Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the FedEx Corporation 2020 Virtual Annual Stockholder Meeting. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Chairman, Frederick W. Smith. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Annual Stockholders Meeting of FedEx Corporation. I'm Frederick W. Smith, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of FedEx Corporation. Due to the ongoing COVID-nineteen pandemic, we are holding this meeting virtually. We appreciate the interest of the stockholders who have joined the meeting and we thank you for being with us today.
With me are Mark Allen, our Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, who will act as Secretary of the meeting Raj Subramanian, our President and Chief Operating Officer and a member of our Board of Directors and Brad Martin, a member of the Board and Chairman of our Audit Committee. The other members of our Board of Directors are in attendance today telephonically. They are Marvin Ellison, Tricia Griffith, Chris Inglis, Kim Jubal, Shirley Jackson, Joshua Raimo, Susan Schwab, David Steiner and Paul Walsh. Representatives of Ernst and Young are also in attendance. The agenda and the annual meeting guidelines are posted on the meeting Web site.
The meeting will be conducted in accordance with the agenda and guidelines. I now call the meeting to order. Mr. Allen will report on the giving of notice for the meeting in the presence of a quorum.
Mr. Chairman, the complete list of the holders of record of the company's common stock at the close of business on 27 July 2020 who are entitled to vote at this meeting is available on the virtual meeting portal. I have received an affidavit of a representative of Broadridge Investor Communications Solutions, Inc, which states that on August 10, 2020, a notice regarding the Internet availability of proxy materials or the notice of annual meeting, the proxy statement, the proxy, the 2020 annual report and a postage prepaid return envelope were mailed to the stockholders of record as of 27 July 2020. A representative of Broadridge will serve as the Inspector of Elections today. The tabulation of the proxies received from stockholders indicates that the majority of the shares outstanding on the record date are represented at this meeting and a quorum is present.
Thank you, Mark. A copy of the affidavit will be filed with the records of this meeting. The polls for each proposal are now open at 8:0:3 am Central Time on 21 September 2020. The 8 proposals to be considered today are listed on the agenda and in the proxy materials previously provided. If you have already submitted your proxy, your shares will be voted accordingly.
If there is any stockholder who has not yet voted and wishes to do so, please do so by clicking on the voting button on the virtual meeting portal and following the instructions there. We have 8 proposals to vote on this morning. After all of the proposals have been presented, we will answer any questions that have been submitted relative to the proposals. Questions not directly related to the proposals will be answered at the conclusion of the meeting in accordance with the annual meeting guidelines. The first proposal is the election of the 12 director nominees named in the proxy statement to serve as a director until the 2021 annual meeting and until his or her successor is duly elected and qualified.
The next item is the proposal to approve unbinding basis and advisory resolution approving the compensation paid to FedEx's named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement. The 3rd proposal is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm of the company for the fiscal year ending 31 May 2021. The remaining 5 proposals are stockholder proposals. Each proponent will have 3 minutes to present his or her proposal. 4th proposal is a stockholder proposal regarding a lobbying activity and expenditure report.
I will now ask the operator to open the line for Michael Price Jones, a qualified representative of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund, who will present the proposal. Mr. Bryce Jones, you have 3 minutes. Please proceed.
Thank you. So the teamsters along with the Sisters of St. Dominic and Azus requesting the preparation of a report disclosing among other things all of the company's direct and indirect lobbying expenses, which includes grassroots lobbying and FedEx membership to any tax exempt organization that writes and endorses model legislation. While shareholders can estimate that FedEx has spent over 132,000,000 over the past decade on federal lobbying. It's almost impossible to accurately piece together how much FedEx has spent on state lobbying, let alone through indirect lobbying for its trade association memberships.
Unfortunately, rather than address this relatively clear disclosure gap directly, FedEx's operational statement detours through political expenses such as PAC contributions, which have absolutely nothing to do with this proposal. In fact, the only potentially meaningful counterpoint FedEx offers is that expanding disclosure could put the company at a competitive disadvantage by revealing its strategy. But even this seems a very strange point to make given that after all understanding how much your business strategy depends on current favor with the political and regulatory process is vital information for any investor trying to understand the sustainability of a given business model. In short, notwithstanding FedEx's monthly array of counterpoint, there is neither comprehensive disclosure nor a valid reason why shareholders should be denied a full accounting of how their capital is being used to influence the political and regulatory process. And moreover, without this, we'll continue to run the risk of finding out from the media that our company spent 1,000,000 on lobbying for a Q and A partizan and hugely ineffective tax cuts that may have had collateral benefits to our executives.
