CHARLOTTE, NC, March 5, 2001 — The first phase of a business alliance between the United States Postal Service and FedEx Express began today with the activation of FedEx drop boxes at 82 post office locations throughout the Charlotte area. With the activation of the FedEx drop box located on the grounds of Charlotte's Downtown Post Office at 201 N. McDowell Street, U.S. Postal Service Vice President Pam Gibert and FedEx Express President and CEO David J. Bronczek, officially began Phase I of the business alliance. FedEx drop boxes will eventually be located on the grounds of thousands of post offices throughout the country, with FedEx paying the Postal Service between $126 million and $232 million in fees over the next seven years. "Each day some seven million customers go to one of our 38,000 postal outlets nationwide," stressed Gibert, Vice President, Retail Consumer & Small Business, for the Postal Service. "This alliance gives FedEx Express the opportunity to offer their customers the convenience of dropping their FedEx packages into drop boxes located outside our post offices." This non-exclusive business agreement will eventually be open to any company that offers overnight package service with a national reach. In the second part of the alliance, the Postal Service will pay FedEx approximately $6.3 billion over seven years for shared access to the FedEx Express national air transportation network. The alliance could save the Postal Service $1 billion in transportation costs over the length of the contract.