Route for sale: FedEx Ground CSA, St. Louis metro — $1.71M settlement-verified revenue
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Settlement glossary

What Is a FedEx ISP? ISP vs. TSP vs. CSA, Explained

Route Impact Team

A FedEx ISP (Independent Service Provider) is a business that contracts with FedEx Ground for package pickup and delivery in a defined service area, using its own employees and its own trucks. A TSP (Transportation Service Provider) is the linehaul counterpart: it hauls FedEx trailers between stations and hubs. A CSA (Contracted Service Area) is the territory an ISP agreement covers, written into the agreement as a list of ZIP codes and street ranges.

The details below come from FedEx's contracting FAQ, its annual report for the year ended May 31, 2026, and an ISP agreement (version 2024.06.01) filed publicly with the SEC. Agreements differ, and your own is the one that counts.

A note on names: on June 1, 2024, FedEx Ground was merged into Federal Express Corporation, according to the annual report, and the filed agreement is with Federal Express Corporation. It still names FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery as the services the ISP provides, and contractors still say FedEx Ground.

ISP, TSP, CSA and CSP at a glance

  • ISP: Independent Service Provider. Pickup and delivery. FedEx offers ISP contracting in the U.S. pickup and delivery sector. Its FAQ describes the work as picking up packages from shippers and bringing them to the local FedEx station, then delivering from the destination station to businesses and homes. FedEx says the service provider acquires its vehicles, hires and trains its drivers, and manages its daily operations.
  • TSP: Transportation Service Provider. Linehaul. FedEx's FAQ describes linehaul as hauling FedEx-owned trailers from station to hub, hub to hub and hub to station, with tractors as the only vehicles allowed. FedEx's TSP page says TSPs are independent corporations paid weekly on all miles, loaded or empty.
  • CSA: Contracted Service Area. The territory an ISP agreement covers. FedEx's FAQ says it can be one or more contiguous full or partial ZIP codes and street address ranges, business and residential. In the filed agreement, Schedule A defines it, and Attachment A-1 lists it by number with its ZIP codes. More in what a CSA is at FedEx Ground.
  • CSP. You'll see this abbreviation too. FedEx's U.S. contracting pages and the filed 2024 agreement don't use it; they say ISP and TSP. FedEx's European contracting pages use CSP for Contracted Service Provider. We haven't found a U.S. FedEx page that defines it.

Five things an ISP agreement settles

  1. The ISP is a corporation. FedEx's FAQ says it contracts with for-profit corporations, and not with LLCs, LLPs, sole proprietorships or partnerships. In the filed agreement, the ISP warrants that it is a corporation (section 6.1) and agrees to stay registered and in good standing for the whole term.
  2. One CSA per agreement, per station. FedEx's FAQ allows a maximum of one contracted service area per service provider, per station, per agreement. An owner running more than one CSA therefore holds them under separate agreements, at separate stations or through separate corporations.
  3. A fixed term. The FAQ says the parties agree on an effective date and an expiration date, typically 1 to 2 years apart. The filed agreement ran from October 12, 2024 to January 30, 2026, and section 15.4 says it has no provision for renewal. To keep contracting, the FAQ says, a service provider follows FedEx's End of Agreement process. See what a FedEx MESO is.
  4. Selling needs FedEx's written consent. Under section 17 of the filed agreement, neither party may assign it without the other's prior written consent, which "will not be unreasonably withheld." A change in control of the ISP, including a sale of its stock, counts as an assignment. FedEx isn't obligated to consider an assignment the ISP proposes within 120 calendar days of the expiration date.
  5. The owner doesn't have to drive. The FAQ says business owners aren't required to drive or hold a license to. The ISP employs its drivers and carries what an employer carries: wages, employment taxes, workers' comp and compliance with employment law.

FedEx pays the ISP weekly, based on stops and packages, at the rates in the agreement's Schedule C. See how FedEx Ground contractors get paid and how to read your Schedule C. This is a summary of FedEx's public pages and one filed agreement, not legal advice.

How many FedEx ISPs are there?

FedEx's 10-K for the year ended May 31, 2026 says Federal Express contracts with approximately 5,300 independent small businesses for linehaul and pickup-and-delivery operations. That figure counts both kinds together. FedEx's TSP page puts the number of linehaul TSPs at 1,787. The two figures come from different documents, so subtracting one from the other doesn't give a reliable ISP count, and we haven't found a FedEx figure for pickup-and-delivery ISPs alone.

A worked example

A made-up operation, to show how the terms fit together. The names and codes are an example, not real ones or typical figures.

  • The ISP: Example Delivery Inc., a corporation with an ISP agreement for one CSA, serviced from one FedEx station.
  • The CSA: the agreement's Attachment A-1 names it CSA 100001 and lists its ZIP codes.
  • The pay: each Saturday-to-Friday week, FedEx pays Example Delivery at its Schedule C rates, and the settlement statement shows CSA 100001.
  • Growth: the owner buys a second corporation that holds CSA 100002 at another station. FedEx has to consent to that change in control. Afterwards the owner runs two CSAs under two agreements, each with its own Schedule C and its own settlement.

FMCSA's CSA is something else

At the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, CSA stands for Compliance, Safety, Accountability, FMCSA's safety compliance and enforcement program for motor carriers. Its Safety Measurement System uses roadside inspection and crash data from the last two years, plus investigation data, to identify carriers with safety problems. When someone mentions a "CSA score," they usually mean FMCSA's program, not a FedEx service area.

Common questions

Is a FedEx ISP a franchise?

No. FedEx's FAQ says FedEx and its service providers don't have a franchisor-franchisee relationship.

Can an LLC be a FedEx ISP?

No. FedEx's FAQ says it doesn't contract with LLCs, and that service providers register as an S or C corporation.

Is owning an ISP the same as owning FedEx routes?

It's what people mean by it. The agreement covers a CSA, not routes: FedEx's 10-K describes route technology that service providers may use to plan delivery routes and vehicle mix. So "buying routes" means buying a business that holds an ISP agreement. See how to buy a FedEx Ground route.

What does it take to become a new ISP?

FedEx's opportunity page says the ideal candidate has experience running an S or C corporation with W-2 employees, can invest at least $100,000, and can own or long-term lease a fleet.

Does FedEx still use ISPs under Network 2.0?

Yes. The 10-K says that under Network 2.0, FedEx uses both employee couriers and service providers. See how Network 2.0 affects contractors.

Keeping each CSA's numbers separate

Route Impact exists to make FedEx Ground operations more profitable. Your AI staff finds the profit in the contract you sign, the routes you run, the drivers you pay, the trucks you keep and the books you close, and it keeps each CSA's numbers apart. Each settlement week is recorded per CSA. Your AI settlement auditor checks a statement's stop and package rates, service charge and brand promotion only against the Schedule C on file for the same CSA, and runs no rate checks when the codes don't match. A conversation with your AI Chief of Staff is tied to one CSA and reads only that CSA's settlements, payroll, trucks and books. We're operators too, and margins in this business are too tight to run the way they used to be run. To try it on one week first, run a statement through the free teardown.