When FedEx goes down, do three things first: confirm the outage is on their side, protect whatever the outage is breaking in your store, and tell affected customers before they find out the hard way. This playbook walks through each step for FedEx specifically.
How do I confirm FedEx is actually down?
Check two independent sources before changing anything in your store. First, StatusBird's live FedEx status page, which is based on independent checks every 2 minutes. Second, FedEx's own status page at developer.fedex.com/api/en-us/home.html. If the official page still shows green, do not assume you are wrong: vendors often acknowledge incidents well after they start. If both look clean, the problem is more likely your store's configuration or a specific integration.
What does a FedEx outage look like?
- FedEx label creation fails in your shipping software or via API
- FedEx rate options disappear from checkout or return errors
- Tracking numbers show no updates or tracking pages fail to load
- fedex.com or the developer API portal is unreachable or erroring
- Address validation calls to FedEx fail during checkout
What breaks in your store
When FedEx's systems are down, stores cannot generate FedEx labels, so FedEx-bound orders stack up unshipped and daily pickup cutoffs get missed. Checkouts that quote live FedEx rates show errors or missing shipping options, which can block customers from completing orders if FedEx is the only method offered. Tracking updates stop flowing, so customers see stale tracking pages and support tickets spike, even though trucks and planes are usually still moving packages.
For context, FedEx has had no major incidents in the last 90 days of StatusBird's independent monitoring (100.0% availability), so a real outage is unusual. That makes it easy to mistake one for a problem on your end, which is why confirming first matters.
What to do during the outage
- Offer UPS or USPS as substitute methods for orders that must ship today.
- Configure fallback flat rates at checkout so a FedEx rate API failure never blocks order completion.
- Hold non-urgent FedEx shipments and batch-print labels once the API recovers.
- Ask your FedEx account rep or local station about manual airbill options for critical express shipments.
- Add a banner to your tracking page noting that FedEx tracking updates are delayed to reduce ticket volume.
Frequently asked questions
FedEx tracking is frozen. Are packages actually delayed or just the tracking?
Usually just the tracking. System outages typically stop scan data from reaching the website and API while the physical network keeps operating, and events backfill after recovery. Only weather events or announced service disruptions typically mean the parcels themselves are delayed.
I missed my FedEx pickup because labels would not print. What now?
Print the labels once systems recover and either schedule a new pickup or drop packages at a FedEx location to recover a few hours. For express shipments on deadlines, ask about later cutoffs at your nearest station or hub, which often accept packages later than driver pickups.
After the outage
Once FedEx recovers, verify the affected workflows end to end rather than trusting the status page. Note the start and end times while they are fresh: if you are on a paid FedEx plan with an SLA, documented downtime is what a service credit claim is built on. See how to claim SLA credits for the process.
How this data is measured
StatusBird checks FedEx's status every 2 minutes, around the clock, independently of the vendor. The availability figure counts major and critical outages only; minor degradation is excluded so numbers are not skewed by vendors that report small blips near-continuously. Grades run from A+ to F. See the live numbers on the FedEx reliability page and current status on the FedEx status page, or browse all 84 service grades.
Know before your customers do
StatusBird monitors FedEx and 83 other services online stores depend on, plus your own storefront, every 2 minutes. When something goes down you get an SMS, email, or Slack alert with plain-English context, usually before the official status page catches up. Start monitoring free, no card required for the free plan.