UPS and FedEx are gearing up to handle high volumes of returns in the USA this week after a troubled Christmas delivery performance by FedEx and a better one from UPS.
Bad weather, including severe storms, in several parts of the country and a flood of late orders combined to hit FedEx operations in the final few days before Christmas. The company “handled package volume that far exceeded all previous records, including an unprecedented surge of last-minute e-commerce shipments”, according to a spokesman.
As a result, an undisclosed number of consumer parcels were held up and thousands of workers were deployed on Christmas Day to get parcels sorted and delivered that day as well as the next day, Saturday December 26, according to numerous US media reports.
In contrast, UPS claimed to have made all promised deliveries on time before Christmas after some reported problems in the week after Black Friday. It brought forward some pre-Christmas acceptance deadlines to ensure it would not face a last-minute surge in volumes.
Both parcel companies and also USPS had predicted they would be dealing with record volumes in the Christmas 2015 peak season as more and more US consumers switch to online shopping. FedEx had forecast a 12.4% volume rise between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, UPS expected a 10% increase between Black Friday and New Year’s Eve, while USPS reported a 15% increase in parcel volumes.
The 2015 peak performance was a turnaround from the previous two years when UPS misjudged demand, firstly in 2013 when it was overwhelmed by unexpected volumes and then in 2014 when it spent heavily on additional capacity that proved to be excess to actual needs.
Meanwhile, UPS expects to process more than 5 million return packages by the end of this week, about 500,000 more than in the first week of 2015. This includes National Returns Day on January 6, when consumers are expected to ship more than a million packages back to retailers on that single day.
“As online shopping volumes grow globally, so do returns volumes,” commented Teresa Finley, UPS senior vice president of global marketing. “Online shoppers tell us they want free, fast and easy returns. We help our customers provide flexible options that create revenue and attract potential buyers.”
UPS said consumers can drop off their pre-paid and pre-labelled return packages at any of the 8,000 UPS Access Point locations around the country or give the packages to a UPS driver.
