> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Priority Overnight Service Promise, FedEx > % of FedEx Priority Overnight / First Overnight consignments delivered next-business-day-by-10:30. The flagship FedEx promise (~99% contract... How to read... **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Shipping & Courier](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > % of FedEx Priority Overnight / First Overnight consignments delivered next-business-day-by-10:30. The flagship FedEx promise (\~99% contracted). ## At a glance > Share of FedEx Priority Overnight and First Overnight shipments delivered by their published next-business-day clock-time commit (typically 10:30 ET / 09:00 ET respectively). FedEx's flagship money-back-guarantee tier; the contractual benchmark is roughly 99%. Anything under 97% in steady-state means structural network stress or address-quality issues, not noise. | | | | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(shipments WHERE service IN ('PRIORITY_OVERNIGHT','FIRST_OVERNIGHT') AND actualDeliveryDateTime <= scheduledDeliveryClockTime) / COUNT(qualifying shipments)`. Unlike the all-services [On-Time Delivery Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/fedex/on-time-delivery-rate), this card scores against the **clock-time commit**, not the date-only commit. | | **Delivery success criterion** | FedEx Tracking API posts a Code 01 (DL) Delivered scan with `actualDeliveryDateTime` populated to the second. The card compares this stamp to the per-service commit hour: 10:30 local time at destination for Priority Overnight; 09:00 for First Overnight (and 08:00 for First Overnight Extra-Early ZIPs). | | **On-time threshold** | No grace window. A 10:31 delivery against a 10:30 commit counts as late. FedEx's own scoring uses the same rule, which is what makes the money-back-guarantee claim valid. | | **Money-back guarantee** | This card is one of the few where MBG semantics and the on-time number are tightly linked. Every late shipment on this card is a refund-claimable shipment via [FedEx Billing Online → Money-Back Guarantee](https://www.fedex.com/wpor/web/jsp/login.jsp), file within 15 calendar days of ship date. The card is also a finance-recovery feed; treat each late shipment as a $30 to $80 refund opportunity. | | **Returns / RTO** | Excluded. Code 70 / RTS shipments do not count in numerator or denominator. | | **Service level scope** | Priority Overnight and First Overnight only. Standard Overnight (commits next-business-day-by-EOD) is in [On-Time Delivery Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/fedex/on-time-delivery-rate), not here. The two are distinct contractual promises with different price points. | | **Saturday delivery** | First Overnight does not deliver Saturday by default; Priority Overnight Saturday Delivery is an opt-in surcharge service. The card respects the per-service business-day calendar, so a Friday-tendered Priority Overnight without Saturday flag commits to Monday. | | **Service-disruption exclusions** | FedEx publishes a [Service Updates](https://www.fedex.com/serviceupdates) feed listing named-storm and wildfire-affected ZIPs where the MBG is suspended. The card does **not** auto-exclude these; raw `actualDeliveryDateTime` is used. The portal-vs-card gap during named disruptions can be 2 to 4 percentage points (FedEx will be higher). | | **Peak-period seasonality** | Q4 degrades this rate by 1 to 4 percentage points (smaller than Ground because Express has dedicated capacity). Memphis SuperHub bottleneck and weather-rerouted aircraft are the main drivers. | | **Time window** | `30D` (rolling 30 days) | | **Alert trigger** | `<99%` (warn). A 99% contractual rate trips an alert any time it slips, the threshold is intentionally tight given the premium service class. | | **Sentiment key** | `on_time_delivery_rate` | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your FedEx data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A US B2B medical-device merchant relying on next-day delivery for clinical-trial sample shipping out of Memphis, TN. Reading taken at 14:00 CT on 12 Mar 26 for the trailing 30 days. | Service | Shipments | Delivered by clock commit | On-Time Rate | | ----------------------------- | --------- | ------------------------- | ------------ | | Priority Overnight (10:30 ET) | 442 | 433 | 98.0% | | First Overnight (09:00 ET) | 38 | 38 | 100.0% | | **All Overnight (this card)** | **480** | **471** | **98.1%** | The card reads **98.1%** on the dial; the alert at \<99% has tripped (warn). Five things to notice: 1. **The 9 missed shipments are each a refund opportunity.** Average freight on Priority Overnight is $48; total claimable refund is roughly $432 (file via FedEx Billing Online within 15 calendar days). Operations should not just monitor the card, they should run a weekly script to identify the 9 tracking numbers and file the claims. Recovered freight goes to the bottom line; missed claims are pure leakage. 2. **First Overnight is at 100% because volume is small and routing is exceptional.** First Overnight uses dedicated aircraft routing through Memphis at 04:00 hub-sort. Below 50 shipments/period the rate either reads 100% or has visible single-shipment swings; do not over-interpret. 3. **The 1.9 ppt slip from contract is mostly Memphis hub re-sort delays.** FedEx's Memphis SuperHub re-sorts inbound feeders into Express belly-cargo aircraft between 23:00 and 03:00 CT. Weather diversions to Indianapolis or Greensboro alternate hubs add 2 to 4 hours to morning delivery. Of the 9 misses, root cause was: 5 weather, 2 customer address quality (suite-number missing), 1 customer-not-home redelivery, 1 unexplained scan gap (claim still filed; FedEx investigates). 