[Stay on top of transportation news: .]
Holiday Shipping Projected to Increase
FedEx Corp., UPS Inc. and the U.S. Postal Service are all projecting higher holiday package-shipping rates than a year ago, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
Shoppers will spend about $586.1 billion during this year’s holiday season, a 4.1% increase over last year, according to the National Retail Federation, the newspaper said.
FedEx estimated that as of Monday afternoon it had shipped 19 million packages, up 10% from its busiest day last year.
The company predicted it would deliver a record 280 million parcels worldwide from Thanksgiving to Christmas, assisted by 20,000 seasonal hires, the Times reported.
UPS Inc. expects its holiday shipping to increase 10% this year to 527 million packages and plans to deliver 28 million packages Dec. 20, its projected busiest day.Ìý
The U.S. Postal Service is projecting a 20% increase in its package volume from Thanksgiving through Christmas. The USPS estimates it will processÌý658 million letters and parcels on its projected peak day next Monday, the Times reported.