Category: Industry News

After two consecutive years of problems during its holiday peak package season, UPS delivered on time at Christmas this year while its main rival FedEx had a last-minute stumble that left some gifts undelivered until after the holiday.

“It seems like the third time’s a charm for UPS,” said Kent Winegar, portfolio manager at Austin, Texas-based Terry McDaniel & Co, which manages assets of around $900 million and holds nearly $15 million in UPS stock. “But if e-commerce keeps growing at such a rapid rate we’ll see how they do next year.”

As United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) moves through its all-important fourth quarter, investors will be wondering if it’s dealing with peak demand during the holiday season. One way to know is to look at key rival FedEx Corporation’s (NYSE: FDX) recent second-quarter results. FedEx reported its numbers between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so management’s commentary will provide clues as to United Parcel Service’s trading during peak demand. Let’s take a closer look at the events.

Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. rival FedEx Corp. says it will make deliveries on Christmas Day in some markets and open customer counters at FedEx Express stations after heavy storms caused delays.

Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx said its Express employees would make deliveries on Christmas Day on a voluntary basis.

Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that bad weather has not affected deliveries and that operations are running smoothly.

More free shipping, more packages per order this holiday season

Attention online shoppers: Don’t wait until the last minute to do your holiday shopping this year.

It took an average of nearly seven days, or 20% longer than last year, for orders placed Cyber Monday to arrive, according to a study by retail consultancy Kurt Salmon. And more packages are being shipped — an estimated 2.6 per order.

A fleet of package delivery airplanes could be the e-commerce king’s next big venture.

Is Amazon.com preparing to take on the package delivery giants, as rumor suggests? And if so, what sort of upheaval would that create in the industry?

A lump of coal

It’s no secret that since the retail debacle of Christmas 2013, where customers who purchased items well in advance of the drop-dead deadline to get packages delivered by the holiday still hadn’t received them weeks afterwards, Amazon’s top priority became assuming more responsibility for delivery of its own packages.