4. **Compare against [On-Time Delivery Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/fedex/on-time-delivery-rate).** The all-services card for the same merchant reads 93.9%; the 4.2 ppt premium for Express services is structural (dedicated capacity, money-back-guarantee discipline). Express slip below 95% is a real network-stress flag; below 97% is amber for premium tiers. 5. **Q4 will be worse.** This same merchant ran 96.8% on Priority Overnight in their 30 Nov 25 reading, a 1.3 ppt drop from typical. Plan for the seasonal degradation; do not expect the contractual 99% in mid-December. Note: this card pairs naturally with [International Customs-Hold Rate by Lane](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/fedex/international-customs-hold-rate-by-lane) for international Overnight shipments (FedEx International Priority Overnight has its own clock-time commits at major destination airports). For exports, customs holds account for nearly all misses; the lane card disaggregates. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together The Priority Overnight subset is the premium tier of the on-time-delivery family. Pair it with these to manage both performance and refund recovery. | Card | Why pair it with Priority Overnight Service Promise | What the combination tells you | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [On-Time Delivery Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/fedex/on-time-delivery-rate) | The all-services aggregate. | Express tier should run 4 to 8 ppt above the all-services number. If the gap closes, Express is degrading specifically and merits a FedEx account-team escalation. | | [Avg Shipping Cost](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/fedex/avg-shipping-cost) | Cost denominator. | Each missed Priority Overnight is a $30 to $80 refund-claimable shipment. The recovered amount should be visible in this card 7 to 14 days after claim filing. | | [Late Shipments](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/fedex/late-shipments) | Absolute count. | The percentage smooths volume swings. The count is what the operations team works through to file claims; one row per late shipment. | | [Exception Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/fedex/exception-rate) | Lead indicator. | Express exception scans (Code 07 EX, 12 HD, 67 CD for international Express) lead misses by 4 to 12 hours. Faster signal than this card. | | [International Customs-Hold Rate by Lane](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/fedex/international-customs-hold-rate-by-lane) | International Overnight subset. | International Priority shipments have separate clock-time commits at major airports (e.g. London Heathrow 10:30 GMT). Customs holds dominate international misses; this card pools them. | | [Shipments by Service](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/fedex/shipments-by-service) | Mix context. | A volume mix-shift from Priority Overnight to 2Day during peak (cost-cutting) lowers the qualifying-denominator for this card. | | Cross-connector: [`shopify.unfulfilled_orders`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/unfulfilled-orders) | Upstream input. | A backlog of unfulfilled orders forces Express upgrades to recover schedule, raising volume on this card temporarily. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in FedEx's own dashboard:** [FedEx Reporting Online](https://www.fedex.com/wpor/web/jsp/login.jsp) → **Reports → Service Performance → On-Time Performance**, filtered to *Priority Overnight + First Overnight, Last 30 Days*. For refund-claim reconciliation, see *FedEx Billing Online → Money-Back Guarantee → Eligible Shipments*; the eligible-shipments list should match the late-shipment count from this card 1:1, minus any shipments where MBG was suspended due to declared service disruption. **Why our number may legitimately differ from FedEx's portal:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | --------------------------------- | --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Service-disruption exclusions** | FedEx may show higher | FedEx suspends MBG for shipments to ZIPs flagged in [Service Updates](https://www.fedex.com/serviceupdates) (named hurricanes, blizzards, wildfires). The portal excludes those from the rate; the card includes them. During a disruption month, the gap can be 1 to 4 ppt. | | **Clock-time precision** | \<1% off | FedEx Tracking API timestamps to the second; the card uses the seconds-precise commit. The portal sometimes rounds to the minute, which can flip a 10:30:42 delivery from "late" (card) to "on-time" (portal) on a 10:30 commit. | | **Time zone** | Boundary cases | The commit clock-time is local to the destination ZIP (10:30 ET in NYC, 10:30 PT in LA). The card respects this; portal default reflects shipper's billing time zone, which can confuse multi-region accounts. | | **Address-correction holds** | Either | FedEx Code 09 (NF, address-not-found) holds the parcel until the shipper or recipient corrects the address. If the original commit slipped and the corrected address met a revised commit, the portal scores against the revised commit; the card scores against the original. The portal is more lenient here. | | **Saturday-delivery handling** | Either | First Overnight Saturday is opt-in surcharge. A Friday-tendered Priority Overnight without Saturday flag commits to Monday on both card and portal, but the booking record may show Saturday for some legacy contracts. Verify the `shippingChargesPayment` and `specialServicesRequested` arrays on the booking. