Some people have reported getting the delivery a day early, but usually whoever the shipper is, they hold the boxes for that Friday. I heard that UPS even has had dedicated trucks just for delivering them in the past.
Perhaps it was strange that mine said it was shipping via FedEx, and the actual shipper is UPS, and it's coming out of Philadelphia. It sounds like Apple got wise and started shipping the iPhones in bulk to distribution centers and is shipping the individual iPhones from there. I always thought the idea of shipping individual product from China for the 'big release day' was a waste of money, and risked packages clogging the system. Bulk means a container(s) arrive, and are unpacked and disbursed, which also means they had enough production to ship them in bulk. Surprised? After all the rumours that they were having problems, and yet apparently hundreds of thousands are in the states already.
Whatever. It's on its way.
iOS 11 has slowed my 6+ to a crawl at times. Time for an upgrade.