Millions of packages to be shipped this holiday season

by Kathleen Woodford Mineral Independent
| December 3, 2015 5:02 PM

UPS, FedEx, and USPS, all needed to retool last year to keep up with the ever increasing demand of online shopping. Every year, cyber shoppers become more prevalent, and shipping companies must keep up with the demand in order for packages to be under the tree by December 24.

Last year, on December 15, the U.S. Postal Service saw their busiest day with 607 million pieces of mail being processed. In a statement from UPS, they estimated that in December 2014 they processed 585 million packages.

Over the past few years, shipping companies have worked more closely with online retailers to predict anticipated volume. They’ve also increased their work force and facilities. In 2014, UPS invested $500 million to deal with the holidays, which included a “control tower” system to keep an eye on package volume during the busy season.

Delivery giants also encourage retailer to plan ahead and caution them that they could be out of luck if their packages over the holidays exceed closely negotiated deals. This includes toning down promotional offers and free overnight-shipping promises on December 23, when time is tight and the room for error is minimal.

It’s always important for consumers to leave plenty of time for shipping. Sometimes delays are out of the hands of the shipping companies. For example, if the weather turns bad and planes are grounded or trucks are stalled.

Despite ever increasing demands, shipping companies are holding their own. According to ShipMatrix, both UPS and FedEx achieved an estimated 97 percent on-time delivery rate for express packages in 2014. The U.S. Postal Services showed Parcel Select packages, delivered by the next day 99 percent of the time during the holiday season.

The Post Offices in Mineral County will not have special holiday hours. Except the Superior office will offer a package pickup service on December 21, which is a Saturday between 9 – 11:30 a.m. This will be to pick up packages, not mail them.

The Superior post office is also holding a Customer Appreciation Day on December 9th, with cookies and refreshments. They are holding it because the post office won a card sale competition sponsored by Hallmark. The competition was to see which post office sold the most cards. They won out of their division and received a $50 gift card.

Officer in Charge, Liz Asay, said that they wanted to use the gift card to thank their customers.