Thank you.
Thank you. The 5th proposal is a stockholder proposal regarding political disclosure. I will now ask the operator to open the line for Mr. John Chevedden, the proponent who will present the proposal. Mr.
Chevedden, you have 3 minutes. Please proceed.
Hello, this is John Chevedden. Can you hear me okay? 5:55. Point of order, Maury Schweitzer is trying to get on the line to present Proposal 6 and I wanted to make sure that she got through. There's been a problem with this meeting about not getting a conference number in advance.
Do you know if Maurice Weitzer is on the line?
She's on the line.
Okay. Thank you. So I'll go ahead with that.
We've saved about 25 seconds of your proposal time. We'll give it back
to you.
Proposal 5, political spending disclosure. Shareholders request that FedEx I'm the sponsor for this, shareholders request that FedEx provide a comprehensive report disclosing the company's policies and procedures for using corporate funds to participate in any campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office or influence the general public with respect to an election and disclose monetary and non monetary contributions and expenditures used in the manner described above, including the identity of the recipient as well as the amount paid to each and the titles of the persons at FedEx responsible responsible for decision making. This comprehensive report shall be presented to the Board of Directors annually and posted on the company's website within 12 months. This proposal does not cover FedEx spending on lobbyists. It's interesting that this proposal is devoted on not long after it was revealed that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy may have acted illegally by reimbursing his employees for campaign contributions to political candidates.
Perhaps we should thank Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for bringing more attention to this important topic. FedEx has an employee political action committee that might indirectly reimburse its employees for making political contributions by rewarding such employees with job promotions at FedEx. As a long term FedEx shareholder, I support transparency and accountability and interest spending on elections. Disclosure is in the best interest of FedEx and its shareholders. Currently, FedEx does not disclose a full list of trade associations to which it belongs and the non deductible portion under Section 162 of the dues paid to each.
Information on indirect electoral spending through trade associations cannot be obtained by shareholders unless the company discloses it. This proposal asked FedEx to disclose all of its electoral spending, including payments to trade associations and other tax organizations, which may be used for election purposes. This would bring FedEx in line with a growing number of leading companies, including United Parcel Service, International Paper and Microsoft, which present this information on their websites. This would be superior to the management alternative that individual directors and individual shareholders do their own separate research to track down this important information from numerous scattered sources. It would be
You have 15 seconds, Mr. Chairman.
One more sentence. It would be foolish to suggest there are directors who are paid $1,000 an hour to spend time doing routine research that a graduate student could do. Our directors should support a comprehensive report that makes their oversight role more efficient. Please vote yes. Comprehensive political spending disclosure proposal 5.
Thank you. The 6th proposal is a stockholder proposal regarding employee representation on the Board of Directors. I will now ask the operator to open the line for Mari Schwartzer, a qualified representative of the Northstar Asset Management Incorporated Funded Pension Plan, who will present the proposal. Ms. Schwertzer, you have 3 minutes.
Please proceed.
Good morning. This is Mari Schwertzer from NorthStar Asset Management, a socially responsible investment firm based in Boston. And I do want to thank the shareholder before me, John Chevedden for checking to make sure I could get in because I did have problems. I'm here to present Resolution 6. Our shareholders or excuse me, our employees are the lifeblood of the company.
Without their dedication to fast efficient deliveries, it will be impossible to weather the current global economic turmoil. Employee engagement and satisfaction are crucial to our success. Even before the pandemic, competition had increased strain on employees throughout our industry. COVID-nineteen has only emphasized the critical nature of our employees and the way that their commitment to our company ensures that we can serve our customers during this difficult time. We believe that allowing and encouraging representation on the Board by non management employees is one way to ensure that employees, our most crucial resource, remains fully engaged in the long term growth of our company and help to ensure operational excellence.
But we know that our CEO, Mr. Fred Smith, agrees that employees are critically important contributors to our company. Last year, the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of which Mr. Smith is a member, affirmed employees as stakeholders. In August 2019, the Business Roundtable announced a commitment to all stakeholders and named investing in our employees as the 2nd priority just behind the commitment to customers.
