Category: Industry News

The U.S. may get a COVID-19 vaccine for Christmas. And that could mean an even more taxing holiday season than usual for UPS.

With encouraging preliminary results from human trials for vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, pharmaceutical companies, government agencies and logistics giants, including Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS), are preparing to execute a complex distribution plan in the shipping world’s busiest season.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, said he expects the first COVID-19 vaccinations to begin “towards the latter part of December.

Retailers and carriers are preparing for an online holiday shopping surge that could tax shipping networks and lead to delivery delays.

In normal times, globe-spanning logistics groups such as Deutsche Post AG, FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. quietly keep the economy humming.

Covid-19 has recast that unassuming role in a more heroic light. When the pandemic history is written, the logistics industry will deserve a volume. “UPS-ers are essential workers,” the U.S. company’s boss Carol Tome told investors recently.

Their most important task — quickly and safely delivering billions of doses of a coronavirus vaccine worldwide — still lies ahead. The massive demand and the ultra-cold temperatures required to store some promising vaccine candidates (including the one developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE) will provide an unprecedented logistical challenge.

One of the most anticipated product launches of the year, short of a coronavirus vaccine, is now underway. Express delivery giants UPS and FedEx are utilizing a host of logistics capabilities to import the Apple iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Air, and then deliver them to retail stores, distribution centers or customers’ homes.

With customers ordering more online because of challenges associated with being in public during the pandemic, Apple is using its more than 300 stores as local distribution centers, according to a report by Bloomberg. UPS and FedEx will pick up orders at stories for final delivery. Apple will analyze the delivery address and decide the best distribution option.

Apple began fulfilling orders on Friday, but UPS was busy before prepositioning products in 20 countries.

After months of extreme disruption and challenge, retailers badly need their holiday season to go right. Unfortunately, they might find themselves confounded by a thorny problem borne of pandemic-related safety concerns: A crush of e-commerce orders on a scale the industry has never seen, putting stress on their supply chains and those of their shipping partners. The result could be a multitude of late packages and frustrated customers, a potential mess that has been dubbed Shipageddon.

Package carriers FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. say they’re prepared for the onslaught. They may not have envisioned the pandemic, but they’ve spent billions over the past few years preparing for a more e-commerce heavy world, including adding expanded weekend service and investing in automation tools. They’re also bulking up their staff: FedEx and UPS plan to hire a combined 170,000 seasonal workers this year. Even so, e-commerce growth is expected to be explosive this holiday season, and it will be especially difficult to predict purchasing rhythms this time around.