FedEx Ground announced it is boosting capacity to expand service in the U.S. to six days per week, gearing up to meet ecommerce demand and the looming peak holiday season crush in November and December.
The company said its 425,000-member ground team will continue offering six-day service throughout the year.
In anticipation of record holiday volume, FedEx Ground plans to increase hours for some employees and hire about 55,000 seasonal workers. The company has been running six- and seven-day schedules for the past several holiday seasons.
Raj Subramaniam, executive vice president, chief marketing and communications officer for FedEx, said the company has been opening new facilities and investing in technology to increase automation, expand network capacity and meet demands for more rapid delivery.
“These significant facility and automation investments have been taking place for many years, but are now largely complete,” Subramaniam said in a statement. “This expanded capacity and increased efficiency will create margin and profitability benefits at the same time that FedEx Ground capital investment will be decreasing.”
Since 2005, FedEx said its ground operations has opened 15 new hubs with advanced material handling systems. It has added nearly 36 million square feet to the network in the past five years, including nine new hubs and 58 automated stations. FedEx has also invested in robotics and real-time route planning, sortation and delivery technology.
To illustrate the rise in shipping volumes, largely due to ecommerce, FedEx said its record volume day in 2008 was 12 million shipments, while the average daily volume today is over 14 million shipments.