UPS, FedEx scramble to keep up with peak

We’ve still got just under two weeks until Christmas, but UPS and FedEx are already feeling the heat. Neither carrier wants to see a repeat of Christmas 2013, which ended with 2 million express parcels being delivered after the guaranteed delivery date of Dec. 24, Christmas Eve.

While initial 2015 data don’t show problems on quite that scale, an analysis by ShipMatrix, a company that tracks millions of packages, revealed that UPS’s ground packages were delivered on time 91 percent of the time the week after Cyber Monday (Nov. 30), compared to the company’s normal 97 percent on-time delivery. Ditto for FedEx, which experienced 95 percent on-time delivery that same week, as opposed to its typical 97 percent on-time rate.

UPS spokesman Steve Gaut said of ShipMatrix’s analysis, that he “will not validate the numbers presented by the external shipping consultants.” UPS said it expected to deliver more than 630 million packages between Black Friday (Nov. 27) and New Year’s Eve, which would be an increase of more than 10 percent over 2014, while FedEx predicted a record-breaking 317 million packages delivered globally between Black Friday and Christmas Eve. Those numbers represent a 12.4 increase over the same period last year.

E-commerce is the likely culprit for the increase in packages. In the U.S., online shoppers spent US$3.07 billion on Cyber Monday, an increase of 16 percent over last year, according to Adobe Systems. Additionally, Adobe reported that consumers spent $8.03 billion over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, a 17 percent increase over last year, which puts the Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday total at $11.1 billion, a 17 percent increase, year-over-year.

And it isn’t over yet. Adobe predicts the first 18 days this month will each see an additional $1 billion in sales. Now, that’s a lot of stuff flying through the air, then making its way to your door.