FedEx Hold at Location: How It Works

FedEx Hold at Location is a free service that reroutes your package to a nearby FedEx facility for you to pick up instead of delivering it to your door. It solves the basic problem that most people are not home when FedEx tries to deliver, and leaving packages on porches in many neighborhoods is an invitation for theft.

The service has been around for years, but most people either do not know it exists or assume it costs extra. It does not. And for e-commerce sellers, offering Hold at Location as a delivery option can reduce failed delivery attempts, lower theft-related claims, and improve the customer experience for buyers who prefer to pick up on their own schedule.

How It Works

When a FedEx package is in transit to you, you can request through FedEx Delivery Manager (a free account on fedex.com) that the package be redirected to a FedEx location instead of your home address. You select which location you prefer, FedEx reroutes the package, and it sits there waiting for you to pick it up.

You can also set this up proactively in your FedEx Delivery Manager preferences so that all packages addressed to you are automatically held at your chosen location. This is useful if you consistently prefer pickup over home delivery — set it once and forget about it.

As the sender, you can also specify Hold at Location when creating the shipping label. This is handy when you know the recipient wants post-office-style pickup rather than home delivery. Just select the FedEx location nearest to the recipient during the label creation process.

The service works with FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, and FedEx Home Delivery. There are very few exclusions — packages requiring special handling, hazmat shipments, and certain oversized items may not be eligible, but standard e-commerce packages qualify.

Types of Pickup Locations

FedEx has roughly 60,000 locations across the US where you can pick up held packages, and they break down into several categories with different hours, services, and convenience levels.

FedEx Office locations are the full-service option. There are about 2,000 of them, typically in suburban shopping centers and downtown commercial areas. They operate Monday through Friday from roughly 8 AM to 8 PM, Saturdays 9 AM to 6 PM, and Sundays noon to 5 PM. They hold packages for seven calendar days and offer additional services like printing, packing, and shipping supplies. If you need evening or weekend pickup, FedEx Office is your best bet.

FedEx Ship Centers are smaller, shipping-focused facilities. There are about 500 of them, with more limited hours — typically Monday through Friday until 6 PM with limited Saturday availability. They hold packages for seven days and offer basic shipping and packaging services.

The biggest expansion in FedEx pickup locations has come through retail partners. Walgreens (about 8,000 locations), Dollar General (about 10,000 locations), and other retail chains now serve as FedEx drop-off and pickup points. These locations are usually open longer hours than FedEx's own facilities, and the sheer number of them means there is almost certainly one within a few minutes of any given address in the US.

Dollar General locations are particularly convenient in rural areas where the nearest FedEx Office might be a 30-minute drive. The trade-off is that retail partner locations sometimes have staff who are less familiar with FedEx procedures, which can occasionally cause confusion during pickup.

The Pickup Process

When your package arrives at the hold location, FedEx sends you an email or push notification (if you have the FedEx app installed). Go to the location during their business hours with a government-issued photo ID that matches the name on the package. The staff retrieves your package, verifies your identity, and hands it over.

If someone else needs to pick up on your behalf, they need their own ID plus your written authorization. In practice, some locations also accept a text or email forwarded from the tracking notification with the recipient's name, but the officially required documentation is a signed letter.

After the hold period expires — seven days for most FedEx locations — the package is returned to the sender. There is no option to extend the hold period, so make sure you can get to the location within a week.

Why E-commerce Sellers Should Care

Failed delivery attempts cost everyone money. When a FedEx driver cannot deliver a package — nobody home, no safe place to leave it, restricted access building — the package goes back to the local facility and another delivery attempt is scheduled for the next business day. After three failed attempts, the package is returned to the sender.

Each failed attempt costs FedEx money (they are running a truck to that address with nothing to show for it), and it delays the customer's receipt of their order. For the seller, this translates to customer service tickets, negative reviews, and occasionally lost packages that never successfully deliver.

Offering Hold at Location as a checkout option — or proactively suggesting it for addresses in urban areas with high porch theft rates — can prevent these problems before they start. The customer picks up the package when it is convenient for them, and you avoid the cascade of delivery failures and customer frustration.

Some apartment buildings and gated communities are particularly problematic for delivery. If you notice a pattern of delivery issues to certain address types, reaching out to those customers with a Hold at Location suggestion can save both of you significant hassle.

FedEx Delivery Manager also supports delivery to a FedEx location as a default preference, which means customers who routinely have delivery issues can solve the problem themselves without any involvement from the seller.

Setting It Up Through Shipping Platforms

Most shipping platforms, including atoship, support Hold at Location as a delivery option during label creation. You can either let the customer request it at checkout or configure it as the default for specific scenarios — high-value shipments where you want to ensure the recipient personally receives the package, addresses flagged for previous delivery issues, or areas with known theft problems.

The label creation process is the same as any other shipment — you just select the FedEx location as the delivery address instead of the recipient's home address. The rate is identical to a standard home delivery, and tracking works normally through the entire journey.