For Immediate Release: August 2, 2000

AKRON, Ohio—FedEx Custom Critical, Inc., North America’s largest time-specific, critical-shipment carrier, honored its top independent contractors with the Four Star Award in July. To reward the winners for their superior service and safe driving, the company treated them to an all-expenses paid weekend in Cleveland, complete with an awards gala, receptions and tours of the city. 

The inaugural Four Star Award was given to contractors in the FedEx Custom Critical fleet who excelled in the areas of service, safety, availability and load acceptance during the company’s fiscal year, which ran from June 1, 1999 to May 31, 2000. The winners of the award were brought to Cleveland for an awards gala at the Ritz-Carlton® Hotel. They also toured the FedEx Custom Critical headquarters in Akron, Ohio and attended a luncheon and reception in their honor at Firestone Country Club in Akron. 

“We wanted to reward those contractors who get the job done for us day in and day out by driving safely and providing outstanding service,” says Virginia Albanese, managing director, service and safety. “These contractors truly set the standard for professionalism in trucking.”

The following independent contractors received the inaugural FedEx Custom Critical Four Star Award: (Base ExpressCenter in parentheses) 
James and Bonnie Allan (Orlando, Fla.)
Stanley Backiel (Hartford, Conn.)
Armand Barrett (Hartford, Conn.)
Chris Beneteau (Pontiac, Mich.)
Lester Bennett (Bridgeport, Conn.)
Sandor Bodi (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
William and Donna Bolssen (Appleton, Wis.) 
Alberto Bonilla (Elk Grove Village, Ill.)
Perri Brooks and Bille Phillips (St. Louis, Mo.)
Jacek Bugno (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Ed Coleman (Knoxville, Tenn.)
Mieczyslaw Daczuk (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
Dean Curtis (Dearborn, Mich.)
Wlodzimier Dyksinski (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Christopher Finnegan (Bridgeport, Conn.)
Dale Fish (Raleigh, N.C.)
Michael Flynn (Providence, R.I.)
Richard Fox (South Bend, Ind.)
Jerry Furnish (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Marian Gherga (Elk Grove Village, Ill.)
Andrzej Gorniak (Bedford Park, Ill.)
Charles Gruber (Milwaukee, Wis.)
Fred and Maggie Heard (Atlanta, Ga.)
Herman Hetager (Tampa, Fla.)
Frank Hickman (Bristol, Tenn.)
John Jablonski (Elk Grove Village, Ill.)
Wayne and Sandra Janiszeski (Minneapolis, Minn.)
Larry Karnik (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
Thomas Kasper (Mansfield, Ohio)
William Kennedy (Cleveland, Ohio)
Kenneth Klann (Dearborn, Mich.)
Oumar Koyate (Springfield, Mass.)
Raymond (Skip) and Carolyn Krider (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
Michael Luallen (Pontiac, Mich.)
Robert McEldowney (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
Michael Mocere (Muskegan, Mich.)
Andrzej Olender (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Thomas and Donna Park (Little Rock, Ark.)
Clarence Reed (Milwaukee, Wis.)
Robert and Cori Sackrider (Lansing, Mich.)
Tadeusa Stoklosa (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) 
Milton Stoltzfus (Wilmington, Del.)
Dennis Strandell (Traverse City, Mich.)
Melvin Thomas (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Sidney White (Atlanta, Ga.)
Waldemar Wielgat (Elk Grove Village, Ill.)
Jonathon Yoder (South Bend, Ind.)

FedEx Custom Critical provides exclusive-use, time-specific, non-stop, door-to-door shipping service throughout the U.S. and Canada and within Europe. Among its divisions are White Glove Services®, for shipments that require special care in handling, and CharterAir®, which offers an array of expedited air solutions to meet customers’ critical delivery times. FedEx Custom Critical is an operating subsidiary of FedEx Corp.

With annual revenues of $18 billion, FedEx Corp. is the premier global provider of transportation, logistics, e-commerce and supply chain management services. The company offers integrated business solutions through a network of subsidiaries operating independently, including: FedEx Express, the world's largest express transportation company; FedEx Ground, North America's second largest provider of small-package ground delivery service; FedEx Logistics, an integrated logistics, technology and transportation-solution company; FedEx Custom Critical, the world's largest provider of expedited time-critical shipments and FedEx Trade Networks, providing customs brokerage, consulting, information technology and trade facilitation solutions. More than 2.5 million customers are connected electronically through the FedEx information network and approximately two-thirds of its U.S. domestic transactions are now handled on-line.