FedEx is expecting to move more than 290 million shipments between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, an 8.8 per cent increase in overall year-over-year peak seasonal volume.
The season is expected to be bolstered by three volume spikes throughout December, occurring the first three Mondays of the month and each expected to surpass 20 million in volume. December 15 is forecast to be the busiest day in company history, with a projected 22.6 million shipments moving around the world.
“More than 300,000 dedicated team members around the world, including over 18,000 in the Asia Pacific region, will shortly be tackling the part of the year when our services see the greatest demand,” said David L. Cunningham Jr., president, FedEx Express Asia Pacific. “I’m confident that, as in previous years, our global logistics network will enable us to deliver an outstanding customer experience this holiday season.”
Asia Pacific has a thriving e-commerce market that includes China, now the world’s biggest single e-commerce market. Consumers in many of the markets where gift-giving is customary in December are expected to source their gifts online this year, and for 2014 as a whole, consumers in APAC are projected to spend more on e-commerce purchases than those in North America for the first time. B2C ecommerce sales expected to reach US$525.2 billion in the region, compared with US$482.6 billion in North America (source: eMarketer).
FedEx has taken several measures to prepare for the busy peak season:
- It is adding more than 50,000 seasonal positions across its operating companies. This includes package handlers, helpers, drivers and other support positions.
- FedEx is using enhanced visibility technology to help customers plan for package deliveries and pickups
A breakdown of Fedex’s busiest days since 2007 follows:
Dec. 17, 2007 – 11.5 million shipments
Dec. 15, 2008 – 12 million shipments
Dec. 14, 2009 – 14.2 million shipments
Dec. 13, 2010 – 15.6 million shipments
Dec. 12, 2011 –17.2 million shipments
Dec. 17, 2012 –19.9 million shipments
Dec. 16, 2013 – 22 million shipments