Now a year later, observers have struggled to find evidence that signatories have used the statement to revise corporate policies or actions. As critics evaluate the corporate response to COVID-nineteen and implementation of the commitments made in the roundtable statement, we believe that employee representation on the Board of Directors would offer evidence that FedEx intends to fulfill its commitments as a signatory of the statement. As our industry continues to become more competitive and the pandemic continues to increase strain on package delivery staff, we believe that adding 1 or more non management employees to the Board of Directors would be a powerful step toward empowering and engaging employees. With the potential for increased employee engagement and retention, faster alerts to crises, creative solutions to new problems and better employee buy in to long term value creation, we believe that making Board of Chief available for non management employees at FedEx could bring significant efficiencies to our company. Shareholders, we urge you to vote for proxy item number 6.
Thank you.
Thank you. The 7th proposal is a stockholder proposal regarding shareholder right to act by written consent. I will now ask the operator to open the line for Mr. John Chevedden, a qualified representative of the proponent, Myra K. Young, who will present the proposal.
Mr. Chevedden, you have 3 minutes. Please proceed.
Yes. This is John Chevedden for Proposal 7, shareholder right to act by written consent. Charles requested our Board of Directors take the steps necessary to permit written consent by the shareholders entitled to cast the minimum number of votes that would be necessary to authorize an action at a meeting in which all shareholders entitled to vote thereon were present in voting. This proposal topic is important because they show the right to call a special meeting has been devalued by the rapid migration to Internet annual meetings like this meeting today. The management state and next to this proposal is obsolete and is not well thought out.
This is particularly alarming because FedEx shareholders gave 51% support to this very same proposal topic at a previous annual meeting. This is a black mark for Mr. David Steiner, who chairs the Governance Committee and also holds the elevated position of Lead Director. As a result, shareholders should consider an against vote in regard to Mr. Steiner.
The management opposition to this proposal is not based on up to date information. Management claims that Schrodler should be content with only having the right to call a
a
meeting has been seriously damaged by the vast migration to Internet annual meetings just like this meeting today. Shareholders no longer have the right to discuss concerns with other shareholders and with the directors at a special shareholder meeting, which can now be an Internet meeting. 2nd, shareholders are severely restricted in making their views known at an Internet shareholder meeting because all their questions and comments can be prescreened and can be arbitrarily screened out. For instance, Goodyear hit the mute button right in the middle of a formal shareholder proposal presentation at its 2020 annual meeting. 3rd, contrary to the management statement, written consent can be adopted in a manner by which all shareholders are given advanced notice of a matter under consideration under the written consent process.
Shame on management for not being up to date on these three key points. Please vote yes, shareholder write deck by written consent proposal 7.
Thank you. The 8th and final proposal to be considered is a stockholder proposal regarding integrating ESG metrics into executive compensation. I will now ask the operator to open the line for Mr. Kyle Seeley, a qualified representative of the Controller of the State of New York as trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, who will present the proposal. Mr.
Seeley, you have 3 minutes. Please proceed.
Thank you. On behalf of New York State Controller, Thomas Benette, to us, New York State Common Retirement Fund, owner of nearly 500,000 shares, we urge FedEx stockholders to vote for proposal 8 on the proxy, the stockholder proposal regarding integration of ESG metrics into executive compensation. ESG is defined as how environmental, social and governance considerations and related financial impacts are integrated into corporate strategy. The proposal urges the Board of Directors to examine and report to stockholders at a reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information describing if and how it plans to integrate ESG metrics into the performance measures of named executive officers under the company's compensation incentive plans. Strong management of ESG risks has a positive effect on long term stockholder value and value creation.
Failure to adequately manage and disclose performance on ESG issues can pose regulatory, legal, reputational and financial risk to a company and stockholders. The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board identified FedEx's ESG materiality issues as greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, labor practices, employee health and safety, supply chain management and accident and safety management. While FedEx has taken steps to address these issues, it has not explicitly integrated ESG issues into executive incentives, which could encourage executives prioritize these goals even further. For example, FedEx has adopted strong emissions reduction goals and integrating those metrics into the compensation program may encourage executives to achieve these goals. Furthermore, FedEx has already shown an interest in measuring a segment of its overall named executive officers performance on diversity.
However, it has not provided any performance measures, goals or results associated with these objectives, leaving stockholders in the dark of how they're implementing this program. We believe by fully integrating ESG metrics into executive compensation assessments will allow FedEx to improve its overall ESG performance and thereby generate more sustainable long term value for stockholders. We encourage FedEx stockholders to vote for proposal 8 on the proxy. Thank you.
