The three major parcel carriers – FedEx, UPS and USPS – are forecasting this to be the busiest holiday season ever.
USP said it anticipates volume of more than 585 million packages in December, an 11% increase over 2013. UPS expects its 2014 peak delivery day to be Monday, Dec. 22, when the company plans to deliver more than 34 million packages worldwide.
Six days are likely to surpass last year’s single-day delivery record of 31 million packages. By comparison, UPS delivers approximately 17 million packages on an average day.
Throughout 2014, UPS has been preparing for its busiest shipping season by outfitting 47 new and expanded facilities and installing flexible capacity across its network. Some 15 locations will have modular units – loading doors and connected conveyors configured as stand-alone “mobile delivery villages” – to expand capacity. Each of these villages can dispatch between 60 and 90 additional vehicles from that center.
UPS also added new information technology solutions and processes to improve volume forecasting, network capacity visibility, package status tracking and customer communications.
In September, UPS announced it planned to hire between 90,000 and 95,000 temporary workers to handle the rush of deliveries around the holiday shopping season. This is a significant increase over the projected figure from 2013 and is part of the company’s all-out effort to avoid an overloaded network and upset customers due to parcel delays.
Last year, UPS initially said it was hiring 55,000, only to increase that figure to 85,000 in December as parcel volumes swelled due to massive increases in ecommerce orders.
In its Jan. 30 earnings call, UPS acknowledged operational issues that gave the shipper a black eye during the 2013 holiday season, and outlined a 4-step plan to get itself ready for 2014.
About 1.3 million express packages handled by UPS failed to get delivered on time last Christmas Eve, according to ShipMatrix, which makes software for shipment tracking.
FedEx expects to move more than 290 million shipments between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, an 8.8% increase in overall year-over-year peak seasonal volume.
FedEx said the season is expected to be bolstered by three volume spikes throughout December, occurring the first three Mondays of the month and each expected to surpass 20 million in volume.
Dec.15 is projected to be the busiest day in company history, with a forecasted 22.6 million shipments moving around the world.
FedEx is adding more than 50,000 seasonal positions across its operating companies. This includes package handlers, helpers, drivers and other support positions.
Based on growth expectations and network expansion, the majority of those seasonal workers will have the opportunity to continue working with FedEx after the holiday season.
FedEx posted a statement on its website last Dec. 26 to say it “experienced no major service disruptions in the week before Christmas despite heavy volume.” And a FedEx told Wall Street Journal that there were “isolated” incidents of packages arriving on time for Christmas.
However, according to ShipMatrix’s figures, 618,000 express packages carried by FedEx failed to get delivered on time last Christmas Eve.
In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said UPS predicts it will handle 585 million packages in December, up 11% over 2013. UPS says it expects Dec. 22 to be its busiest delivery day of the season.