FedEx Corp. says its 285,000 team members worked the company’s busiest day ever on Monday, Dec. 13, as drivers picked up almost 16 million shipments around the world. This volume represents an increase of nearly 13 percent from last year’s busiest day and is double the volume handled on an average day in the FedEx network. FedEx says it expects to move more than 223 million shipments in its global networks between Thanksgiving and Christmas – a year-over-year increase of 11 percent.
“The holiday delivery season is an exciting time FedEx team members around the world – from the drivers and couriers who deliver each box, to the route planners and on-staff meteorologists who help ensure we maintain our excellent customer service levels,” says T. Michael Glenn, executive vice president of market development at FedEx. “FedEx has been preparing for the seasonal surge of packages for almost a year, and we’ve leveraged our decades of logistical expertise to ensure FedEx has all the right assets in place to handle our busiest day in history.”
More than half of the holiday season volume increase will be from FedEx SmartPost shipments. FedEx SmartPost volume is largely driven by online retailers and cataloguers who ship high volumes of lighter shipments to residential customers. FedEx SmartPost has a completely integrated national network that picks up, sorts and delivers packages directly to U.S. Postal service facilities for final delivery to residences.
During the week of Dec. 13, also the busiest week of the year for FedEx, the company expects to move more than 63 million shipments compared to last year’s busiest week of 57.5 million shipments. Items such as books from large Internet retailers and retail inventory such as apparel, personal consumer electronics and luxury goods will drive FedEx holiday volumes.