Thank you. Since we have not received any questions related to the proposals, we will continue. If there is any stockholder present electronically, of course, who has not yet voted and wishes to do so, please vote now on the meeting website. I hereby declare the polls closed at 8:20 am Central Time on 21 September 2020. The Inspector of Election has provided the following preliminary voting results for each of the proposals.
With respect to proposal 1, each of the 12 director nominees has been duly elected to serve as a Director of the Company. With respect to proposal 2, the advisory resolution on named executive officer compensation has been approved. With respect to Proposal 3, the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm of the company for fiscal year 2021 has been ratified. With respect to proposals 4 through 8, none of the stockholder proposals has been approved. Please note that the voting results just announced are preliminary.
Final voting results will be included in a Form 8 ks filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission following the meeting. Now, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the official business portion of the meeting. There being no further business, the meeting is hereby adjourned. Next, I will make a few brief remarks and then turn the program over to Raj Subramanian for additional comments. Following Raj's remarks, we will conclude with a question and answer session.
Let me begin my comments with some well deserved recognition for 2 individuals who are ending their time with FedEx. In my opinion, just as the fun is beginning. To do that, I'll read excerpts from the resolutions of appreciation approved by our Board of Directors for John Edwardson, a member of the FedEx Board of Directors for more than 17 years and Alan Graff, who has more than 40 year career at FedEx, most recently as our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer is coming to a close. The resolutions in full can be found on our Investor Relations website. Regarding John Edwardson, as Audit Committee Chairman for 16 years, John helped guide the company through a period of tremendous growth and increasing financial complexity and regulatory oversight.
John established a strong tone from the top that promoted and enhanced the company's commitment to the highest standards of ethical conduct, strong, robust and effective internal controls and complete accurate and transparent financial statements and disclosures. We will miss John and his adroit leadership, business acumen, collegiality, candor, equanimity, intellectual curiosity and warm wit. We'll always remember with finest John's love of Memphis barbecue and his anecdotes about the legendary Gibson Donuts visits. Regarding Alan Graff, during Alan's distinguished career at FedEx, he was an integral part of every significant decision and helped navigate tremendous growth, strategic investments, game changing acquisitions and global challenges. Throughout his tenure as CFO, Alan judiciously managed the company's financial resources, while making strategic investments that drove long term value creation.
As a swan song, Alan played a critical role in solidifying the company's financial stability during an unprecedented global health crisis for the long term benefit of our team members, customers and share owners, which ranks among his greatest achievements. In addition to Alan's countless contributions to the company, he and his wife, Susan, have been pillars of the Memphis community. Their dedication and generosity to FedEx Family House, which Susan founded, has helped hundreds of thousands of out of town families with children receiving treatment at Le Bonheur Hospital and is truly an inspirational accomplishment. Additionally, Alan served as Chairman of the University of Memphis Board of Trustees after the State of Tennessee separated the University from the University of Tennessee System. During his tenure, he presided over tremendous accomplishments in multiple fields by the university.
In short, Alan has been the model of our people service philosophy and a driving force in this company's success. He leaves a world class finance organization with a strong and dedicated leadership team as his legacy. And although we will miss Alan's business and financial acumen, practical advice, candid opinions, keen intellect and friendship, his contributions to FedEx will long endure. We wish both John and Alan and their families good health, good luck and happiness in retirement. As I noted earlier, I've asked Raj, our President and COO to join me in delivering a few remarks today.
FedEx has a history of seeing what lies on the horizon and I look forward to Raj detailing many of the things that are next for FedEx. Before I make some comments about FY21 and beyond, I want to set proper context by briefly reviewing FY 2020, the fiscal year that ended last May, which we predicted to be a year of great challenge and change even before the emergence of COVID-nineteen. This was a prediction made due to 3 enormously consequential developments for FedEx. 1, the trade disputes of the last several years, sound decision making to position FedEx as the dominant e commerce player in addition to our enormous role as a business to business transportation and logistics provider and strategically timed aircraft and hub modernization programs. Starting with the trade disputes, trade is a demonstrably essential element of prosperity in the modern world.
FedEx serves more than 2 20 and 2018 dealt a devastating blow to the global industrial economy, which is very much dependent on global trade. Our company's commercial business suffered across the board, though we were most adversely affected in Europe. FedEx was among the first to recognize a slowdown in global trade and we responded by actively managing costs while continuing to make necessary investments for long term success. Unfortunately, these global trade headwinds, including for Europe persist, though they are masked somewhat in our case by the curtailment in passenger flights and the significant increase in volume we're seeing as a result. 2nd, by the end of fiscal year 2019, a year ago last May, our strategic management committee, which is charged with setting the strategic direction for the enterprise under the FedEx.
