Shipping biz sizzles during holiday season

The chilly warehouse in Aleppo, Pa. had no Christmas lights draped outside or holiday tunes playing in the halls. Yet the boxes being sorted next to rows of white FedEx vehicles would have made a pretty spiffy pile under someone's tree.

In addition to personal computers and live plants, there were boxes from Petco, Doctors Foster and Smith, L.L. Bean, The Pampered Chef, Wine Country Gift Baskets, and a distinctive one covered in pictures of the hot new Rock Band video game.

"More and more, the economy is going to an online type of economy, and that's good for us," Vince Hamilton, vice president of FedEx Home Delivery, told drivers assembled for bagels before they rushed off with their loads. "That's what you're geared up to do."

Enabling America's growing online shopping habit means coping with weather issues, rising fuel costs, messed up labels and even heavily decorated homes in which enthusiastic owners have covered up their house numbers with wreaths and garlands. The phenomenon takes place across the country -- the FedEx Home division alone works out of about 300 facilities -- but each market faces its own speed bumps.

Two snowfalls in the Pittsburgh area last week during morning rush-hour triggered calls to extra drivers and lighter loads for trucks that would be slowed by the slick conditions, said Karin Tanny, senior manager of FedEx Home Delivery who, like her colleagues, concedes she'd rather not have a white pre-Christmas.

No matter what the weather, the goal for shipping companies is saving time and fuel -- and avoiding putting too many boxes aside as undeliverable.

At the Sewickley, Pa. site that sends packages throughout Allegheny County as well as into neighborhoods further out, drivers line up each delivery day to pick up individual reports generated by a computer tracking system that can plot the day's stops "turn by turn." That's particularly useful for seasonal drivers.

High fuel prices have made such systems more critical than ever. The U.S. Postal Service estimates that every penny increase per gallon costs it $8 million a day. Both UPS and FedEx have announced new fuel surcharges coming soon.

Anything that can smooth the flow from that mouse click to the delivery at the front door is prized. That includes the guy at the FedEx warehouse taping up the child's kitchen set that had come open and might jam up the conveyor belt, as well as efforts to get new housing developments' information even before it turns up on local maps.

"We definitely hear as we improve the mapping that there are fewer and fewer stops that don't get plotted," said Stephen Myers, managing director of planning and engineering for pickup and delivery issues. The daily route details even tell the drivers which side of the street the next stop is on.

This time of year there's less time to waste than usual. On a typical summer day, the 70,000-square-foot FedEx home center might set up 45 bins to sort out small packages, said Tanny. This week she said the team may use 75 bins and empty each one two or three times daily.

Looking at the piles ready to go into the white vans and trucks, it's not clear which packages were sent by shoppers picking gifts in front of a computer. But the online business is growing. Tracking firm comScore Inc. reported that Dec. 6 produced $803 million in online sales, a 28 percent increase vs. a year ago and the heaviest online spending day in history, so far.

That clicking sound could speed up this week as consumers try to beat shipping deadlines.

Two-thirds of online retailers have set ground shipping deadlines on or before Dec. 18 for those trying to get packages delivered by Dec. 25, according to a survey by industry group Shop.org and online price comparison firm Shopzilla. Free standard shipping offers begin to expire this week.

Memphis-based FedEx Corp is gearing up to move a record 11.3 million packages on Monday.

That same day, the U.S. Postal Service should handle close to one billion cards, letters, catalogs, magazines and packages. Two days later, UPS planners are bracing for their biggest day with more than 250 packages to be delivered every second.

Those three businesses combined have hired 80,000 seasonal workers to help get it all out.

Source:RamblerNews