UPS gearing up for record holiday season shipments
UPS expects to deliver more than 630 million packages between Black Friday and New Year’s Eve, an increase of more than 10% over holiday deliveries last year. The Christmas season this year does include an additional shipping day compared to 2014, but this still represents a significant increase.
The company plans to deliver about 36 million packages on Tuesday, 22 December, up from 35 million last year, and double the normal daily average of 18 million deliveries.
UPS also expects to make a record number of deliveries to residential addresses during the holiday period, up to 60% of all package deliveries, compared to an average of 45% on a full-year basis.
“Consumer preference for online commerce is driving tremendous growth opportunities for UPS,” said Alan Gershenhorn, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. “Our integrated air and ground delivery network, extensive status and visibility systems and a broad portfolio of shipping solutions position UPS to best manage increasing demand driven by online commerce.
“Beyond new processing facilities, automation and routing technology to increase capacity, we’ve implemented easy-to-use mobile and web-based technology that helps consumers to track progress and customize their delivery so they can plan when and where they receive packages,” he continued.
In preparation for the surge in parcel volumes, UPS will add up to 95,000 temporary workers during the holiday season.