Discerning an overwhelming market opportunity, we determined to go all in on e commerce. These changes represented an enormous shift in direction for our company. We acted decisively to position FedEx to become the market leader and announced extending residential deliveries to 7 days per week, rapidly integrating FedEx SmartPost volume into standard operations at FedEx Ground to increase delivery density and improve the efficiency of last mile operations. And third, building out capabilities to more easily handle an increase in large items ordered online, such as furniture, rugs and exercise equipment and business equipment of all types. We have developed a strong portfolio of e commerce services and digital solutions, offering the best value proposition in the market.
And the 3rd element of challenge and change FedEx continues to address is the modernization of our air fleet and primary hubs incentivized by pro growth measures in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of December 2017, as I recall. The laws incentives encouraged our future focused hub modernization efforts and encouraged FedEx to order additional Boeing 777F and 767F aircraft and retire many more of our less efficient planes, by the way, a huge contribution to our environmental performance. And while we've experienced some financial headwinds in the short term, we're confident we will point to our decisions over the past couple of years. The matter of fact, we've really been planning many of these things over the last 4 years as inflection points as we drive profitable growth over the long term. While we were heading off existing challenges and positioning FedEx to leverage future opportunities, a new challenge emerged in January 2020 unlike anything we could have predicted.
COVID-nineteen spread throughout the globe, the safety of our team and our customers remained our absolute first priority. I would like to thank our team members across FedEx, both of those working resolutely behind the scenes and our frontline team members, whose efforts combined to keep the world's healthcare, industrial and at home supply chains moving in a truly historic way. As just one illustration of how we've mobilized the incredible reach and flexibility of our networks and the commitments of our FedEx team members to respond to the pandemic, FedEx Express has globally transported more than 42 kilotons of personal protective equipment since 1 February 2020, including approximately 1,700,000,000
mass.
And detailed planning is underway at FedEx to distribute vaccines at scale globally once approved. Our roadmap at FedEx was plotted long before COVID-nineteen entered the picture, but in many ways the world accelerated to meet our existing strategy. And while the obvious uncertainties presented by the pandemic stand in the way of making an FY 'twenty one forecast at this point, we remain very confident in our path forward. We believe FedEx is uniquely positioned for future success and we will continue to grow. For the past decade, we have built our networks based on the strategy statement of compete collectively, operate independently, manage collaboratively.
As we evolve and look to the future, we are redefining these strategic operating principles as compete collectively, operate collaboratively, innovate digitally. You'll notice 2 significant additions, which Raj will cover, operate collaboratively and innovate digitally. Raj will detail several benefits we're already seeing as a company through the first edition, operate collaboratively. FedEx has a long history of IT excellence and unmatched insights. Therefore, the addition of Innovate Digitally is a natural evolution of our core competencies.
These changes are very strategic and reflect our focus on delivering what's next for our industry. Ultimately, this creates greater value for our customers and shareholders alike. I'll now turn it over to Raj for him to elaborate. Raj?
Thank you, Fred, and good morning. It is an exciting day for FedEx as we build on our tradition of reinvention. Our operating principles have always guided our decisions. As we continue to look beyond the horizon, we are evolving the strategic framework to stay ahead of our customers' changing expectations. Or set another way, we are creating the network for what's next and our new operating principles are the blueprint to get us there.
As Fred mentioned, as of today, our new operating principles are compete collectively, operate collaboratively and innovate digitally. Taken together, these principles guide how we grow, execute and evolve as a company. We now take the opportunity to talk about each area in turn. First, compete collectively. This principle has not changed and for good reason, the collective FedEx brand unites our distinct operating companies.
It is the purple thread that gives our competitive edge and ensures a seamless experience for our customers. Each FedEx operating company offers a unique value proposition and they each play a vital role in delivering on customer expectations. But it is when these companies compete collectively under the powerful FedEx brand that we change what's possible and unlock opportunities for our customers. In fact, most of our customers use services from 2 or more of our operating companies.
They know that.
