UPS is recruiting 55,000 seasonal workers to deliver an expected 527 million shipments duringthe peak Christmas period this year, surpassing last year’s record of 480 million by 10%.
The company’s busiest day of the year is expected to be 20 December, with an estimated 28million packages to be delivered around the world on that day, equivalent to more than 300 packagesdelivered every second of the day. UPS delivers 15.8 million packages on an average day. Theadditional workers during the busy season between Thanksgiving and Christmas will be employed asdriver helpers, package sorters, loaders or unloaders.
UPS’s peak air day is projected to top 6.5 million deliveries, compared to normal daily airvolumes of 3 million packages. To ensure on-time delivery of holiday gifts across the world, UPSwill fly more than 400 additional flight segments per day.
“Once again, trends show the popularity of e-commerce and mobile accessibility are likely todelay online shopping and compress deliveries into the final two weeks before Christmas,” UPS said.It expects online tracking requests to reach more than 69 million on its peak tracking day, 18December, with surging holiday shipments.
To ensure customers are at home when their holiday packages arrive, UPS introduced its ‘UPS MyChoice’ tool last year, providing registered members with free digital alerts the day before apackage arrives. UPS said nearly 2 million users have already signed up for the service, which aimsto avoid ‘sorry we missed you’ notices. If the initial delivery time is not convenient for thecustomers, there are options to reschedule or reroute the package.
Alan Gershenhorn, UPS chief sales and marketing officer, claimed UPS provided “total logisticssolutions for both shippers and consumers, whether they’re doing business in online retail ortraditional brick and mortar stores, or both”. These solutions were intended to make the entiretransaction seamless, transparent and hassle-free, from the point of sale to final delivery as wellas handling returns and repairs. “This gives UPS customers the best possible experience by helpingthem better manage their already busy schedules, especially during the holidays,” he added.
For environmentally-conscious customers, UPS offers ‘carbon-neutral’ shipping. At the cost offive cents, they can select the environmentally friendly option at the end of their online shippingprocess to offset the carbon emissions associated with their shipments, supporting globallyrecognised environmental projects.
