals FRAUD

I have never heard of a stop being more than one hour away from another. And most times on the DD1907 tally sheets there would be hours even days between the time a courier picked up a CSS shipment and the next time someone signed for it. ( so where was the CSS shipment all that time.? ..In the back of the couriers truck while he was going in and out of buildings doing other pickups or deliveries or maybe even doing drugs as Helen did. Federal Express was making millions for a service they didn’t have.

Plus the fact that I had never seen a DD1907 tally sheet with the proper number of signatures ( most have as little as two or three not counting the shipper or the recipient ) as shown on the following pages. I am absolutely certain that the CSS service was a FRAUD. And after viewing numerous documents I feel certain that Management at Federal Express was involved in the conspiracy to defraud the United States and everyone else they could (fuck anyone and everyone they could). They sold and signed the contracts even though they knew they had no service.

So not only was the sensitive classified military CSS shipments ( intentionally ) not getting the constant surveillance to guard them, but also the people who had them weren’t signing the DD 1907 forms. They couldn’t even be tracked to one individual who would be accountable for them if they were lost or stolen.. And despite what Fedex tells it’s customers about their great tracking abilities with their packages, every time I have tried to track down both regular shipments and also CSS shipments my dispatcher was never able to find the missing packages.

For instance once after trying to find missing pieces of a classified military CSS shipment ( computers which were specially programmed to be used for a high security defense system for NATO in Europe ) for three days no one at Federal Express could find them and I had to deliver two parts of a five part shipment to the Dover Air Force Base and boy were they pissed about that.

On the following pages you will see seven DD1907 tally sheets .

The DD1907 stands for Department of Defense 1907 signature and tally form. Many times these classified sensitive military shipments were being transported all across America without anyone’s knowledge of what they were or where they were. And a lot of times either I or someone else just threw it into the back of my truck Sometimes I wouldn’t even know that I had a CSS military shipment on my truck until I was at the Dover Air Base and saw the paperwork on it. Because there was no one back at the Philadelphia ramp to sign for or take possession of these CSS shipments. I know that because I worked there. And no one at the Dover station knew anything about it unless they accidentally saw them. So the Military Constant Surveillance Shipments traveled from Memphis to Dover without anyone’s knowledge. They were loaded into a large can along with the regular freight while they were in Memphis. Then flown out all over the United States along with the common freight. This was a violation of the military contract regulations but that’s the way Fedex did it anyway. It saved a lot of time and money by doing it that way. Because if CSS shipments were treated just like common freight there would be no extra cost of handling them individually. Also in the Dover, Delaware station where I worked, there was no protective steel cage as was required by the regulations in the military contracts and no fire or burglar alarms or special security devices. Anyone could break in at anytime and unless they were observed by someone would call the police, no one would know.

Although I have many more, I have chosen DD1907’s from seven different locations to demonstrate that the violations were nationwide rather than just some isolated area or state.

1) The first 1907 “CSS signature and Tally Record” is from Tool, Utah.

One signature at 4:30pm another at 7:15pm ,one in Memphis 2:01 am ( the third signature is by DAFB personnel ) ( military time translated to standard time )

2) The second 1907 is from San Carlos, Ca. (Litton Systems Inc.)

The courier who picked up the CSS shipment signed for it at 2:45pm. The next signature is from E. Stokes in Memphis at 1:20am. ( who got it there ) and the last signature is from DAFB personnel .( who took it from Memphis to Dover Air Force Base ) ?

3) The third 1907 is from Camden NJ ( RCA )

The first courier signed for it at 3:15 PM. It went back to his station then the airport, then flown to Memphis, back to the Philadelphia Airport then driven to Dover station, then taken to DAFB. ALL on one signature. Second signature is from DAFB personnel.

4) The fourth 1907 is from Washington, D.C. ( sec. government shipment )

The pickup courier signed for it at 3:00pm. Next signature is (4) hours later, you can drive through D.C. four times in (4) hours. Note there were originally (5) pieces in shipment two were lost and could not be found. DAFB refused partial shipment for five days then finally gave up and took only two pieces I could find. ( they were pissed )

5) The fifth 1907 is from Denver, Co. ( DEA )

The courier picked it up at 3:20pm. It went to his station, then Denver airport, then Memphis, then to Philadelphia airport, then to Dover station, then delivered to DAFB.

ALL on (1) one signature. What a rip-off !!!!

6) The sixth 1907 is from Chambersburg, Pa. ( Letterkenny Army Depot )

Courier picked it up at 2:20pm. Next signature is in Memphis at 1:08AM and next signature is from DAFB personnel at 3:36PM.

7) The seventh 1907 is from Chambersburg, Pa. also

Note that there is only (1) signature on 1907 ...the pickup courier at 14:20PM. The second signature is from J. Resh DAFB personnel.

Notice that not one of these DD 1907 forms has my name on them, yet I delivered everyone of them and had every shipment in my possession. These were “classified military shipments” and I and many other Federal Express couriers and others had them in our possessions and no one would have known if we stole or sold them.

First of seven CSS 1907’s here. 7 pages.....

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second 1907 form here

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On the following three pages I have placed three documents. ( I have many more )

(1) a DD1907 tally sheet with only one signature of all the people that handled this classified shipment from Corpus Christi, TX. to San Diego ,CA.

(2) a Government Bill of Laden ( Military GBL ) which describes the shipment and it’s origin and destination.

(3) a pay voucher, which shows that Federal Express did in fact bill the government for handling this shipment and did charge them $15:00 for CSS service. The voucher is a statement of payment.

Note: I apologize that some of the copies are not quite that clear. Could it be that these were provided by Fedex ?

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