Together, we bring faster delivery and more flexible options. Together, we make customers wherever and however they need it, often before they even know they need it as seamlessly as possible. Together, our collective expertise lets us revolutionize the industry with new innovations from year round Sunday residential delivery to through the door deliveries via FedEx Trade Direct to FedEx Delivery Manager that lets you redirect the package with the tap of your phone. And together, we can scale as needed and continue to gain share in business to business, further penetrate the small and medium markets and go all in on e commerce. Our breadth of services and our ability to easily introduce and provide those solutions at the right place and time enables this.
We provided great detail in these areas during our Q1 earnings call just last week and we will continue building on this foundation to provide differentiation and increase our market share. The next principle operate collaboratively is an important and strategic shift for FedEx. While our networks and the expertise that lies within our operating companies are and will remain independent, we are building a holistic collaborative approach to compete in this dynamic ever changing market. By operating collaboratively, we help ensure that we have the right package and the right network and the right cost to serve. And we're already seeing the benefits with collaboration between operating companies at an all time high.
FedEx Freight has provided 20,000,000 miles of road and intermodal support and delivered more than 750,000 non conveyable shipments for FedEx Ground so far in fiscal year 2021. Put this in perspective, rates had never delivered a ground package before May of this calendar year. Last mile optimization, the delivery of specific FedEx Express residential and rural packages by FedEx Ground allows us to flex our network, reduce cost and increase delivery density. Launched just this year, it's already been successfully rolled out in 57 origin markets. And our FedEx Logistics and FedEx Express operating companies continue to work together to secure air charters with customers in the United States.
There's just a few ways we are adapting, collaborating and utilizing different elements of our network to increase efficiency and reduce cost to serve. The first two principles help us deliver for our customers more seamlessly and efficiently. The final area, innovate digitally is how we will deliver the future. We are growing our ability to know and do more with technology and data to make better decisions, to create exemplary experiences, to deliver new offerings that have never been considered or possible, all as a result of our ability to knit together our physical and digital networks. FedEx has nearly 50 years experience flexing our network to stay ahead of what's next.
In 1978, Fred recognized before anyone else that the information about the package is as important as the package itself. It was groundbreaking when he said it more than 4 decades ago and clearly illustrates the role innovation has played in our DNA since day 1. Innovation inspired our start and it's fueling our future. Today, we are channeling that innovative nature to reimagine what's possible as we sit at the intersection of physical and digital networks. We will benefit from our remarkable digital transformation efforts already underway.
This includes increasing visibility and control for customers through FedEx Delivery Management, leading cutting edge innovation through autonomous vehicles like Roxo, the FedEx Same Day Box and advancing our industry leading tracking technology through our newest solutions, FedEx Surround and SENSEVER ID announced just last week. The size and scale of our network and more than 16,000,000 packages that transfers every day gives us a bird's eye view of global supply chains and trends. This foundation enhances our ability to build better insights as a result of information from our network and the world around it. We are confident that we can create additional value for all our stakeholders by making decision signs, artificial intelligence and machine learning core competencies for FedEx. Innovating digitally is a catalyst that helps us reimagine the future of FedEx at the intersection of physical and digital networks.
In closing, we have a vision for the future that sets us apart. This spot that we are on to compete collectively, operate collaboratively and innovate digitally, coupled with the best team in the business is building the network for what's next to return value for our shareholders. I'm confident that the best years of FedEx are ahead of us. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Raj. We've received a number of questions, which I will now address. The first is from a listener who evidently had some audio problems and did not hear the result of the voting on the various proposals. So let me reiterate all management proposals were approved and none of the stockholder proposals were adopted. Next question is, which directors are attending this meeting?
All directors are present on this meeting call. How many board meetings have there been in 2020 and how are they held? The FY 2020 board meeting schedule is in our proxy statement and we are following a normal schedule in calendar 2020. All of the board meetings since the pandemic began were held by teleconference and telephonically. How many shareholders are attending this meeting who are not employees or directors?
I understand that there are approximately 170 participants today that fit that criteria. Now, we have a number of questions about the company's experience with COVID-nineteen and I'm going to ask Judy Edge, our Corporate Vice President of Human Resources and a member of the Strategic Management Committee to answer these questions. First, Judy, how many employees have contracted COVID-nineteen?
Yes, sir. So out of 500,000 employees in 220 different countries, FedEx is taking significant actions to protect our employees. Some of these actions include the sending requirements, remote customer signatures, remote social distancing at points of delivery. FedEx's temperature testing employees, guests and on-site vendors prior to entry at a number of facilities across our enterprise. We're making masks and other personal protective equipment available to continue to educate our employees about COVID-nineteen.
