To help make its holiday package deliveries run more smoothly this year, United Parcel Service made a simple tweak: It added a day. UPS required an extra day for delivery for its three-day and two-day shipping options during Christmas week, a move that prompted retailers to send more packages over the weekend.
UPS’s experience this year contrasts with rival FedEx, which needed to send out drivers on Christmas Day after bad weather and last-minute online orders caused delays. It also follows two years of holiday troubles when UPS struggled first with a last-minute surge of orders in 2013, and then overcompensated last year, leaving the network underused.
On Christmas Eve, ShipMatrix showed FedEx had on-time deliveries of about 96 percent, compared with about 98 percent by UPS, after a weather-related dip at both companies earlier in the week.
Retail consultancy Kurt Salmon said retailers pushed their last ship date average to Dec. 21, one day later than last year. Overall, about 94 percent of packages arrived on time compared with 87 percent last year.
