Christmas this year was on time for most everyone. After UPS and FedEx were unable to deliver some gifts last year prior to Christmas day, the two shipping companies improved their performance during this holiday shopping season.
UPS delivered more than 99% of its express packages as was promised on December 22 and 23, and FedEx delivered over 99% of its express packages on those same days.
Last year the two companies’ percentage of express packages that were delivered on time was in the low 90s.
The company also did not track packages that were shipped on ground shipping, as they are not guaranteed delivery within a set time on weekends, much less on Christmas.
The increase in performance by the two shipping companies comes after delays last year that were blamed on a mixture of overloaded systems and bad weather, as many more people shopped online and needed their packages delivered.
Neither company released exactly the number of packages that had been delayed last year, but said they had been a small share of the overall shipments for the holidays.
In order not to have similar headaches in 2014, UPS and FedEx invested heavily in improving systems and increased the seasonal workers they put on to cover the heavy rush.
On Friday, FedEx said it was proud of how it performed this holiday season, while UPS said its overall operations had run smoothly.
No details as to how many total deliveries were actually delivered or delayed this season were released by the two companies.
Both of the shippers had expected to ship more packages during the just ended holiday shopping season than during any on prior.
FedEx previously had forecasted it would ship over 290 million packages from Black Friday to Christmas. UPS said prior that it expected to ship more than 585 million packages during December.
The forecasts for record shipments were due to retailers pushing ordering deadlines back and extending their offers of free shipping and more shopping online by consumers.