We've also set up drive through testing sites that are free to our employees, significant number of our employees are working from home. As a result, our infection rate is pretty low, approximately 1.7% of our employee work force.
So the next question goes to the work from home situation. What percent of employees can do most of their work from home?
About 10% to 15% of our employees can do most of their work from home and about 90%
are actually working from home.
Any employee fatalities from COVID-nineteen?
It's hard to say if it's a direct cause from COVID-nineteen, but the deaths reported from March when the pandemic first started through now are really low and a fraction of 1% totally.
All right. There is a question, what is the intended outcome of working with reliable robotics? Does FedEx plan on eliminating the airline pilot group labor force and replacing them with an autonomous piloting system in a truck aircraft fleet timeframe? As has always been the case, FedEx will continue to explore new technologies in order to best meet our customers' needs and remain the world's premier logistics and delivery network. Our latest work with Reliable Robotics continues this commitment to innovation and exploration, although I would point out that this initiative deals with smaller turboprop airplanes and in this particular case, the single engine C208, which we are looking at putting in very remote and uninhabited areas as part of our network.
While we're excited to see autonomous technology develop and to participate in that advancement, FedEx has no plans to replace its truck aircraft fleet with autonomous aircraft. And I might add on the basis of my 50 plus years of experience in aviation, I think the prospect of large transport aircraft being flown without pilots is highly remote and not something that our crew force should be worried about in the foreseeable future decades, I would say. Are there any aircraft purchases scheduled on the near horizon? All of our existing orders are included in the financial information, which we filed with the SEC. Of course, we're always looking at the aircraft market and now of course there's a very large number of used aircraft on the market.
So any activity we have in this regard would be properly disclosed, but all of our current programs are reported. Here is a question about the sponsorship of FedEx Field. FedEx delivers packages and it has no particularly social policy expertise. It showed this when it pushed the Washington Redskins to change its name, even though according to a Washington Post poll, 9 in 10 Native Americans aren't offended by the Redskins name. It's hardly a disparaging connotation.
Most Americans feel the same way. By its bumbling, FedEx significantly decreased Native American representation in civic life for the sole benefit of the smug self regard of ill informed left wing activists. And in doing so has alienated wide swaths of customers who are sick to death of loud, performative wokeness. Will FedEx commit right now to dropping the radical political posturing that drives away customers instead refocus on its core business? I'll ask our Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer and a member of the Strategic Management Committee, Brie Carreira to respond to this question, if that's what you can call it.
Thank you, Fred. Good morning.
As everyone in this room knows, FedEx has a
deep and long commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, we have been consistently named the best employer to work for. And we have also been recognized as one of the most admired global brands around the world. We always evaluate all marketing sponsorships through our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. We appreciate very much the Washington Football team's decision to change its name and its logo and please remember that it was the team's decision. It is also important to remember that
at FedExField, we have the
great opportunity to host a wide variety of both sports and entertainment events and activities. We value very much our sponsorship of FedEx Field and we look forward to the next step and the team's rebranding.
I would appreciate your thoughts about the strategic risks that Amazon presents with its ground fleet of Amazon Prime Vehicles and its air fleet. I'm going to ask Raj to comment on this and then I don't think we have any other questions and we'll tie it off after that. Raj?
Well, firstly, we expect that the market for e commerce remains very large. What we predicted was going to happen by 2026, now we expect to happen 3 years ahead of us. And our approach is to have a much more diversified customer base, small, medium and large. And we believe that that's the right strategy. And as the recent results show that we've done a pretty good job with this marketplace.
So we are very confident in our e commerce strategy and we think that's a winning hand.
I would just add to that. Just one fact that the shareholders might be interested in. Recently, there was a article in a highly well known publication that very critical of FedEx's performance during the pandemic and said that this was a major issue for us and that Amazon had 30,000 delivery vehicles. And of course, it's a fine company and a great system and FedEx should be worried, because we have 40,000 vehicles. The only problem is this publication hadn't done their homework, FedEx has 180,000 vehicles, the 40,000 vehicles referred to in the article where the Express unit, I suppose.
So, in any case, we'll be talking about the competitive landscape in our earnings calls in the future and we'll keep you posted. We very much appreciate the participation of our shareowners on this unprecedented telephonic call and we will now conclude the meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude the program and you may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.