Tis the season

When owning a business how do you estimate what your sales for the future will likely be? Forecasting is one of the most important things in any business today. One of the largest industries is the packing and mailing industry. The major holiday seasons are approaching and companies such as FedEx, UPS are getting ready for the holiday season where they receive tremendous amounts of packages because of online shopping.
According to Bloomberg.com, “UPS is hiring as many as 95,000 seasonal workers along with FedEx taking on an additional 50,000 workers.”  Last year UPS ran into some problems costing these companies large amount of money. Many of these problem could have been prevented if these shipping companies would have been prepared for the large amount of business they were going to receive over the holidays. Shipping companies always expect their “peak” seasons to be crucial when it comes to delivery because most people pay for rush shipping.

This year these companies are being proactive in getting ready for the upcoming busy season. This year UPS is trying to convince retailers to get rid of all free overnight-shipping offers on December 23. They hope that this will cut down on some of the overwhelming workloads they dealt with last year. Many last minute shoppers will have to be practical this year if they want their items delivered on time. Retailers this season are working with these packaging companies to give them updates on how large they are expecting shipments from there stores to be. According to wsj.com Macy’s is offering an in store pick up option this year to help provide the FedEx and UPS with one stop instead of having to go to each individual home. FedEx and UPS have also been meeting with large retailers in hopes of them promoting special deals for customers who order earlier on in the holiday season.

Another strategy these companies work on is the process strategies. How can UPS and FedEx provide a service that meets or exceeds the customer’s expatiations? Having your Christmas items delivered on time is very important to customers. Many parents do these delivery methods because most families, both parents work and they rely on shipping companies to make Christmas happen. Imagine your child or loved ones not receiving their gifts because of some error in transit? While trying to keep all customers happy, these companies have to keep in mind the cost and goals for the company. Efficiency and professionalism go hand in hand When these major companies are keeping cost in mind. Also, they want to make sure all drivers are taking the most efficient routes while still meeting delivery dates during this busy time. During the busy season these companies have to keep in mind quality, making sure all of the items that are supposed to be delivered are in good condition and not broken or damaged from being in the truck. This also goes back to how efficient the trucks are packaged you have to make sure that everything is packed safety and efficient so the drivers can easily get to the packages when at each stop. Loaders (package handlers) usually get around 1,500-2,500 packages that need to be loaded into their designated trucks. On average, handlers have about three to four trucks at most and are required to package their trucks in about four to five hours. As long as everyone works together, everyone can be happy around the holiday seasons.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-17/fedex-joins-ups-preparing-for-holiday-e-commerce-surge.html

http://online.wsj.com/articles/ups-fedex-want-retailers-to-get-real-on-holiday-shipping-1412273998

3 thoughts on “Tis the season

  1. The number of season workers being hired by FedEx and UPS is so big. I did not expect this to be the case, but it does make sense when you think about the national and international spread of their business. I think holiday shopping could be narrowed down by giving promotions to early shoppers, like FedEx suggested. It will be interesting to see what happens this holiday season.

  2. Great post! It is definitely interesting to see how many people are being hired by FedEx and UPS. It is a good strategy as many people, including myself, are procrastinators. People wait until the last minute to buy their gifts and expect that it will be shipped on time and companies have to accommodate for this influx. It really takes strategy and planning to ensure that everything goes smoothly during the holiday season in the shipping industry.

  3. This post was very shocking to me! I knew that the mail services got a lot busier during the holiday season but the extent is a lot more extreme than I would’ve expected. It is crazy to think about how big online shopping has gotten and the impact that is probably making on the mail carriers during the holidays. Companies always have guarentees to have the order received before Christmas which enables a lot more last minute orders that have to be delievered in a small time frame.

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