How to Evaluate a FedEx MESO Offer (Step by Step, with an Example)

To evaluate a FedEx MESO offer, work out what each option pays per week at your real volume, then again at volumes 10 to 30 percent above and below it, and compare how much of each option's pay is fixed. A MESO (Multiple Equivalent Simultaneous Offers) usually comes as three options built to pay about the same at one volume. The differences show up when volume moves, so the option that looks best at the middle is often not the one that protects you in a bad year. If you're new to the term, start with what a MESO is.

How to evaluate it, step by step

1. Gather every option. All the offers in the round, usually three, with their rate tables and any changes to your Schedule A service area.
2. Get your real volume from your settlements. Weekly stops and packages for the last 52 FedEx weeks (Saturday to Friday), with Peak and the slow weeks marked. Use the projection in the offer paperwork too, but as one scenario, not the only one.
3. Rebuild each option's weekly pay. Fixed charges, plus per-stop and per-package charges times your volume, plus e-commerce, plus any other charge types the option lists. Use the same formula for every option.
4. Run each option at several volumes. Your current volume, then 5, 10, 15 and 30 percent above and below it. Real years land at the edges: a lost pickup customer, a new subdivision, a heavy Peak.
5. Find each option's fixed floor. The pay you receive whatever the volume does. A higher floor protects you when volume falls.
6. Find where the options cross. The volume at which one option starts paying more than another tells you which one you're betting on.
7. Read everything besides the rates. Term length, start date, service area changes, and anything that changes how many routes or trucks you need. A higher-paying option that needs another truck can pay you less.
8. Decide before the deadline, in writing. Note why you chose the option you did. The next MESO will ask the same question, and the reasoning is worth keeping.

A worked example

These three options are made up and much simpler than a real offer, which carries more charge types. The rates are chosen so the arithmetic is easy to follow. They are not typical rates and not a guide to what an offer should contain.

• Option A: $6,000 a week fixed, plus $1.50 per stop
• Option B: $3,000 a week fixed, plus $2.25 per stop
• Option C: $4,500 a week fixed, plus $1.90 per stop

At 4,000 stops a week, the volume the offer assumes:

• A: $6,000 + 4,000 × $1.50 = $12,000
• B: $3,000 + 4,000 × $2.25 = $12,000
• C: $4,500 + 4,000 × $1.90 = $12,100

At the middle, C looks best by $100 a week. Now move the volume:

• 10 percent lower (3,600 stops): A pays $11,400, C $11,340, B $11,100.
• 10 percent higher (4,400 stops): B pays $12,900, C $12,860, A $12,600.

So the real choice is about risk. A has the highest floor ($6,000 a week however volume moves) and wins if volume falls. B wins if volume grows, and loses most if it drops. C sits between them. Which one is right depends on what you believe about your territory, and the middle number alone doesn't tell you.

Common questions

How many options does a MESO have?

Usually three. Evaluate all of them, including the one you expect to reject: it shows you what the others are trading away.

Is the option with the highest weekly total the best one?

Not necessarily. At the offer's own volume, the options are built to land close together. Compare them across a range of volumes and look at how much of each is fixed.

What volume should I use?

Your own last 52 weeks of settlements first, then the projection in the offer. If they disagree, find out why before you choose.

Fixed or variable: which is safer?

Fixed pay is steadier when volume falls. Variable pay grows with volume. Neither is better in general: a dense, growing territory and a rural, seasonal one point different ways.

What else should I read besides the rates?

Term, start date, service area changes, and anything that changes your route or truck count. Our list of questions to ask before signing covers the contract side.

Having it done for you

Your AI contract analyst in Route Impact does this for a one-time $199, no subscription needed. Upload the MESO paperwork. It rebuilds every option, runs each at the volume projected in the offer and at 5 and 10 percent above and below it, with 15 and 30 percent stress cases, and shows how much of each option is fixed and where the options cross. It recommends the option with the highest fixed weekly floor and shows what each one pays at the projection, so you can see what you'd be trading. However you do the math, do it before the deadline: it's the one point in the contract cycle where the analysis can still change the outcome.