How Do FedEx Ground Contractors Get Paid?

FedEx pays its pickup and delivery contractors once a week, by electronic transfer, for each Saturday-to-Friday week of work, at the rates negotiated in the contractor's agreement: a weekly service charge, a charge for every stop and every package, a fuel surcharge indexed to diesel prices, and extra pay for stops above a daily threshold during Peak. That payment is the business's revenue, not anyone's wage. The contractor pays its own drivers, trucks, fuel and insurance out of it.

The details below come from a FedEx Independent Service Provider Agreement (version 2024.06.01) that Elite Express Holding filed publicly with the SEC in 2025. Rates are confidential and differ from one agreement to the next. The structure is what this agreement shows, and your own agreement is the one that counts.

What's in the weekly payment

• Service charge. A negotiated amount paid weekly. The agreement lets FedEx reduce it proportionately for any service day without the contracted level of coverage.
• Stop charge or e-commerce stop charge. Every stop is paid one or the other, never both. The stop charge covers stops where a FedEx Ground package is picked up or delivered, FedEx Express deliveries to commercial locations, and every pickup stop. All other stops are paid the e-commerce stop charge.
• Package charge. Paid for each package picked up or delivered at a stop.
• Fuel surcharge. Paid per stop. It rises or falls by the same percentage that the average weekly diesel price is above or below a base pump price set in the agreement, so it changes every week by design.
• Surge stop charge. During Peak, paid on top of the stop charge for each stop above the Daily Stop Threshold. See surge and peak charges.
• Brand promotion. Optional. A weekly apparel charge for drivers in FedEx apparel, and a vehicle charge for enrolled trucks carrying FedEx branding. See brand promotion charges.
• Advance contract service charge. Only if negotiated. It's a one-time payment within fifteen business days of the agreement's start, not a weekly line. If the agreement ends early or is assigned, the contractor repays a share proportionate to the weeks left.

All of these rates are listed in the agreement's Schedule C. See how to read your Schedule C.

When the money arrives

The agreement says FedEx pays "on a weekly basis, in arrears" by electronic funds transfer, and that payment is made no later than seven days after the end of the weekly payment period, which runs Saturday through Friday. Each week's charges are reported on a settlement statement in FedEx's portal. FedEx's own contracting FAQ says the same thing more briefly: service providers are paid an agreed-upon amount based on stops and packages delivered, weekly.

What comes out before you're paid

The agreement limits what FedEx can charge back against a payment to garnishments, levies or attachments, adjustments required by law, adjustments the contractor consents to in writing at the time, and chargebacks the contractor has authorized. Those appear on the statement as deductions. See what comes out of a settlement.

A worked example: counting stops

Because most of the pay is per stop, what counts as a stop matters. These examples follow the definitions in the filed agreement.

• A pickup and a delivery at the same address on one visit: one stop.
• A mailroom where a driver drops packages for twelve recipients: one stop, with a package charge for each package.
• A customer with both FedEx Express and FedEx Ground pickup service, visited once: one stop.
• A scheduled pickup where the customer had nothing to send: still a pickup stop. A visit after the pickup was canceled is not.
• A delivery the recipient refuses: still a delivery stop.

That's why two routes with the same number of packages can earn very different amounts: one with dense business deliveries earns fewer stop charges than one spread across rural driveways. More in per-stop vs. activity-based charges.

Common questions

Does FedEx pay the drivers?

No. FedEx pays the contractor's corporation, which employs the drivers and pays them on its own payroll, usually by the day, the hour or the stop. See driver pay structures.

How often do FedEx Ground contractors get paid?

Weekly. In the filed agreement, each Saturday-to-Friday week is paid in arrears, no later than seven days after that Friday.

Is a FedEx contractor paid by the package or by the stop?

Both. Each stop earns a stop charge (or an e-commerce stop charge), and each package picked up or delivered earns a package charge. Fuel is paid per stop too.

How are linehaul contractors paid?

Differently. FedEx's linehaul page describes weekly payments on all miles, loaded or empty, at a mileage rate that varies by trip length. This article covers pickup and delivery.

How do I know I was paid the right rates?

Divide each line's dollars by its units and compare the result with your Schedule C, week by week. See how to audit a settlement against your rate card.

Knowing what every week paid

Your AI settlement auditor in Route Impact reads each weekly statement and tells you what the week paid and why it moved. It checks the stop and package rates, service charge and brand promotion against the Schedule C on file, and flags anything unusual for your review. To see it on one week first, run a statement through the free teardown.