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`usps.usps_priority_otd`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/usps/priority-mail-otd) | Peer premium service (USPS Priority Mail Express). Independent populations. | USPS Priority Mail Express has a much weaker contractual commitment than FedEx Priority Overnight; expected on-time differs by 5 to 12 ppt structurally. | | [`shopify.refund_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/refund-rate) | Downstream impact. | Late Express deliveries to first-time customers drive higher refund-and-replace rates than late Ground (because customers paid a premium). 1 ppt slip on this card correlates with 0.2 to 0.5 ppt rise in 14-day refund rate. | ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **What's the difference between Priority Overnight and First Overnight?** Both are next-business-day services, but at different clock-time commits. **Priority Overnight** commits to 10:30 local time at destination for most metro ZIPs (12:00 noon for residential, 17:00 for some rural). **First Overnight** commits to 09:00 (08:00 in extra-early ZIPs in major business districts). First Overnight uses dedicated aircraft routing through Memphis SuperHub at 04:00 hub-sort and is roughly 35% more expensive. Use First Overnight for clinical-trial samples, time-critical legal docs, and high-value B2B; Priority Overnight for everything else next-day. **How do I file an MBG refund claim, and what proof is needed?** Open [FedEx Billing Online](https://www.fedex.com/wpor/web/jsp/login.jsp) → **Money-Back Guarantee → File a Claim**. Enter the tracking number; FedEx pre-populates the commit time, actual delivery time, and freight charge. Approve the claim, no proof needed beyond the tracking record. Filing window is 15 calendar days from ship date; miss the window and the claim is declined. Refunds typically post to the next billing cycle (5 to 14 days). Refunds cover freight only, not surcharges or declared-value insurance. **FedEx says my shipment was delivered at 10:30:42, the card says late, who's right?** The card is right. The contractual commit is "by 10:30", which means delivery must complete at or before 10:30:00. A 10:30:42 timestamp is 42 seconds late and the MBG applies. FedEx's portal sometimes rounds to the minute and shows on-time; file the claim referencing the seconds-precise scan, which the FedEx system stores even if the portal display rounds. Claims based on second-precision late timestamps are routinely approved. **My customer says the package arrived "around 10:30" but the card says late. Can I trust the card?** Yes. The customer's "around 10:30" is a recollection; the card uses the FedEx scan-event timestamp, which is recorded by the courier's handheld at handoff and is the contractually authoritative time. Trust the card. **What happens during a declared service disruption (named storm, wildfire)?** FedEx publishes affected ZIPs at [www.fedex.com/serviceupdates](https://www.fedex.com/serviceupdates) and suspends the MBG for those ZIPs. The card does **not** auto-exclude these shipments, so the rate may legitimately drop. The portal excludes them. During an active disruption month the card may read 1 to 4 ppt lower than the portal; both numbers are right, they answer different questions. For finance reconciliation, pull the ZIP-level disruption list for the period and exclude manually before filing claims (FedEx will deny disruption-period claims). **Can I upgrade the alert threshold from \<99% to something tighter, like \<99.5%?** Yes, the workspace owner can configure per-card sentiment thresholds in Vortex IQ Settings → Sentiment. The default of 99% reflects the FedEx contractual baseline; large enterprise shippers with negotiated 99.9% promises tighten it. Go below 99.5% only if your volume is high enough that single-shipment swings do not noise out the signal (>500 Overnight shipments / 30D recommended). **Do First Overnight Saturday and Priority Overnight Saturday Delivery count?** Saturday delivery is opt-in via the `specialServicesRequested` array at booking. When booked Saturday, the card uses the Saturday clock-time commit (10:30 ET for Priority Overnight Saturday). When not booked Saturday, a Friday-tendered shipment commits to Monday. The card respects whichever option was booked. **Why do FedEx First Overnight numbers swing more than Priority Overnight?** Volume. Most merchants ship under 50 First Overnight per month, so a single late shipment moves the rate by 2 percentage points. Priority Overnight typically has 5x to 20x the volume and reads more steadily. Pool both into this card unless you have specific reason to separate; the alert threshold is calibrated for the pooled volume. **Should I shift cost-sensitive Overnight to FedEx 2Day?** Often yes. FedEx 2Day commits to end-of-day on the second business day; the cost is roughly 40% to 60% of Priority Overnight. For non-urgent next-day shipments where the customer expectation is "fast" rather than "by 10:30 tomorrow", 2Day captures most of the perceived speed at much lower cost. The card focuses on the genuine 10:30 commit; everything that does not need it should not be on Priority Overnight. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Priority Overnight Service Promise* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across FedEx and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. 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