UPS expects to deliver 430 million parcels between Thanksgiving and Christmas around the worldthis year and will hire about 50,000 seasonal workers to handle the surge in volumes.
The busiest day of 2010 for the company is expected to be 22 December when UPS anticipatesdelivering 24 million parcels worldwide. This would equal a near-60% increase over its normal dailydelivery volume of 15.1 million packages and documents.
One year ago UPS said that it expected to deliver about 400 million parcels in the pre-Christmasperiod, including delivering some 22 million packages on December 21, the anticipated busiest dayof 2009. The forecast for 2010 Christmas volumes is thus about 7.5% higher than last year’sfigure.
In comparison, FedEx expects an 11% rise in volumes between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2010,including a 12% rise in volumes to 16 million shipments on December 13, its expected busiest day ofthis year.
“UPS is at the heart of holiday logistics for millions of businesses and consumers. In fact,more holiday packages are shipped with UPS than any other company in the world,” said AlanGershenhorn, UPS senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. “With movements to andfrom warehouses to boats, planes, trains and delivery vehicles and then to customers’ doorstepsaround the world, UPS’s global logistics capabilities really deliver the holidays.”
UPS stressed that its global logistics and delivery network enables on-time delivery of holidaypackages to restock store shelves or deliver directly to customers’ homes. It also offers shippersand receivers full visibility of their packages. Once packages are in the UPS network, customerscan visit UPS.com to track their packages. On 22 December, the company expects more than 44 milliononline package tracking requests which would be the busiest tracking day of the season.
Most UPS ground packages reach their destinations in three business days or less. Last-minuteshoppers and shippers can rely on UPS air services to ship as late as 23 December, for delivery on24 December. To ensure on-time delivery during the holiday rush, UPS Airlines will fly more than350 additional flights per day during the Peak Week meaning the five days leading up to 25December.
UPS Internet Shipping enables customers to choose service preferences, pay by credit card, printshipping labels and track packages. With a printed label affixed, a package can be picked up by aUPS driver, placed in one of 40,000 UPS drop boxes or dropped off at a UPS Customer Centre, The UPSStore, Mail Boxes Etc. or other authorized shipping outlets.
For those on the go, UPS Mobile offers a suite of free mobile shipping applications compatiblewith the most widely used mobile platforms, online browsers, and devices, including the AppleiPhone, BlackBerry and Android. The free apps not only allow users to ship and track but also tolocate the nearest UPS location using the phones’ built-in GPS.
FedEx already announced last week that it expects to increase its shipping volumes by 11% duringthe US holiday shopping season between Thanksgiving on November 25 and Christmas a month latercompared to the same period in 2009. More than half of the holiday season volumes will be generatedthrough FedEx SmartPost, the company’s B2C small package delivery service, largely driven by onlineretailers and cataloguers who ship high volumes of lighter shipments to residential customers.
